Water carrier

A water carrier or “bhisti” in India,

Water carrier (also water seller) is a profession that existed before the advent of centralized water supply systems.^[1] A water carrier collected water from a source (a river, a well, water pumps, etc.) and transported or carried containers with water to people's homes. After the construction of pipe networks, the profession of water carrier became unnecessary and disappeared.^[2]

In late Qing dynasty Chengdu, there were over one thousand people who worked as water carriers. They didn't just perform their official duties, but also helped the elderly and sick who could not take care of themselves with housework. In the 1940s Chengdu water carriers still went barefoot to show that they go deep into the river to collect the purest water.^[3]

Gallery[]

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  Tunisia, early 20th century

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  Water carriers on the Ganges, early 20th century

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  Rajasthan in 2006

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  Venice, 19th century

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  Water carrier on the banks of the Nile, early 20th century

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  The Water Carrier, by Eugene de Blaas (1887)

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  Statue of a water carrier with a pikolan (yoke), China

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  El Aguador (The Water Carrier) by Emiliano G. Hernández. Avenida de Juan de Bethencourt and Calle Leon Y Castillo in Puerto del Rosario, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

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  Le Travail, by Eugene de Blaas (c. 1900)

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  Vodonoska, the Water Carrier. Russian Dymkovo painted figurine in clay

See also[]

• Aquarius (astrology)
• Habibullah Kalakani, known as Son of the water carrier.
• Les deux journées, an 1800 opera by Luigi Cherubini also known as The Water Carrier.

References[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Water carriers.