Untouchables: how it works (5 photos)

In Bangalore, you can often see women smiling on the side of the road. alligator and the hands of a grenadier begging for alms from cars or dancing near the local market. Yes, and if you look closely, with the neck there too not everything is smooth. Come on, taste and color, as they say ...

Briefly speaking.





Before you is a representative of the Hijra - the untouchable caste (common in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan), the official "third gender."

The caste system is still flourishing in India today. There are castes that are considered "clean", and there are castes of untouchables. To the second categories include, for example, Dalits, Chandalas, Bhangas, Churkhas (scavengers and vacuum cleaners) and the hijra itself. This is a transgender community and intersex people, bisexuals, homosexuals and neuters. They dress in saris, behave like women, call themselves by a woman's name.

The Hijra lead their genealogy back to Shiva himself. Many Hijras worship the goddess Bahuchara Mata, one of many forms mother goddess.



The attitude towards hijras is twofold: on the one hand, they have cult status and childless women come to them with offerings, their invited to dance at weddings and birthday parties in the boy's family. On the other hand, they are untouchable, and intercourse with them are considered vicious. Although traditional sources for this caste earnings is prostitution.



You can become a real hijra by going through the ritual of castration. Moreover, as they say, this is a complete tin: according to tradition, organs are cut off clean with a knife blow.



And God forbid you Shiva to offend the hijra. Because there is nothing worse than incurring his wrath. Then he will lift the hem of his sari and will show what is not under it. This is the process of cursing. After that it is believed that the offender will suffer the most terrible punishments - from impotence to leprosy. However, not all hijras are castrati. There are also those who leave. Some of them may even have wives and children.



In general, who just do not like ...