Animals of the Dhams - a category of their own

The cows in Jagannath Puri are really special. They go around on their madhu-kari tour from house to house, and stand on the stairs, until they get some food.

Normally they go to residential homes also, where the steps are steeper. This one is at a sweets shop.

Straw, sometimes mixed with mustard oil, is often the normal food they get at home.

A true miracle that they are able to produce milk from that kind of food.
The Indian way of milking a cow is to allow the calf to suckle until the milk flows, then milk out the main-flow by hand, and then allow the calf to drink the rest. Our Western style of milking is considered stealing from the calf, because the calf needs at least some of the milk of its mother. This cow lives at Mayapur.

Maintaining cows is a major family enterprise.

Buffalos are liked by farmers, because their milk contains about 20% more fat than cow's milk. It is heavier to digest, and considered of tama-guna, partly because water-buffalos need to go into water to cool down, they cannot sweat as much as cows can. Some of that energy that a cow gives off by sweating may go into the milk. That is an explanation I have heard.

The typical containers cows get their food in.

Buffalos at Nabadwip Dham near the Ganga, on their own, going homeward

Dried cow-dung is used as a starter when starting a fire. This foto taken in Ekachakra, Nitai's appearance place.

Bullocks in Puri

This cart carries wood used for the fires to cook Jagannath's bhoga.

a dog at a darshan infront of murtis of Nitai-Gaur receiving ajnata-sukriti (spiritual benefit unknowingly obtained). Streets in India are rather populated with such street-dogs.

This dog at Dhameshvara Mandir of Sri Visnupriya's Sri Gauranga at Nabadwip Dham...

...was asked to leave when bhajan began

place holder, foto later

The flying dogs of Nabadwip Dham

They are night-active, and therefore quite a bit disturbed by my visit

They all live in this particular tree in Prachin Mayapur, Nabadwip, - hundreds of them, since many years

here I'll place a short video-clip later about them flying around, being disturbed

A lonely monkey in Konarak near Puri. We know them well from Vrindavan (too well, glasses, beads, fruit bags snatching ). Fortunately they are rare down South, in Nabadwip Dham or Puri. Well, even outside Vrindavan...

These Hanuman monkeys are more civilized; they move in small groups of about 10 females with their young ones, and normally a huge male through Nabadwip Dham.

This is a rather young female

In the bustling centre of Nabadwip they are a little more shy.

The signs on the wall are advertisements for two political parties, the Communists and Trinamul, a progressive break-away from the Congress party; these signs are used to enable analphabetic voters to remember better whom to vote for.

boys feeding them peanuts

This bird, a Kokil I think, is common in much of India. They play a role in Vraja-lila as well. They have a beautiful, loud, refreshing call. This one is a resident of Nabadwip Dham

Here I'll place a brief sample of their call later, a very short video-clip.

At this place I ask you all to honor the ubiquitous crow, sometimes a nuisance with its shrieking call. Here one at Sri Tota Gopinath in Puri.