King of the Gypsies
About this book
from For a variety of reasons, many Romanies choose not to register their ethnic identity in official censuses. There are an estimated four million Romani people in Europe (as of 2002),[40] although some high estimates by Romani organizations give numbers as high as 14 million.[41] Significant Romani populations are found in the Balkan peninsula, in some Central European states, in Spain, France, Russia and Ukraine. Several million more Romanies may live out of Europe, in particular in the Middle East and in the Americas. ~ Hinduism is the foundation for Roma religious beliefs and the concept of kuntari, a universal balance, is central to the people's spiritual realm. Kuntari means that all things belong in the universe according to their natural place. However, animals such as the flightless hen and frogs, an animal with the ability to negotiate both land and water, are considered to be out of balance and are, therefore, inherently unlucky—consequently, Roma avoid both hens' eggs and frogs. The Roma also believe in the notion of "pollution", whereby the human body is vulnerable to pollution following the breaking of certain taboos—pollution leads to a person becoming out of balance, like the frog and the hen. If such taboos are broken, restoration of one's purity can only be attained through a trial overseen by a tribunal of Roma elders. This tribunal determines whether a person is guilty or innocent and, in the case of the former, the subject of the trial must complete a period of isolation for the purpose of eventual reinstatement (in particularly severe cases of pollution, permanent estrangement has occurred, but this is apparently rare in the modern era). Such pollution taboos do not apply until a Roma has undergone puberty.[80] Christianity and Islam have also been adopted by the Romanies.[81]