100 Item Living: Sadhu

[Amaranth]

In reading the book What I Eat I learned about a religious group in India which lives a lifestyle that might be summed up as Sadhu-grandfather-monks-often-on-a-pilgrimage. (Note this book is by the same authors as the wonderful Hungry Planet book. It looks at one day’s food rather than a week.)

In the book they look at what people typically eat in a day in various countries. Organized by calorie level the day’s intakes range from 800 calories to over 5000 a day. The Sadhu man is on the lower end of the spectrum at 1000, though when not on pilgrimage, my guess is that his intake would be closer to 1500 calories a day given typical servings of nutritious forms of halva and chai tea. Most of his meals on the observed day consisted of boiled water. The vegetarian meal with food consisted of a spiced potato-tomato-pepper curry, a legume dish of spiced toor dal, white rice, and a puffy Indian bread. When on pilgrimage all their meals are donated to them.

In looking over his chapter, it’s clear that he also lives a minimalist lifestyle with few possessions. So I thought it would be enlightening to read up on the Sadhu life style and compile a 100 Item Living List for a person living that lifestyle. If anyone gets to talk with someone in this lifestyle and can let me know if I’ve left something out, please update me.

***Item list***
1-7 Simple Clothing/Robe/Wrap/Shawl/head covering
8 Sandals
9-15 Necklaces/rings/bracelets(3-7) (Some of these are used religiously)
16 Small religious symbol item
17 Cloth bag
18 Staff/Walking Stick
19-21 Bedroll(Mat/Sheet/Blanket
22 Bowl
23 Spoon
24 Metal pot—mostly for drinking water
25 Fire tong

They don’t appear to use any shaving tools, and I couldn’t find any references to other toiletries. Perhaps soap and laundry facilities are provided at some of the places they visit or stay during their pilgrimages. There are also ritual river bathings using plain water.

Intriguing to think of living this minimal lifestyle and what it would be like.

[heydude]

i think if you had one special thing instead of 100 unspeical things, it is better. forces you to choose wisely.

[Rosemary]

I have found all of the books by this author/photographer pair to be very compelling. In this book I was really surprised at how many calories the majority of the people profiled consumed - much higher than I expected.

[Amaranth]

Agree about the special things. Also if I have just one of something, I want it to be versatile and multifunctional. Regarding the Sadhu man's items, I've considered what I'd like if I had just one pot. My answer tends to vary depending on whether I would be backpacking or stationary. For what to eat out of, I'd rather have a bowl that was also easy to drink out of of--either a rice bowl shape or the corel type soup mug with lid. Though if backpacking a titanium mug would be better since water could be heated in it, freeing up the pot for other cooking. For a utensil, I'd rather have chopsticks than a spoon. Though sometimes I think I'd rather have a multi-tool swiss army knife and could make chopsticks when needed and use them for cooking fuel later. While traveling, the Sadhu don't seem to do any food prep unless perhaps they are volunteering at sites where they eat, so they would be unlikely to need a knife which the food prep sites would have if needed.

If you had very minimal food prep/eating equipment, what would you have?

Find all the books by them fascinating as well. Favorite so far is Hungry Planet. Several years ago, I emailed them and asked if they would consider doing a food garden oriented Hungry Planet/Material World type book. I have been intrigued by the glimpses of gardens in some of their other books.

Plus I got really interested in missed gardening opportunities when the nikewage group was doing their experiment. I could see that there were multiple opportunities to improve the village workers nutritional status around their tiny rented houses by growing small vitamin gardens to suplement their rice and legumes. Unfortunately no one was working at this angle at that time.

On the calories that people consume, it's generally the case that a person working in a low tech agricultural environment tends to use about 200-400 more calories per hour than a person working at a desk. So days where there is a lot of heavy labor, the need for calories rises quickly. To me this is one of the delimmas when designing Complete Nutrition Gardens. If you design one for an average western person at the 2000 calorie level, then they do all the labor for their CNG garden and need more calories. Depending on the time of year, the number of hours needed in the garden per week varies as does the need for light, medium, or heavy garden labor. So then the garden needs to provide more calories and higher levels of some nutrients. So then a bit more garden work is needed.>8)

[Fawn]

I would like at least two outfits of whatever the proper clothing for the area was, one to wear and one to wash.
One metal plate, one serated knife, one metal bowl, one spoon.
A comb and toothbrush.

And a kindle (just kidding.)

If you are a wandering spiritual person, and people feed you (or not) as you walk by...all you need is the bowl.

I think when my kids are gone, and I am down to my most minimal...I will still have a sleeping mat or couch and probably a vase for flowers.

[Zoebird]

I often imagine myself with a slightly more streamlined wardrobe and far less stuff (furniture, etc). I think that I could do it, but DH is against it, and then there is the kid. :) DH wants a few more creature comforts, and DS likes his toys.

[Spartana]

Like Fawn, I'm pretty much the minimalist but have more then 100 things (although have lived with less than 100 things many times in my life). I think my list of "minimal needs" would be:

A metal bowl/pot to cook, drink and eat out of.
A swiss army knife that has a spoon, fork, knife, etc.. on it
A sleeping bag
A sleeping mat (thin foam pad that rolls up)
2 pairs of convertable cargo pants where the legs zip off to become shorts.
2 lyra/cotton tee shirts
A waterproof thin jacket that comes with a zip in fleece or down liner for the cold
2 pairs of undies, bras and socks
A pair of light-weight but heavy duty trail running shoes.
Soap to wash my body and hair
Toothbrush, paste and floss
A combo face and body lotion with sunscreen
A hairbrush and rubber band to tie back my hair

That's it besides food - which would be mostly a raw foods vegan diet so that I don't have lots of cooking to do.

[catherine]

I have just revisited on another site my experience in which I picked up and lived in a beach cottage for six weeks. I remember packing for that adventure, and I wound up taking:

~10 items of clothing
Shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, basic makeup like foundation, mascara and lipstick)
A towel
A set of sheets
my computer
one box of documents I needed for work
A painting that my alcoholic, homeless brother had painted for me
Grains (my daughter thought it was really funny that when I escaped Dodge, what was important to me was barley and quinoa)
A couple of books (including, I remember, the Bhagavad Gita) + my kindle

Frankly, it was awesome.

BTW, I definitely want that book you mention!