Carthage professor brings Indian culture to life in Chicago exhibit

"Sacred Waters: India's Great Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage" on exhibit through July 19

James Lochtefeld, professor of religion and director of the Asian Studies and Global Heritage programs at Carthage, has devoted his career to studying the religions of India. This spring, his knowledge will help visitors to Chicago's renowned Field Museum understand a new exhibit.

Prof. Lochtefeld, who has visited India more than a dozen times, served as an academic consultant for a temporary photo exhibit, "Sacred Waters: India's Great Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage," which will run through July 19. He worked with museum staff on text to accompany the pictures by Chicago-based photojournalist Jean-Marc Giboux.

"When we put on an exhibition, it's not just pretty pictures on the wall," says Janet Hong, project manager for exhibitions at the Field Museum. "We want real scholarship behind it."

This photograph, by Chicago-based photojournalist Jean-Marc Giboux, is featured in the exhibit "Sacred Waters: India's Great Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage" at The Field Museum through July 19. © Jean-Marc Giboux

The Kumbha Mela draws millions of Hindu worshippers to bathe in sacred waters. The study of the pilgrimage "involves both the study of history, and something real people do now, an interplay between tradition and personal experience," says Prof. Lochtefeld, who wrote his doctoral dissertation at Columbia University on Hardwar, one of the four Kumbha Mela sites.

More than 40 dramatic photographs by Mr. Giboux document religious processions and the activities of worshippers in pilgrimages since 1998. The compact exhibit, which includes some of the sounds of pilgrimage, gives a concise, colorful lesson in India's traditional culture.

Ms. Hong estimates at least 20,000 visitors will see the exhibit, tucked into a second floor alcove of the enormous museum. The exhibit is located adjacent to a popular exhibit on New Zealand's Maori peoples, and near a highly-publicized special exhibit on an 18th century pirate ship.

About the Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage: Nectar of the Gods

The pilgrimage is rooted in the Hindu beliefs that gods and demons once battled over a pot (kumbha) holding the nectar of immortality. During the fight, drops of nectar fell upon the earth in four locations, which became sanctified as sites of pilgrimage. It is believed that every 12 years waters passing through these locations transform into the nectar of the gods and riverbanks become sites of pageantry and prayer.

"They're gargantuan religious festivals, the largest human gatherings in the world, but very little known outside India," Ms. Hong says, adding that 70 million people participated in the month-long event in 2004. "It's a very fascinating story. Jim made the story make sense."

Hindus make the pilgrimage individually, with their families, and even as entire villages. Pilgrimage activities rotate among four sites along sacred rivers, but usually take place in a given site every 12 years. In 2010, the pilgrimage returns to Hardwar.

The pilgrimage is a gathering for Hindu ascetics, who have renounced conventional society to devote themselves to religious life. Some of the most memorable pictures portray them.

Crowds in the Millions

Crowds in the millions gather on religious holy days during the pilgrimage. But Prof. Lochtefeld, who will lead his seventh study tour to India in June, says the atmosphere is festive.

"Most of the visitors are very ordinary people from villages," he says. "People are on their best behavior. They know there will be inconveniences, it will be hot, they will have to walk long distances. For something that big, of course there's chaos, but it's amazing it's not more chaotic. One of the things that shapes the tone of this event is that people have come with a religious purpose in mind."

Prof. Lochtefeld says state and local governments in pilgrimage cities invest millions of dollars in sanitation, transportation and crowd control to serve the visitors. Tent cities are built,, where gurus host their disciples, and villagers from their home regions.

"You have millions of volunteers who come to help with crowd control, also things such as locating lost people or helping give out food and water," he adds. "You could not have the festivals without those volunteers."

According to Prof. Lochtefeld, the pilgrimages have grown tremendously in size over the past several decades, starting in the 1920s, when agitation for independence gained strength.

"As Indian nationalism grew, the British didn't interfere with religious events," he explains. "These became venues for the expression of nationalism."

This photograph, by Chicago-based photojournalist Jean-Marc Giboux, shows devotees to the god Shiva as they make their way to the riverbank and await their turn to bathe in the waters. The photograph is featured in the exhibit "Sacred Waters: India's Great Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage" at The Field Museum through July 19. © Jean-Marc Giboux

'Like Going to Another World'

Prof. Lochtefeld grew up in Pennsylvania and New York, where his father was a college art professor.

"I've always been interested in religion," he recalls. At Colgate University, where his undergraduate majors were philosophy and religion, "a Buddhism class made quite an impression on me. The professor was a devout Baptist, yet at the same time could read Sanskrit and Pali. Until then I'd never realized that language study was such an important part of scholarship."

At Harvard Divinity School, where Prof. Lochtefeld earned a master's degree in theology, he says a course on Hinduism "cemented my curiosity about India," inspiring him to take a leave of absence and visit India for two months.

"When I first went there in 1981, it was like going to another world," he says. "Now it's changed a lot. The mobile telephone has allowed them to bypass a generation of infrastructure needs. Now you have e-mail in small villages."

India's economic progress in the past decade has been widely recognized.

"What you have is really uneven development," Prof. Lochtefeld says. "Kerala, in the south, is like a first world nation, but some regions are really undeveloped. Out of a billion people, there are at least 100 million who are very smart, highly educated, and speak beautiful English."

"Sacred Waters" is free with basic admission to the Field Museum. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Basic admission is $15, or $12 for students. Admission is free on the second Monday of each month.

- Bill Kurtz, Carthage College