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Photos show emotional religious ritual
Prodita Sabarini , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sun, 09/07/2008 9:46 AM | Arts & Design
Communal religious rituals bring out strong emotions from believers and often demonstrate the importance of religion in peoples' lives.
Photojournalist Zarkoni Maksum captures just that in his photographs of the haj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca.
Riding the momentum of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, Zarkoni organized the exhibit "Makkah: Final Destination" at Antara's photo gallery in Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta, Aug. 28 to Sept. 10. He works for the Antara news agency.
The pictures were taken during his own haj experiences in 2006 and 2007 as part of the Religious Affairs Ministry's Haj Media Center.
"Every year the ministry takes media personnel along on the haj to report on the pilgrimage. I was one of them and the only photojournalist," he said.
More than 200,000 pilgrims from Indonesia went on haj last year.
Zarkoni's pictures are a variety of wide-angled scenic photos of the city of Mecca, al-Haram mosque, the valley of Mina and mount Arafat as well as crowd shots and close-ups of pilgrims taking part in haj rituals.
One close-up showing pilgrims' hands touching the black wall of the holy cube-shaped Kaaba captures the high point in many pilgrims lives.
"It was very emotional. I was in front of the Kaaba, which all Muslims face when they pray. Everyone wanted to touch it, even though it was very difficult in that sea of people," he said.
He said it was actually forbidden to bring the camera into the mosque's compound. "I managed to sneak in a pocket camera under my ihram (haj garment). That's how I got the shot," he said.
Another picture showed pilgrims praying atop Mount Tsur, with desert mountains and distant buildings in the background.
Zarkoni's favorite picture is a wide-angle photo of people performing tawaf, usually the first and last ritual of the haj. Every pilgrim walks around the Kaaba counterclockwise seven times.
"It's amazing how so many people from different countries and races come together for one purpose, which is God. It cannot be described with words," he said.
Haj is the fifth and final pillar of Islam. The word means "to set out for a place," and every able-bodied Muslim with the means to do so is expected to make the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime.
Besides tawaf, another ritual is sa'i, when pilgrims travel seven times between the Marwah and Safah hills. Sa'i symbolizes how Hagar, the prophet Ibrahim's wife, searched for water in the desert after she was left alone with the baby, Ismail.
Pilgrims also visit Mount Arafat, where Mohammad delivered his last sermon in 632 A.D., three months before his death. At Mount Arafat, Muslims come to ask God for forgiveness and to reaffirm their faith. In the Mina valley, they take part in a three-day ritual stoning of three pillars representing the devil, called jamrah.
The stoning of the pillars is followed by the slaughter of an animal, usually a sheep, to mark the beginning of a three-day holiday called Eid al-Adha, or feast of sacrifice. To complete the haj, everyone must perform the tawaf around the Kaaba one last time on the fifth day.
