There's nothing like walking down your normal, average street and running into a palace. Living in Ubud, Bali, I had that experience on a daily basis. The Palace is at the major intersection of town and you pass right by it dozens of times in a day. You can go in anytime you like too and take a walk around or listen to the gamelan orchestra practicing for the evening performance. Once in awhile, the children's troop of dancers practices in the palace courtyard and the locals all gather around.
Ever since the king of Gianyar had to hand in his crown - first to the Dutch then to the Republic of Indonesia - he and his family made the palace part of the daily cultural life of Ubud. With its large courtyards adjacent to the street, it works perfectly.
Unlike royalty in so many parts of the world, the kings of Bali were not separate and distant. Their palaces were not huge, cold or testaments to their personal magnificence. It made all the sense in the world that the people of Ubud would find themselves happy and continuing to hold dances and celebrations in the palace courtyard.
Here in Udaipur, the City Palace - the largest palace in Rajasthan - is at the end of a completely ordinary street. Only, like Versailles, when you hit the larger than life, magnificent gate - you know you've hit someone. It isn't until you pass the outer gate that the giant splendor of the palace hits you.
Rajasthan is a state of India formed from a conglomeration of kingdoms - or what the British titled "princely states". Unlike Jodhpur where the palace is a removed fort which resisted sieges and was removed from the town below, the Udaipur City Palace sits in the middle of town and stands unabashed in its splendor. No battle was fought at its gates and its golden spires across the top symbolize that it has known no foreign rule.
Even under the British Raj, the Maharanas of Mewar thumbed their nose at the British attempts at dominion and maintained themselves as independent forces with their own laws - albeit under tacit suzerainty. Their palaces - particularly the City Palace - have a quality of lightness and splendor I found akin to the Renaissance style chateaux of France. These were palaces as celebration, tribute and aggrandizement.
But if there was any room for doubt - all you have to do is look out on the lake at Jagmandir Palace and the Lake Palace, the "pleasure palaces" and summer residences of the royal family. They had four palaces in and around one lake.
Maharanas often celebrated their birthdays by weighing themselves at a pubic ceremony and then giving their weight in gold coins to the masses - particularly the poor.
When you hear things like this in a place like India, the natural question is "Who are these people?!" They had three businesses which kept them relatively wealthy - Silk Road trade, spice trade and most importantly, opium.
While the Sisodia clan of the Mewari Rajputs may have been fiercely independent, they also did very well under the British Raj. So did all the princely states of Rajasthan for that matter. The British wanted an endless supply of opium and the Kingdom of Mewar was happy to supply them. Besides, in the web of opium trade the British had spun, they kept the region internally peaceful and quiet. Tolerating the white guys had its benefits.
In America, the workings of British colonialism and particularly British India aren't subjects we learn much about in school. Maybe we learn that there was an opium trade and there's something about getting it in India and selling it in China. I remember there was a brief two pages in a high school history book related to the Boxer Rebellion in China which had something to do with colonial forces in China. It came out of nowhere and we really learned nothing more.
The wealth and livelihoods of the unique kingdoms of northwest India have everything to do with British opium trade and prior to that, the spice and silk trade routes that brought valuable goods from China and India overland to Turkey and then Europe.
Rajput soldiers from Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur and the other surrounding kingdoms went to China and fought with the British in the Boxer Rebellion - not just because of colonialism, but because the British sales of opium where the livelihood of these states. Chinese addiction was Rajasthan's naan and butter. You can't have parties at the Lake Palace and palace rooms made of hand-carved limestone if no one will smoke out.
So it was that India's Mewar rulers became dealers of one of the most powerful and addictive drugs ever to take hold. In so doing, they accumulated enough wealth to become the first society to engineer the redirection of a river and the creation of seven manmade lakes. The largest of these is Lake Pichola here in Udaipur. The two islands on which the two water-surrounded palaces sit are very much purposeful. The Maharanas engineered the beauty of their kingdoms.
In the City Palace, every room is gorgeous, every courtyard breathtaking. Paintings show depictions of different celebrations and events that the Maharanas hosted over the past 400+ years. I'm sure no one was unhappy with their success. It looks very nice and it seems that the rulers were smart enough to care at least enough for the poor that there weren't rebellions and upheavals.
Still today, people have a reverence for the Maharana who remains identified and famous even though he has no power. Our waiter the other night pointed to the section of the palace where the Majarana and his family reside.
While we usually think of colonialism negatively and as something that subjugated and took advantage of so many people, Udaipur stands to remind us that there were always winners in the mix. Udaipur and the rest of the Rajasthani kingdoms had something to offer and money to make off an alliance with the British. What happened down the line - the subjugation of other free peoples of India, the addictions that ruined lives, the weakening of the Chinese Ming and Manchu Dynasties - these were not their concerns. Mewar stood as it stands today - in beauty.
Although the Maharanas acceded their power to the Republic of India and created a charitable trust which turned their estate into a museum and public works, the tradition of splendor at the palaces continues.
Yesterday, as we entered the giant teak gates of the palace, an even more giant wedding reception was being setup. It was an enormous production complete with stage, dancers, sound systems, lights, dining areas, buffets and more flowers than I've ever seen outside a botanical gardens. Someone as wealthy as an opium trading Maharana was giving a high-class wedding blow-out.
The party planners were conscious of their public location and allowed visitors to the palace museum to watch the setup and the numerous dance troupes practicing their choreographed dancing to Indian pop-hits.
It was the modern-day equivalent to one of the royal weddings depicted in the miniatures inside the palace. From the hand carved marble window inlaid with blue stained glass in a bright blue bejeweled room in the front corner of the main palace, Emily and I looked down and watched it all come together.
Ever since the king of Gianyar had to hand in his crown - first to the Dutch then to the Republic of Indonesia - he and his family made the palace part of the daily cultural life of Ubud. With its large courtyards adjacent to the street, it works perfectly.
Unlike royalty in so many parts of the world, the kings of Bali were not separate and distant. Their palaces were not huge, cold or testaments to their personal magnificence. It made all the sense in the world that the people of Ubud would find themselves happy and continuing to hold dances and celebrations in the palace courtyard.
Here in Udaipur, the City Palace - the largest palace in Rajasthan - is at the end of a completely ordinary street. Only, like Versailles, when you hit the larger than life, magnificent gate - you know you've hit someone. It isn't until you pass the outer gate that the giant splendor of the palace hits you.
Rajasthan is a state of India formed from a conglomeration of kingdoms - or what the British titled "princely states". Unlike Jodhpur where the palace is a removed fort which resisted sieges and was removed from the town below, the Udaipur City Palace sits in the middle of town and stands unabashed in its splendor. No battle was fought at its gates and its golden spires across the top symbolize that it has known no foreign rule.
Even under the British Raj, the Maharanas of Mewar thumbed their nose at the British attempts at dominion and maintained themselves as independent forces with their own laws - albeit under tacit suzerainty. Their palaces - particularly the City Palace - have a quality of lightness and splendor I found akin to the Renaissance style chateaux of France. These were palaces as celebration, tribute and aggrandizement.
But if there was any room for doubt - all you have to do is look out on the lake at Jagmandir Palace and the Lake Palace, the "pleasure palaces" and summer residences of the royal family. They had four palaces in and around one lake.
Maharanas often celebrated their birthdays by weighing themselves at a pubic ceremony and then giving their weight in gold coins to the masses - particularly the poor.
When you hear things like this in a place like India, the natural question is "Who are these people?!" They had three businesses which kept them relatively wealthy - Silk Road trade, spice trade and most importantly, opium.
While the Sisodia clan of the Mewari Rajputs may have been fiercely independent, they also did very well under the British Raj. So did all the princely states of Rajasthan for that matter. The British wanted an endless supply of opium and the Kingdom of Mewar was happy to supply them. Besides, in the web of opium trade the British had spun, they kept the region internally peaceful and quiet. Tolerating the white guys had its benefits.
In America, the workings of British colonialism and particularly British India aren't subjects we learn much about in school. Maybe we learn that there was an opium trade and there's something about getting it in India and selling it in China. I remember there was a brief two pages in a high school history book related to the Boxer Rebellion in China which had something to do with colonial forces in China. It came out of nowhere and we really learned nothing more.
The wealth and livelihoods of the unique kingdoms of northwest India have everything to do with British opium trade and prior to that, the spice and silk trade routes that brought valuable goods from China and India overland to Turkey and then Europe.
Rajput soldiers from Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur and the other surrounding kingdoms went to China and fought with the British in the Boxer Rebellion - not just because of colonialism, but because the British sales of opium where the livelihood of these states. Chinese addiction was Rajasthan's naan and butter. You can't have parties at the Lake Palace and palace rooms made of hand-carved limestone if no one will smoke out.
So it was that India's Mewar rulers became dealers of one of the most powerful and addictive drugs ever to take hold. In so doing, they accumulated enough wealth to become the first society to engineer the redirection of a river and the creation of seven manmade lakes. The largest of these is Lake Pichola here in Udaipur. The two islands on which the two water-surrounded palaces sit are very much purposeful. The Maharanas engineered the beauty of their kingdoms.
In the City Palace, every room is gorgeous, every courtyard breathtaking. Paintings show depictions of different celebrations and events that the Maharanas hosted over the past 400+ years. I'm sure no one was unhappy with their success. It looks very nice and it seems that the rulers were smart enough to care at least enough for the poor that there weren't rebellions and upheavals.
Still today, people have a reverence for the Maharana who remains identified and famous even though he has no power. Our waiter the other night pointed to the section of the palace where the Majarana and his family reside.
While we usually think of colonialism negatively and as something that subjugated and took advantage of so many people, Udaipur stands to remind us that there were always winners in the mix. Udaipur and the rest of the Rajasthani kingdoms had something to offer and money to make off an alliance with the British. What happened down the line - the subjugation of other free peoples of India, the addictions that ruined lives, the weakening of the Chinese Ming and Manchu Dynasties - these were not their concerns. Mewar stood as it stands today - in beauty.
Although the Maharanas acceded their power to the Republic of India and created a charitable trust which turned their estate into a museum and public works, the tradition of splendor at the palaces continues.
Yesterday, as we entered the giant teak gates of the palace, an even more giant wedding reception was being setup. It was an enormous production complete with stage, dancers, sound systems, lights, dining areas, buffets and more flowers than I've ever seen outside a botanical gardens. Someone as wealthy as an opium trading Maharana was giving a high-class wedding blow-out.
The party planners were conscious of their public location and allowed visitors to the palace museum to watch the setup and the numerous dance troupes practicing their choreographed dancing to Indian pop-hits.
It was the modern-day equivalent to one of the royal weddings depicted in the miniatures inside the palace. From the hand carved marble window inlaid with blue stained glass in a bright blue bejeweled room in the front corner of the main palace, Emily and I looked down and watched it all come together.
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