Alleys of Chowk

Stéphane Passet / France / 1914 / 1 min.

biography

Alleys of Chowk, Varansi, India, January, 1914 
Chowk, a district of the old town located along the ghats, is a maze of alleys dotted with temples. Footage: the hustle and bustle in front of the entrance to Vishwanath Temple, commonly known as the Golden Temple; rites in a Shaivist temple where cows chew the carnations offered to the god with impunity. Operator Stéphane Passet travelled through India and Pakistan from 16 December 1913 to 29 January 1914. Besides the beautiful images of mosques and palaces, he filmed and photographed rituals mostly overlooked by tourists, such as cremations and ablutions on the banks of the Ganges.

© Département des Hauts-de-Seine – Musée Albert-Kahn, collection Archives de la Planète