Shani Shingnapur - Indian Village without Door Protection
A village in India where no one installed doors for protection. Every building in the villiage whether it is homes, educational institutions, and even banks have no doors. Cash is stored in unlocked containers, as are valuable pieces of gold jewellery. Even most of the public toilets in Shani Shingnapur village square have no doors.
For reasons of privacy and following requests by women, we recently agreed to put a thin curtain near the entrance, but not doors because that would go against our belief. Some villagers do put up loose door panels against their door frames, but this is done only at night, to keep out wild animals and stray dogs. The only problem with the lack of doors is that there's nothing to knock on to announce your arrival. But the villagers have a solution for this, too. Just shout out and somebody will come to the door.
The power of Shani is such that if someone steals, he will keep walking all night and think he has left the village, but when the sun comes up he will still be there. It is also believed that anyone who commits sins in the village will have to face 'Sade Saati', which means seven-and-a-half years of bad luck. To this day, the five-foot slab continues to be worshipped at the local shrine, where it is placed out in the open.
