Happy Pongal to all animals!
The Pongal festival takes place over several days. Yesterday, the first day, was focused on human beings, today it is the animals' turn for celebration. So it was appropriate that today we visited the Nandi bull at the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, known in these parts as 'the big temple'.
The temple (link is to a 4-minute video tour) is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites as a Living Monument - 'Living' because it is still in active use as a temple approx. 1,100 years after it was built.
In the middle is Tanjavur's Nandi Bull, 12 feet high, nearly 20 feet long and 8 feet wide, made from one piece of stone weighing 25 tons. It is significant because it is the gatekeeper to Siva and his consort, Parvati.
At Pongal it is decorated with thousands of vegetables and fruit - the head has been coated with butter.
We were blessed 3 times - once with red ash or kum kum powder (from Vishnu), and twice with white ash (from Shiva) - the ash signifies that we all return to ash ("see also "ashes to ashes, dust to dust").
The white ash is the remains of cooked cow dung and the red has turmeric added.
Once again, we were almost the only non-Indian people there and we were treated like celebrities, having our photos taken with school parties, families and individuals. One of our group, Tracey, being tall and blonde, was much sought after in a land of dark and mostly short women!
I will have to read the guidebook because I missed much of the tour guide's excellent commentary whilst I was being photographed and interviewed.
"Sir, where are you from?"
"We are from England."
"Are you from London?"
"We are mostly from the south of England, near the coast."
"Excuse me?"
"Southampton?"
Turning toward his family: "He says they are from Southampton, the place where the Titanic set out!"
It was quite difficult to get away from the temple and I learned to have more sympathy with celebrities who get tired of having their picture taken - it was exhausting!. And I didn't have to try to look my best!
The morning's yoga sessions were stimulating too - asanas, pranayama, discussion and meditation on the theme of
or the five great offerings.
I generally find the meditation session the most challenging but not this time - I learned a lot about myself in that hour which will be invaluable for my yoga practice going forward. And I also mentioned Angel in the discussion.
The day had started with Gail taking photos of me getting into and out of a hammock, which went well until the button on my shorts caught the string of the hammock . . . . . and of course with breakfast, where I took a series of photos showing the chef making my dosa and omelette.
I also took a walk before lunch with Gail, Tracey & Helen. At one point we could see women washing their clothes at the river bank watching their children several hundred yards away playing in the water. Everyone saw us and waved - "Happy Pongal"
A hundred yards further on we saw a path down to the riverbank so Gail & I clambered down, and took our shoes off to cross a stream where we could speak to the children. As we waded in the water we could see the children were a bit nervous about us - their parents had probably warned them off strange pale people - but we proceeded slowly, talked gently and held our cameras in front and it was these that caught the attention. We took their photo, showed it to them and watched as the mothers made their way to us, where they welcomed us, had their pictures taken, giggled at the results and invited us back to their house. As best we could we explained we had to go, and we trooped back through the stream to find that we had lost the path. The children laughed and shouted, splashing their way to us before they guided us back to the right track!
A lovely day!
PS This might be the last blog post with photos because I am getting error messages - I think I might have gone over my limit but I don't know how I upgrade, or if I can. If that is the case I will link to a public photo album on Facebook from now on.
Namaste!
The Pongal festival takes place over several days. Yesterday, the first day, was focused on human beings, today it is the animals' turn for celebration. So it was appropriate that today we visited the Nandi bull at the Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur, known in these parts as 'the big temple'.
The temple (link is to a 4-minute video tour) is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites as a Living Monument - 'Living' because it is still in active use as a temple approx. 1,100 years after it was built.
In the middle is Tanjavur's Nandi Bull, 12 feet high, nearly 20 feet long and 8 feet wide, made from one piece of stone weighing 25 tons. It is significant because it is the gatekeeper to Siva and his consort, Parvati.
At Pongal it is decorated with thousands of vegetables and fruit - the head has been coated with butter.
And here's what it looks like close up:
We were blessed 3 times - once with red ash or kum kum powder (from Vishnu), and twice with white ash (from Shiva) - the ash signifies that we all return to ash ("see also "ashes to ashes, dust to dust").
The white ash is the remains of cooked cow dung and the red has turmeric added.
Once again, we were almost the only non-Indian people there and we were treated like celebrities, having our photos taken with school parties, families and individuals. One of our group, Tracey, being tall and blonde, was much sought after in a land of dark and mostly short women!
I will have to read the guidebook because I missed much of the tour guide's excellent commentary whilst I was being photographed and interviewed.
"We are from England."
"Are you from London?"
"We are mostly from the south of England, near the coast."
"Excuse me?"
"Southampton?"
Turning toward his family: "He says they are from Southampton, the place where the Titanic set out!"
It was quite difficult to get away from the temple and I learned to have more sympathy with celebrities who get tired of having their picture taken - it was exhausting!. And I didn't have to try to look my best!
The morning's yoga sessions were stimulating too - asanas, pranayama, discussion and meditation on the theme of
pancha maya yagna
or the five great offerings.
I generally find the meditation session the most challenging but not this time - I learned a lot about myself in that hour which will be invaluable for my yoga practice going forward. And I also mentioned Angel in the discussion.
The day had started with Gail taking photos of me getting into and out of a hammock, which went well until the button on my shorts caught the string of the hammock . . . . . and of course with breakfast, where I took a series of photos showing the chef making my dosa and omelette.
I also took a walk before lunch with Gail, Tracey & Helen. At one point we could see women washing their clothes at the river bank watching their children several hundred yards away playing in the water. Everyone saw us and waved - "Happy Pongal"
A hundred yards further on we saw a path down to the riverbank so Gail & I clambered down, and took our shoes off to cross a stream where we could speak to the children. As we waded in the water we could see the children were a bit nervous about us - their parents had probably warned them off strange pale people - but we proceeded slowly, talked gently and held our cameras in front and it was these that caught the attention. We took their photo, showed it to them and watched as the mothers made their way to us, where they welcomed us, had their pictures taken, giggled at the results and invited us back to their house. As best we could we explained we had to go, and we trooped back through the stream to find that we had lost the path. The children laughed and shouted, splashing their way to us before they guided us back to the right track!
PS This might be the last blog post with photos because I am getting error messages - I think I might have gone over my limit but I don't know how I upgrade, or if I can. If that is the case I will link to a public photo album on Facebook from now on.
Namaste!
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