Sunday, July 5, 2009

The Temple

Hello Everyone,

Yesterday evening was a lot of fun. After the market, lunch, and a nap, I get ready to visit the large temple for which Tiru is so famous. Priya, Pown, Durga, Ajith (not Ajith Kumar), and I went. Our journey started with a long walk down the main road waiting to be picked up by an autorickshaw. This took a little while, but I really enjoy walking along the streets here. I saw a herd of black wild pigs shifting through trash. I asked Priya if they ate them, and she gave me a shocked look, which I took as a no. We finally were picked up by an auto, but by that time it was a really short drive to the temple. We got out of the auto and waited about five minutes until there was finally an opening in traffic so we could cross the busy street. The little road we walked to the temple front was lined with people selling metal pots, plates, bowls, and other cooking ware. Everything was metal, and it looked like the street was lined in silver.

The closer we got to the temple, the more crowded it became. The front tower (of which there are four, one on each side) loomed overhead. I knew that the temple was tall, but saying tall does not do it justice. The tower’s height was not the only impressive thing about it; the entire massive structure was intricately engraved and decorated. I can’t even begin to imagine the work that went into making one of these, let alone four. We had to check our shoes at a stand outside the temple, and while waiting in line we were flooded by beggars. This was my first true encounter with the beggars here, before I had seen one or two at a time, but the temple was mobbed with them.

After removing and checking our shoes, we entered the tunnel through the tower, which led into the temple. The walls of the tunnel had very worn words and pictures delicately chiseled into it. In the middle of the tunnel we had to pass through a metal detector, which kind of ruined the vibe. When we emerged from the passageway we were greeted by an open court flooded with people of all ages. Large statues within stone buildings stood everywhere. The temple was also full of dogs, and monkeys. At first I was excited about the monkeys, and took a picture of a mother holding its baby. Then I saw how terrifying monkeys really are. They would run up to people and attack them until the person offered it something it liked. Good luck trying to carry a bag through the temple. A saw many games of tug-a-war between man and monkey, and not once did the human win. Whenever we passed a group of them, Priya would hide behind me. One monkey came and tried to molest me and I had to smack it away. I was too scared to be excited about the fact that I just touched a monkey. I don’t know why it was grabbing me, I had no food, only a bottle of water, and a camera zipped up in one of my pockets.

We entered one of the buildings inside the temple and followed a labyrinth of incense filled halls until we finally reached the back where an old holy man blessed us and then sprinkled a chalk like powder into our hands, which we used to mark our foreheads. We then used the rest of the chalk to fill in the engraved words on one of the pillars.

Upon leaving the building we weaved our way around lines of people formed in front of different statues. Everyone wanted to go and tell the statue their hopes and prayers. We went through yet another tower into the center of the temple. This was the most sacred part, and there was a two hour wait in line to see the main temple statue. We decided not to wait in line, and instead walked around other parts of it. We visited the huge reflecting pond, and saw the tall, narrow, golden tower in the center of the temple. For five rupees an elephant would place its trunk on you and bless you. We waited in line to see a giant statue of a bull. One by one we went up to the statue and whisper what we wanted to happen in our future into its ear. While we made our prayer, we had to cover the other ear so our prayer wouldn’t go straight through. By that point it was starting to get late, so we sat and ate the rice prasad, a holy food. It is tradition to eat it when you go to a temple or ashram.

We left the temple and picked up our shoes. It was now totally dark. We walked Ajith to his uncle’s shop where he is spending the rest of the weekend. It was a bakery, and it was now around eight and we still hadn’t had dinner, but we resisted filling up on sweets. After dropping Ajith off we roamed the streets for a little bit. The town looks so different with everything lit up. Since it was still early in the night, everyone was active and out and about, and I loved being a part of the cool evening’s hustle and bustle. I bought two lungis, the wrap-around skirt type thing that men here wear. Here children wear shorts, teenage boys wear pants, and then men wear lungis. Kumari said that to people here I look to be about twenty five (no kidding!!!) and that when she tells them that I am nineteen they are shocked. Because I look so old, it is more culturally acceptable for me to wear a lungi. The shop keeper tried to push these ridiculously gaudy satin and silk ones with bright patterns on me. I went for the plaid cotton ones, which everyone here actually wears, plus they look nicer. When I returned home with them, I think Kumari was grateful that I had gone more traditional, and we got a bucket to soak them since they were heavy and stiff with starch. This morning James taught me the proper wrapping technique, and I must say that in the heat it is much more comfortable than pants.

It’s the weekend, so now I’m going to go spend some more time with my kids!!! I hope you all have a good rest of your weekend.

Peace,
Robby


Devotees waiting in line to whisper their wishes into a statue's ear.

Yeah, it may look cute sitting there with its baby, but these big guys are vicious!


As we left the center part of the temple the lights were turned on, giving everything an unearthly glow.



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