where there’s smoke there’s fire

My name is Thorge Berger (reisefotografie.de) and I am a travel photographer from Germany who also organizes photo expeditions.

For me it all started in 2010 when I had my first India experience on a photo trip with Steve McCurry. Part of it was that we visited a place called Haridwar north of Delhi for a festival called ‚Kumbh Mela‘. Honestly I had no idea what to expect. When we arrived there it turned out to be the biggest event on planet earth with millions of pilgrims! We are talking about a Hindu festival which is happing every 12 years in the same place but altogether in four different places at different times. Only 3 years later I had the chance to travel to another of these four places: Allahabad. The festival there was a so called‚ Maha Kumbh Mela‘ which is happening only every 144 years! So it is literally a ‚once-in-a-lifetime chance‘ to see it. A Kumbh Mela usually lasts approx. one month and over the time there were 120 million people (!!!) coming to Allahabad! What makes a ‚Kumbh Mela‘ so appealing is that the Hindu believe during this particular time the water of the according holy rivers turns into ‚Amrit‘ again, the nectar of immortality. If you take a holy dip there during this time you can wash away all sins of your current life and of the lives you lived before (as the Hindu believe in the cycle of rebirthing). So it is almost a ‚short-cut to Nirvana’. This is why so many people are attracted. But not only this. During a ‚Kumbh Mela‘ also the spiritual leaders (Gurus, Swamis etc.) are approachable, hold their lectures, you can get blessed and there is free medical service and food for the pilgrims. There is so much going on during a Kumbh Mela that you could shoot for weeks. But there is one particular thing which is very unique – even for India: only during a ‚Kumbh Mela‘ you will have the chance to see (thousands of) the so called ‚Naga Babas‘ (naked teachers). These holy warriors live a life of asceticism, many of them secluded in the mountains of the Himalayas. They live a solitary life, practice meditation and yoga and live naked and cover their body with holy ashes. And they only show up in public for a ‚Kumbh Mela’! And most certainly they are the ‚rockstars‘ of any Kumbh Mela!

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