The other day I was taking a walk, in a round about direction, towards Little India with my neighbor Ylla. We hadn’t gone very far, just a few blocks from our apartments, before we passed the Sri Thendayuthapani Hindu Temple and it appeared that there was a festival or something happening so we decided to detour across the street and see what was going on. I still haven’t figured out what festival it was, or the meaning behind what we saw, but it was a well attended event with a lot of interesting features.
Moving a small shrine into the temple
Temple detail
The crowd was dressed beautifully in lovely, bright colors
The first such that we saw. If anyone knows the significance of this event please fill me in!!
At first all I could sense was the music, a rhythmic drumming with a lot of clapping added in and intermittent vocalizations, and the smell of incense, but my friend is much taller than I and pointed out a gentleman standing in front of us being fitted up with a contraption that resembled a small shrine on an aluminum frame. The frame rested upon padded shoulders and hips was was fitted out with bright decorations and feathers. Upon closer inspection though there was another component, the man was having large skewers poked through the frame of the shrine and embedded in his chest and back. Now, looking more carefully through the crowd we could see that there was a line of men with these contraptions fitted to them, all making their way through the temple complex and then eventually into the temple itself.
Another pilgrim (?)
Beautiful decorations adorned each of these mini-shrines
More supplicants or shrines (?) making their way through the crowds
Lovely, bright finery on all the bystanders
detail of the temple
The crowd watched and stepped in periodically to help
Amazing.
We walked around looking at the people in their festive clothes and the temple and then my neighbor noticed that there were two men, well into the crowd who were being urged by the music and the onlookers to dance their way towards each other.
The dancer to our left. Arrow through his mouth, piercings through his temples, hooks in his back.
The two men wore pants, but no shirts, both had long, gold arrows piercing their mouths and hooks embedded in their backs.
The same dancer, now you get a look at the ropes attached to the hooks in his back. Men are on the other end of the hooks tugging the dancer backwards as he attempts to move forward to the music.
Attached to the hooks were long ropes that men behind the dancers pulled on from time to time, reeling the men backwards as they tried to make their way forward to the music.
The dancer to our right, facing the other man and attempting to move towards him.
We watched, amazed, for quite some time, taking in the spectacle before eventually moving on with our walk, intrigued by what we had just witnessed. Anyone who can inform me on what we saw, what festival this might have been or what it represents please let me know!
Libby Scofield 