COBRA GYPSY: KALBELYAS THE GYPSIES FROM RAJASTHAN

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We will be posting more short and long videos about the Kalbelyias.

NEWS ABOUT THE KALBELYIAS in 2023:
Recently, in August of 2023,, I returned with a friend to Rajasthan to look for the group of Kalbelyias featured in this video shot in Pushkar twenty years ago.

By a series of synchronicities, we found them. They show me how their life is now. I was struck by the profound changes that time had brought since I filmed them two decades ago.
They are now married with children, struggling with the weight of poverty and the overwhelming aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government's enforced shutdown had devastated their means of earning a living, leaving them in desperate need of help and support.

I decided that all the proceeds of the videos about them are going to help their community in Pushkar directly by sending moneygrams. Let us know if anyone can suggest how to help them more in different way ! We appreciate your support!

This short video is dedicated to the Kalbelya Gypsies from Rajasthan who respond to poverty with dance, music, wit, courage, and dignity. Welcome to leave your comments.
The Kalbeliyas are a nomadic cast from the desert in Rajasthan, INDIA. They are known for their Music, Dance, and Snake Charmer's talents. The traditional occupation of the KALBELIAS was to catch snakes and train them to dance to the sound of the PUNGI (a wind instrument), for which they are also called SAPERA. Today, with the prohibition of hunting for snakes in India, this charismatic caste survives mostly as dancers, musicians, and singers. The dancers dressed in traditional black swirling skirts and dance to the accompaniment of pungi - the wooden instrument of the Snake Charmers. Some Kalbelyas still trade the medicinal snake's venom for income. Kalbelia women compose songs, known as the best dancers of the Thar desert.
There is a startling resemblance between the dance and music of Spain and those of the Kalbeliyas.