A cowherd on a dune
A silent boy: Jambheshwar, known to his followers as Jambhoji, grazed his father's cattle for years and was known for long, wordless hours in the scrub.
The drought: in the great drought of the 1480s he saw that people who cut trees and hunted animals were helping to kill the land that fed them.
- Born
- 1451, Pipasar, Nagaur district
- Known as
- Jambhoji, Guru Jambheshwar
- Teaching began
- 1485, at Samrathal Dhora
- Died
- 1536, resting place at Mukam
- The dune: in 1485, on a sand dune called Samrathal Dhora, he gathered people around him and taught a new way of living.
- A travelling teacher: he spent the rest of his life teaching across the region. His sayings, the Shabadwani, are still sung in Bishnoi homes.
- His resting place: he died in 1536, and his samadhi at Mukam, in the Nokha area of Bikaner district, is the holiest Bishnoi shrine.
Twenty-nine rules
Daily discipline: bathe at dawn, keep the home clean, say prayers morning and evening.
Honest life: speak the truth, avoid theft, slander, quarrels and needless argument.
- Contentment: be patient, forgiving and content with what you have.
- No intoxicants: tobacco, alcohol, cannabis and opium are forbidden, and so is meat.
- Filter everything: water, milk and firewood are checked so that no small creature is harmed by accident.
- No green trees cut: the rule that made the Bishnoi famous. Lopping a few branches for fodder is allowed. Felling a living tree is not.
- Compassion for all life: never kill an animal, and show kindness to every living being.
The day at Khejarli
In 1730, the story goes, Maharaja Abhay Singh's men came to Khejarli for wood to burn lime for a new palace. A woman named Amrita Devi put her arms around a khejri tree and told them a cut head was cheaper than a cut tree. They killed her. Her three daughters stepped forward next.
- When
- September 1730
- Where
- Khejarli, about 25 km south-east of Jodhpur
- Ruler
- Maharaja Abhay Singh of Jodhpur
- Lives lost
- As many as 363, by tradition
- One after another: word spread and Bishnois came from the surrounding villages, old men and young women, to take their turn at the trees.
- The toll: by the time the maharaja ordered the cutting stopped, as many as 363 people had died, by Bishnoi tradition.
- The decree: the maharaja apologised and decreed that no tree would be cut and no animal hunted in Bishnoi villages.
- The memorial: Khejarli has a memorial to the martyrs and a grove of khejri trees, and a fair is held there each year in the month of Bhadrapad.
The tree worth dying for
Deep roots: the khejri sends roots far down to find water, so it stays green in drought when almost nothing else does.
Better soil: it fixes nitrogen, and crops often grow better in its shade.
- Name
- Khejri, Prosopis cineraria
- Status
- The state tree of Rajasthan
- Leaves
- Loong, fodder for goats and camels
- Pods
- Sangri, cooked in ker sangri
- Fodder: its leaves, loong, are lopped to feed goats and camels in the dry months.
- Food: its pods, sangri, are dried and cooked with ker berries in the desert's great dish. Read ker sangri explained.
- Shelter: in a land with little shade, a single khejri decides where a family rests, where animals gather and where the village meets.
The animals that trust them
Blackbuck: the dark males with spiral horns and the golden females graze in loose herds within sight of the houses.
Chinkara: the small Indian gazelle prefers rougher scrub and dunes, and is shyer than the blackbuck.
- Nilgai and peafowl: the big blue-grey antelope wander the farmland, and peacocks call from every tree.
- Grain for the wild: families scatter grain for birds and antelope at the field edges, and leave water troughs for animals that are not their own.
- Fawns carried home: injured or orphaned fawns are raised in Bishnoi homes. There are famous photographs of women nursing fawns as they would their own children.
- The grassland cousin: for the biggest wild herds, see the blackbuck of Tal Chhapar.
How a Bishnoi village lives today
The dhani: many families live on their own fields in scattered hamlets called dhanis, rather than in a tight village centre.
The homestead: round huts with conical thatch, a square grain room, a clay hearth and a courtyard plastered smooth with mud and dung.
- Dress: men usually wear white, with a white safa, the turban. Women wear deep reds, maroons and oranges with heavy jewellery. Blue is traditionally avoided.
- Burial: the community buries its dead rather than cremating them, partly to save the wood a pyre would use.
- The havan: a small fire offering is made in many homes, with prayers from the founder's teaching.
- Modern lives: children ride bicycles to school, tractors stand by the huts, and Bishnoi men and women work as farmers, teachers, soldiers and officers.
Standing up to hunters
Village patrols: families report poachers, chase hunting parties and call in the forest department.
The 1998 case: villagers near Jodhpur chased hunters who had shot blackbuck at night. The case, which involved well-known film actors, ran through the courts for two decades.
- Paying a price: over the years some Bishnoi men have been hurt or killed confronting poachers. Their names are honoured in the community.
- Young volunteers: Bishnoi youth have formed volunteer wildlife groups that rescue injured animals and report hunting.
- Rescue shelters: in several places the community runs shelters where injured deer and antelope are cared for until they can be released.
A legacy far beyond Marwar
Chipko: Khejarli is often called an early forerunner of the Chipko movement of the 1970s, when Himalayan village women hugged trees to stop loggers.
A national award: the Government of India named a national wildlife protection award after Amrita Devi Bishnoi.
- A model for others: conservationists point to the Bishnoi as proof that faith and community can protect wildlife where laws alone fail.
- A living faith: Bishnoi families today live across western Rajasthan and in Haryana, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh, but Marwar remains their home ground.
- Pilgrimage: at Mukam, fairs on the new moons of Phalgun and Asoj draw great crowds, and devotees carry sand to the founder's dune.
Tea, millet and the Bishnoi kitchen
Vegetarian: Bishnoi food is vegetarian and built around millet, milk and the desert's dried vegetables.
Bajra roti: a thick pearl-millet flatbread patted by hand and baked on a clay griddle, eaten with white butter and garlic chutney.
- Seasonal dishes: ker sangri, kadhi of yoghurt and gram flour, and in winter a slow millet khichdi with ghee.
- Tea: made with fresh milk and plenty of sugar, served in small steel cups. Accept with your right hand.
- More dishes: our Rajasthani food guide explains the desert kitchen.
Visiting the villages, the way we do it
Before seven: the drive south
- Into the fields: within half an hour of Jodhpur the land opens into millet stubble, thorn scrub and scattered khejri.
- Slow down: your guide, who is from the area, asks the driver to slow near the first villages, where the antelope graze at this hour.
Seven to nine: the fields and a courtyard
- The herds: we stop where the blackbuck are and walk a little way, slowly, never towards them.
- Tea with a family: a family who know us and have agreed to receive guests offers tea, perhaps a hot millet roti, and a seat on a string cot.
Nine to ten: the craftspeople
- Potters and weavers: potters shape water pots on a stick-spun wheel, and in Salawas families weave durries on pit looms.
- Buy direct: money goes straight to the maker. Our guide on how to buy a rug helps.
Ten o'clock: Khejarli
- The memorial last: we end under the khejri grove at Khejarli, once you have seen what the trees mean to a family.
- Home by lunch: back at your Jodhpur hotel, or on to Rohet.
Where to stay in Bishnoi country
Rohet Garh: the family fort sits in the heart of Bishnoi country, and its family began taking guests to the villages in 1988. See Rohet Garh.
- Rohet
- About 40 km south of Jodhpur
- Khejarli
- About 25 km south-east of Jodhpur
- Best hour
- From first light to about ten
- Pair with
- Osian the same afternoon
- Mihir Garh: its sister fort in open country nearby, for space and quiet. See Mihir Garh.
- In Jodhpur: Umaid Bhawan Palace for grandeur, RAAS Jodhpur below the fort or Ajit Bhawan.
- Further afield: blackbuck graze around Khimsar too, and Khimsar Fort makes a good base.
Visiting with respect
Small groups: we keep visits small and pay families fairly for their time. That is why the welcome is genuine.
Dress modestly: cover shoulders and knees, and remove shoes at the courtyard edge.
- No meat, no alcohol, no smoking: never bring them into a Bishnoi home or village.
- Ask before photographs: especially of women and children. Some families are happy, some are not.
- Never chase animals: don't drive off the tracks, don't feed wild animals, and let a herd go if it moves away.
- Our wider rules: our ethical animal encounters page explains how we approach wildlife everywhere.
When to go
October and November: fields still golden with millet, ponds full and blackbuck in fine condition. Diwali brightens the villages.
December to February: our favourite season. Cold, clear mornings, antelope grazing longer in the open and winter birds everywhere.
- March to June: hot, and by May fierce. We go at first light and are back before nine.
- The Mukam fair: the new-moon fair of Phalgun usually falls in February or March. We confirm the date each year.
- Khejarli fair: held in Bhadrapad, in late summer, in memory of the martyrs.
Fitting the Bishnoi into a journey
With Jodhpur: two nights let you give one morning to Mehrangarh and the next to the villages.
On horseback: our Marwari horse safari rides through the same fields at dawn.
- Village journeys: our village Rajasthan route strings together rawlas, forts and farms.
- With temples: north of Jodhpur, Osian makes a fine afternoon after a Bishnoi morning.
- For wildlife lovers: add Tal Chhapar and the cranes of Khichan on the desert road.
What people often get wrong
They are a tribe: they are a religious community, open to people of many backgrounds who accepted the founder's teaching.
They never touch trees: they lop branches for fodder and use dead wood. What is forbidden is felling a green, living tree.
- It is all in the past: the rules are lived daily, from filtered water to rescued fawns, and young Bishnois still confront poachers.
- It is just about animals: the twenty-nine rules are as much about honesty, cleanliness, contentment and forgiveness as about wildlife.
- It is a show for tourists: the villages we visit receive a few small groups. Daily life carries on whether visitors come or not.
What the Bishnoi teach travellers
Conservation is local: the most effective protection here came from belief and community, not fences.
- Small acts add up: filtering water, sparing a tree, scattering grain. None is dramatic, and together they kept a landscape alive.
- Respect costs something: the Bishnoi pay for their rules in lost crops and real danger. Their example deserves more than a photograph.
- Travel lightly: our sustainable travel note and responsible travel page explain how we try to follow it.
Who will love it
Families: children love the antelope, the potters' wheels and the string cots in the courtyards.
Photographers: soft dawn light on blackbuck in open fields, and portraits made with permission.
- Conservation-minded travellers: anyone interested in how people and wildlife share land will find nowhere clearer.
- Repeat visitors: a gentle counterpoint to forts and palaces, and a morning of real conversation.
- Not for: travellers who want a staged cultural show. These are real homes and real working days.
Before you go
Start early: the antelope are in the open from first light until about ten. After that they move to the shade.
Layers: winter dawns are cold in an open vehicle, and the courtyard sun is warm by nine.
- Binoculars: for the chinkara, which keep their distance, and for the winter birds in the fields.
- Small notes: for buying directly from potters and weavers.
- Questions: ask about the rules, the founder and Khejarli. Families are proud of their story and happy to tell it.
- Read ahead: our Bishnoi villages page has the full plan of the morning.