Another great thing to do while in Turkey was watching the performance of sufi dance by whirling dervishes. The dance is associated with dervishes, the practice of the Mevlevi Order in Turkey. It is one of the physical methods used to reach religious ecstasy, founded by Mowlana Jalaluddin Rumi. Rumi was one of the great spiritual masters and poetical geniuses...
...the quartet for the night and the Gambus player cum singer has a great deep voice...singing throughout the show which took around one and half hours...in Arabic (the zikr) and Turkish (poems by Rumi)...
...the dance and songs much on the love of God...the music that accompanied the whirling from beginning to end ranged from somber to rhapsodical...chanting of poetry, rhythmic rotation, and incessant music induced a feeling of soaring, of ecstasy, of mystical flight...
...the rituals of the Whirling Dervishes are among the enduring as well as the most exquisite ceremonies of spirituality - an act of love and a drama of faith. It possesses a highly structured form within which the gentle turns become increasingly vigorous as the dervishes strive to achieve a state of trans...
The day I've died, my pall is moving on -
But do not think my heart is still on earth!
Don't weep and pity me: "Oh woe, how awful!"
You fall in devil's snare - woe, that is awful!
Don't cry "Woe, parted!" at my burial -
For me this is the time of joyful meeting!
Don't say "Farewell!" when I'm put in the grave -
A curtain is it for eternal bliss.
You saw "descending" - now look at the rising!
Is setting dangerous for sun and moon?
To you it looks like setting, but it's rising;
The coffin seems a jail, yet it means freedom.
Which seed fell in the earth that did not grow there?
Why do you doubt the fate of human seed?
What bucket came not filled from out the cistern?
Why should the Yusaf "Soul" then fear this well?
Close here your mouth and open it on that side.
So that your hymns may sound in Where- no-place!
by
Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
(died on December 17, 1273)
I silently moaned so that for a hundred centuries to come,
The world will echo in the sound of my hayhâ1
It will turn on the axis of my hayhât
(Divan, 562:7)
10 comments:
hej danialma.. me saw the dance in jejak rasul tv3 last time.. very interesting.. kannns
Danial,
Lovely pictures. Thanks! dah lama I tunggu :)
This is one of my fav Rumi's:
A secret turning in us
makes the universe turn
Head unaware of feet,
and feet unaware of head,
neither cares
they keep on turning.
hej! en_me...yup, very interesting but a little bit sad that the sufi dance nowadays more on commercial thingy...
hej! Naz...actually this posting is specially for you...beautiful Rumi's...
I didnt manage to watch this dance when I was there. Perhaps my next trip, hopefully this year.
Tired. Trying to get this report out tomorrow.
Danial,
Thanks!
You're right in saying about the commercialisation of the sufi dance. I too long to see authentic ones but so far, I'll make do with your pictures here. Truly beautiful and I do think you have had one helluva time there too :)
So where next, Danial? Go off the beaten track and come back with fantastic pictures!
Very interesting posting!A unique arrangement of words by the ancient Rumi in his expression of death.
Don't you get your head spinning too seeing the whirling dervishes??
hej! Ms B...you will do next time...have a great restful weekend...;-)
hej! Naz...yeah, if you have a chance to watch this in Istanbul, make sure you go to the one at the Istanbul Central Station...;-)
hej! jumper...hahahaha...i just got my camera spinning around...;-)
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