Today we watched a Whirling Dervish performance in Istanbul. The dervish were a Muslim sect that originated in Konya, but were outlawed by the first Turkish president, Mustafa Kemel Atatürk, in 1923.  The whirling was part of a religious ceremony, in which the person was supposed to lose his ego to the wider universe.  The worshiper begins with black robes, symbolizing the ego’s shroud. He then removes the robe, revealing a white robe beneath, indicating the loss of ego and acceptance of the love of God’s unity.

Today, more than 90 years after the outlawing of any Muslim sect other than Sunni and Shiite, this performance is more “whirling for dollars” than religious.  It is a popular tourist attraction now.  We have been told repeatedly that tourism is massively depressed in recent months, due to ISIS and other concerns.  This event drove that fact home for us. This performance generally sells out early.  Tonight though, there were fewer than 30 spectators in the 200+ seats, so everyone had a front-row seat.

The dancers arrive in their black robes, which they then remove.  The leader keeps his black robe on, and wanders among the dancers.  Meanwhile, the musicians are on an upper balcony, to provide chants and instrumentals.

The dancers whirl around and around, circling the small stage.

They whirl until their ego has left, allowing them to be one with the universe.

After the performance was over, we took the funicular (middle-left) down to the wharf area. We walked across the Galata bridge again, watching more fishermen (bottom images) plus one woman, as they while the time away, more as a social gathering than for catching dinner.

Everywhere we turned, there were people taking selfies.  The days of waving down a stranger and asking them to take your photo are definitely over, with everyone seeming to own a “selfie stick” or mobile camera phone — and always there was someone willing to sell you a “selfie stick”, if you didn’t already have one (lower right image).

We took a ferry from the European side, where the performance was, back home to the Asian side of Istanbul.  The sun was setting and some clouds were forming during our crossing, giving us our best sunset cruise to date.

If you would like to get a more visceral feel of the whirling dervish performance, watch the 3 minute video below:

Whirling Dervish in Istanbul April 30, 2016