Whirling dervishes

[qatar]

Last week the Turkish embassy sponsored a Sema ceremony at Education City. This is the religious ceremony founded by Rumi and practiced by his followers, the Mevlevi sect of Sufis, more commonly known in the West as whirling dervishes

Comments

[qatar]

I found myself wondering the same thing: who were these people? Are they monks? Are they random Turkish people?

I just Googled how you become a Mevlevi, and the top Google hit was this quote: "You don't become a Mevlevi, you are born a Mevlevi." <3.

There are several orders in the US that believe you don't have to be Muslim to be a Sufi, by the way. There seem to be a number of Catholic Sufis out there. :-)

[chesnov_evgeny]

[chesnov_evgeny]

truly you have a dizzying intellect.

[qatar]

Dizzying is a good word for it. I watched all ten minutes and twenty-five seconds, and I still don't have a clue what the message was. :-p

[anonymous]

We saw whirling dervishes perform at both the Ritz and the Four Seasons in Doha at their Ramadan tents a few years back. However, it was done much more like an entertaining performance and not what is shown here. The ones we saw whirled very fast, about 5 times the speed of these men, and kept this up for about 5 or ten minutes. It was most impressive!

I enjoyed the more spiritual nature of this performance and the link you provided to explain what this is all about.

Thanks!

[rmitz]

Really cool. Thanks for posting.