"You know Shah Jahan, life and youth, wealth and glory, they all drift away in the current of time. You strove therefore, to perpetuate only the sorrow of your heart. Let the splendour of diamond, pearl and ruby vanish like the magic shimmer of the rainbow. Only let this one teardrop, this Taj Mahal, glisten spotlessly bright on the cheek of time, forever and ever."
- Rabindranath Tagore
18.12.2008
It was still dark, about 5:30 in the early morning. The railway station was dense with many people walking, sitting, and sleeping on the floor. I sat at a waiting chair. Beside me, there was a Korean man about forty something. He introduced himself as Rim and he was an electric engineer. He told me about his interesting yesterday trip to Tibetan residential area in the North of New Delhi. He had bought many good DVDs on Tibet with cheap prices. I told him I was in Seoul last August to attend a conference. He asked where I had been in the city. And when I mentioned Insa-dong, a cultural street in Seoul with many traditional art shops and performance centers, he said that he was also at Insa-dong for some souvenir gifts before leaving to India. He gave me one with nice image of Korean flag, it was a nail-clipper which also had bottle opening function.
Then on the train, his seat number 39 and mine 37, just nearby, but we were in the opposite sides, thus we could not talk any more. Surround me were some European tourists. I was sleepy and so, sleeping during the whole time from New Delhi, until the train arrived Agra.
Outside the station, there was a crowd of taxi drivers offering tours, like a competition. I quickly chose a meek one and escaped this enclosure. The taxi stopped at a roundabout near Taj Mahal since no car would be allowed to go further. The driver gave me his phone number to call him when I was back. He said that he would wait just somewhere around. He advised that I should be careful, not listen to anyone but go straight to the inside.
Taj Mahal
A shrine of Love, Taj Mahal whose beauty was beyond words stood right in front of me, like in a fairytale. I felt as if I was walking in my dream. The masterpiece was magnificent, not only in term of its architectural forms but also in every delicate detail. It was truly an elaborate work of art. I wished that I could stay a whole day in Agra, to witness the miracle of its colour changing at dawn, at sunset, and at night, especially under a full-moon light, when it would seem to glow from some inner blue flame they said.
“A teardrop on the face of eternity” as Tagore described, this elegy in marble moved my heart. Its touching story evoked in me a feeling of melancholic nostalgia…
The Story of Shah Jahan
“Shah Jahan came to power in 1622 when he seized the throne from his father, while murdering his brothers to ensure his claim to rule. He was known as an extravagant and cruel leader. But he redeemed himself by his generosity to his friends and the poor, by his passion in adorning India with some of its most beautiful architecture, and by his devotion to his wife Mumtaz Mahal.
Mumtaz Mahal was so beautiful that the moon hid itself in shame before her, said the poets. He loved her deeply and was pained that she was going to die. He asked her what he could do to immortalise their love and she told him the famous words:
“Build me the most beautiful monument of love in the world.”
And so upon Mumtaz's death, Shah Jahan used the purest white marble to built the Taj Mahal as her tomb.
Shah Jahan's son Aurangazeb was a fanatic. Since he was the youngest son, he could not become king and so decided to kill all his elder brothers. He was Shah Jahan's favourite son but instead put him in jail in horrible circumstances. Whereas Shah Jahan had treated his father Jahangir well in jail, Aurangazeb was cruel. He allowed his father a small room with just a tiny opening. And he told him that opening was for him to view the Taj Mahal and die looking at it. No one was allowed into Shah Jahan's jail except his daughter who fed him once a day.
Shah Jahan spent years just looking at the Taj Mahal and died. His story is sad, but the monument he built is everlasting. Undoubtedly the finest creation of mankind, it stands a testimony to eternal love.”
Adapted from “Our Oriental Heritage”, Will Durant and “Glorious India”, Hari Adarsh Sripathi . Photo “Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal” from Leonard Public’s Gallery.
The tragedy made me reflect upon human desire for power. How sad this greed of power had turned them to blind that they could harm even their own family’s members! Shah Jahan assumed his kingdom from his father Jahangir, putting him in jail. Then the same fate awaited him in his life (
Hari Adarsh Sripathi). “As we sow, so shall we reap”, that is the universal law of causality.
It has been said that Shah Jahan cut off the workers’ hands after the completion of Taj Mahal so that no one would ever be able to build such a marvelous monument again (
Thinkquest). I was thinking that if I were Mumtaz, would I be happy to have the most beautiful monument on earth while knowing that too many people had been sacrificed? It is them, those poor artisans, who had realized this wonderful gift to the world.
Agra's handicraft
After having an Indian buffet for lunch, I was led to a workshop to learn how decorated marble items were made. The presenter said that his ancestors were among those craftsmen who built Taj Mahal long ago. Now their business is supported by the government to preserve the traditional art and culture. And having supporting from government was also a way of officially quality approval. H
e said that the marbles had been taken from Jaipur, about 200 km far from Agra. They put hena, the natural brown colour, into those white marble to facilitate the drawing process. “Flower stones” were made separately and then were inlaid into those marbles. The flowers were adhesive by a natural glue from plant. which was kind of white powder that needed to be heated until melted. At completion, the hena was washed and the marble became white again.
The craftsmen making the flower inlaid stones.
In another darker room, the presenter displayed the light effects on the stones. Some orange stone could shine around its edge when light was projected from below. He also performed the dawn, the sunset and the full-moon lighting effects on those marbles. These various changing colours explained why people come back again and again to see Taj Mahal at different times of a day, at different times of a month, and at different seasons.
Then the taxi took me to a carpet shop. In the room, some craftsmen were weaving skillfully. The shop owner turned up his lighter near the surface of a carpet in order to prove that it was genuine sheep wool which could not be burnt (really? Hmm, I had no idea about this
). He asked me whether I knew how to evaluate the quality of carpets. Of course, I knew nothing. He smiled and continued, “the quality of carpets should be viewed from its back side”. He pointed at my camera and said, “just like photos taken from your camera, the higher the number of pixels, the better the resolution, here with carpets, the higher the number of nodes, the better the quality”.
Leaving the carpet shop, the taxi driver led me to a jewelry store. The owner here was a fat Sikh man, with hair covered. He presented to me about different kinds of gem stones, most interesting were those “Star of India”, they might have 6 wings (purple) or 4 wings (black). He said that he liked Vietnam and in the future he would like to do social work or teaching English in somewhere like Vietnam. He told me that he was a healer and that he saw positive energy from me as I had a good heart, kind and gentle. Oh! How could he see that just through a short conversation (actually only he who spoke and me who listened)! I did not know whether i had positive energy or not since sometimes I had been really down. But anyway, it was nice to hear.
He said these are local precious stones, called "Star of India".
We were passing by the Red Fort of Agra, where Shah Jahan was detained on the tower. I wanted to visit but the taxi driver said it was nothing special and just the same, therefore the taxi stopped on the street for me to have a short look from the fence outside. I was regret later as Nadya said it was very beautiful inside.
The Red Fort of Agra from a zoomed view far away The taxi driver on the way passing Red Fort
Donkeys carrying loads on the street. A monkey climbing on the fence. A goat wandering on the railway.
It was early and the train was late, thus I had been waiting for more than three hours at the railway station. While the train to Agra was the express one with comfortable conditions, the train back to New Delhi was a much cheaper one and it took nearly double the time. But I appreciated this experience as a way to learn more about local people and their lives.
On the train, there were many food vendors, like in Vietnam, they advertized their products with loud voices, which sounded interesting for me, maybe because I did not understand the language.
The window was open that made me so cold when the train running. I had to ask the man nearby to close it for me since it was high above. He could not speak English but perhaps he understood a little. He seemed to be a labourer and he looked so thin and poor that I felt somehow empathized for him. He closed the window carefully. Then he invited me some foods he had bought. I could not eat but sincerely, I was grateful. Thank you, a good stranger!
*****
Seven Wonders of the World
The Official New 7 Wonders of the World have been elected by more than 100 million votes to represent global heritage throughout history, announced at the Declaration Ceremony on 07.07.07 in Lisbon (www.new7wonders.com).
So, I have been only in 2 Wonders, the Colloseum in Italy and the Taj Mahal in India. I wish someday in this life, we can travel to all these Wonders, and other parts on earth, especially to visit our dear friends.
