German funded Filmmaker depicting the Manghopir shrine culture in Karachi

Pak-German Cultural Relations Enlarge image German film-maker Till Passow (left) with German Consul General Dr. Brecht (right) and Vice Consul, Mrs. Gudrun Haider discussing details of the documentary-film being made about the Manghopir shrine. (© German Consulate General Karachi)

The German filmmaker Till Passow visited Pakistan with his camerateam to produce a stunning documentary on the Manghopir shrine, the crocodiles and their devotees. The movie is to depict different ceremonies taking place during Sheedi Mela.

  • You are on page 1 - 12
  • You are on page 1 - 12

About Manghopir shrine and the festival

Manghopir has the oldest Sufi shrines in Karachi, hot sulphur springs that are believed to have curative powers, and many crocodiles - believed locally to be the sacred disciples of Pir Mangho. Balochs often call this place as ‘Mangi’ or Garm-aap / Sard-aap (due to the presence of the hot & cold springs).
Manghopir is mostly inhabited by one of Pakistan's smallest ethnic communities, Makrani or Sheedi. Sheedi are said to be the descendants of African slaves brought from Zanzibar and maintain their distinct African identity in the midst of the dominating South Asian cultures.
Presently, these African-Pakistanis live in various parts of Karachi and further interior at Sindh and Balochistan.
The crocodiles are an integral part of the shrine, chronicle of the saint, and are so tightly interwoven that it is almost impossible to judge between fact & fiction. There are many traditions about myth of crocodiles, as if it is believed that Baba Farid gifted the reptiles to Manghopir. The second myth is quite factious - during a visit of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (the celebrated saint of Sindh) in order to make the barren valley more inhabitable, he caused a hot spring to issue forth from the rock and a grove of date palms to spring up from the ground and the crocodiles were originally the lice of a saint, which he gifted to Pir Mango, to put them into the pond and then each turned into a crocodile. According to a third legend, the crocodiles were introduced in Manghopir by Mor Mubarak (also a saint), who brought them from a cave in Korangi, as a result, after the name of saint, the chief of crocodiles (the eldest one) came to be known as ‘Mor Sahib’.