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religious ceremonies in the Kulu Valley:
dec 2003 |
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| 2/12/03 invitation
for the gods |
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The owners of Hotel Rajhans up in Dunghri, Hira Lal and Rilki, have
today their "Devi Shadani", a special prayer ceremony for
which they have invited Goddess Hadimba from Manali and God Shank
Narayan from the neighbouring village Nasogi. These special prayer
events are conducted for a variety of reasons, for example to thank
the Gods or to ask for their good will for a planned undertaking etc.
After a procession with the Goddess idol on her palanquin followed
by the villagers and preceded by her temple band through Old Manali
village, Hadimba Devi is greeted at the Rajhans Hotel driveway by
Hira Lal with offerings of a sheep and dough balls made of chapati
flour. Religious ceremonies follow in the courtyard involving the
Gurs (mediums or spokesmen of the Gods) and the hosts who go through
several rituals of offerings of flowers, money necklaces, colourful
brocade cloth, sheep, dough etc. As is usual at these kind of events
food is served for all villagers and guests, cooked in huge pots on
an open fire. |
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| 8/12/03 no great
ups and downs |
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 One
of the great things here is that you don't have to stick to the roads
when you fancy going for a walk, even if it's only for a short one;
there are footpaths everywhere. One of the less great things though
is, that it mostly involves going uphill at some point or another.
Today is rather the exception in that we walk along a fairly level
and therefore lung and leg friendly track along the hill parallel
to the Beas river between Dunghri and Brord village. The footpath
later turns into a dirt road and passes through the villages of Nasogi,
Balsari, Chyal, Simsa, Mari and Gadhirni, offering great views onto
the east bank side of the river overlooking the villages of Prini
and Jagatsukh with their rocky streams. We wonder how much longer
this will be a nice sight though since the construction of the Allain
Duhangan Hydel project is planned in that area. The final decision
regarding the funding by the World Bank hasn't been made yet, but
is expected soon. |
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| 11/12/03 temple
roof repair and hole digging |
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 The
roof of the Shank Narayan (or locally called Shonku) temple in Nasogi
village, near Manali, was smashed by a falling tree some time ago.
We have a look today when the last bits of the repair take place.
Men in dhotis (the kind of cloth wrapped around the lower part of
the body Gandhi used to wear) crawl on ladders to fix the last big
stone slates on the roof. Since the big wooden beam across the roof
is considered very important there will be a "pratishtha"
ceremony tomorrow, during which a new wooden "holy pole"
which a friend described as "God's antenna" will be erected
near the temple (see Blog [link]). The eventually over 3 metre deep
hole for anchoring the pole is in the process of being dug by dhoti
clad villagers, who are not allowed to eat till they finish working
for the day. Less restrictions on us: we go into town and enjoy a
huge meal. |
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| 12/12/03 a new
antenna for God - "pratishtha" |
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The "pratishtha", literally meaning "to set up",
is a huge event which draws hundreds if not thousands of people from
all the surrounding villages plus several God idols from the neighbourhood.
We follow the crowds and the God idol of Hadimba Devi going up the
hill into the forest from the temple in Nasogi village. Here the new
"holy pole", locally known as a "dhoj", had been
trimmed out of a section of freshly felled tree yesterday, to be erected
later. After some religious rituals and trimming off the last bits
of bark, ropes are attached to the heavy (several tonnes) and roughly
20 metre long wooden beast. Then suddenly commotion, screaming, shouting,
flailing of arms, the temple band's frentic drumming, hundreds of
people pulling ropes to drag the wooden beam down the hill, or trying
to prevent it from crashing into too many trees and shrubs. It's an
incredibly charged atmosphere; the pole is dragged, pulled, pushed
down the hill, through the forest, through fields, across a small
road and through apple orchards until it finally reaches the temple.
The erection of the "dhoj" pole in the evening is equally
spectacular; no modern technology is involved in the whole process;
wood, ropes, manpower and - obviously - God's helping hand are the
only aid. |
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| 14/12/03 Krishna
Mandir in Naggar |
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 Woody
and I make the best of the clear but freezing cold December weather
and head off to Naggar village (about 20 km south of Manali) for the
day. 10 to 15 minutes up the hill is the old Krishna Mandir (temple),
also locally known as Thakur Chatur Bhuj Murlidhar Maharaj ji (quite
understandable why the official name has been changed!). It's an old
tradition by us to ask about the age of a temple; last time I was
up here, about two months ago, I received the universal - and not
unexpected - reply "5,000 years old". So we are almost taken
aback when somebody tells us this time that it probably originates
from the 6th century BC, possibly from the Gupta period. Papu, a really
funny and nice bloke who lives in the temple compound shows us the
damage on the stone walls caused by a massive earthquake in 1905.
He tells us that Krishna Mandir is not classified as a protected monument,
which we find surprising since this old shikara-style temple certainly
has some beautiful stone carvings on it, some of which show Krishna
(another form of God Vishnu) with some of his gopis (milk maids) in
very explicit poses. |
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| 31/12/03 New
Year's Eve in Delhi |
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| Mumbai is well known
for its nightlife, bars and nightclubs while Delhi is better known
for a serious lack of them. Yesterday we checked the closing time
of a few bars and restaurants around Connaught Place and - unsurprisingly
- it was the same as for any other evening in the year, either 11
or 12 o'clock at night. Uuuh, can't have that. So we head off with
Amit, a friend of ours, and a couple of his mates to a bar in Paharganj.
Two long lines of tables, covered with white and red table cloth,
a few balloons tied to walls and ceiling, a live band with an energetic
tabla player on the stage at the front , very few women, lots of blokes
and vast quantities of booze... It's 23.59 and 30 seconds and only
our table does the traditional countdown; instead champagne we drink
to the new year with Tom Collins cocktails. About two to three minutes
later everybody else around us starts shouting "Happy New Year".
It goes with the territory, I presume: the law of Indian time flexibility...
Anyway: a happy 2004 to everybody. |
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