2012 February » Travel Photography Blog on Yoga, Meditation and Hinduism

Feb 272012

Smashing the Ego

At a small Shiva temple in the countryside of the Chettinad region, we stopped to participate in a Hindu custom in which a coconut is smashed on the ground in front of the temple to symbolize the smashing of the ego.

The temple was beautifully kept and practically deserted, a change from the crowded temples of the last few days. We carry our coconuts past rows of statues depicting the Tamil sages.

In front of the temple, each person flings their coconut to the ground and they all break with a satisfying crack.

Feb 262012

Frams Torners….letters in disguise

On the Road No Responses »

Occasionally I’ll post something totally random like this that I’ve seen while on the road. This one I saw in a little village in a pretty remote part of South Eastern India in a road side shop. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to blog it.

Ok, I’ve heard of Transformers – robots in disguise, but I’ve never heard of Frams Torners. Are the makers of this dyslexic or are they trying to avoid a law suit? Either way this is funny!

Feb 262012

Rice, food of the south

Spiritual Adventures No Responses »

The harvest festival, Thai Pongal, takes place on the 14th of January and is celebrated predominantly in Tamil Nadu, South India. The festival is dedicated to the sun god, Surya, and marks the beginning of the sun’s journey northward, uttarayana. Tamils thank Surya for a good harvest and offer the first grain to him during the festival.
Much of the paddy fields we’ve passed have been harvested as we are almost at the end of February now. But throughout most of the journey in Tamil Nadu we come across farmers in the threshing stage of the rice production. This unmilled rice, known as paddy, can often be seen laid out on roads to dry.
In one of our recent excursions we come across a few farmers working on their harvest.

Markley attempts to entertain some of the farmers kids with some music from his Mac.

Feb 262012

A gorgeous sunset in Chettinad

Photography, Spiritual Adventures No Responses »

A flashback to yesterday evening, about an hour or so after we arrived in Chettinad and checked into the mansion, Markley and I went for a walk and we were blessed with an extremely gorgeous sunset over old mansions, a Siva temple and it’s temple tank. Here are a few images we hope conveys in some degree how special it was.

The silhouette of the Siva temple reflects in the temple tank as the sun makes a grand exit to the day

The village streets are pretty quiet late evening in Kanadukathan...

Feb 262012

Fire ceremony at Pillayarpatti

Spiritual Adventures No Responses »

Today we went to the small town of Pillayarpatti in the heartland of Chettinad to an ancient Ganesha temple. The priests in the temple come from the best priest training school in South India and the ceremonies are conducted with incredible rigor and to the highest standard. Ancient Sanskrit prayers are chanted by legions of young priests, as their elders perform the ceremonies. We attended the fire ceremony, or Homa, in which a wood fire is built in a specially constructed hall, and ritual herbs, roots, foods and spices are burned. This charges containers of water with sacred energy and when these are later poured over the Ganesha image in the main sanctuary, the energy is transferred.

The priest pours ghee into the fire.

Our group is seated for the hour-long ceremony.

As more and more offerings are poured into the fire, it roars to life.

Charlie and Debbie, outside the temple after the ceremonies.

Feb 262012

Learning Chettinad Cooking

Cooking, Food, Recipes, Spiritual Adventures No Responses »

Our spiritual and culinary adventure is coming to a conclusion and today we had our last cooking class. It was on two Chettinad style dishes. The first was “Mint Chutney” and the second “Kola Urundai Kolambu”.

Here’s the recipe for the “Mint Chutney” that we learned today.

Ingredients required
Mint leaves – few sprigs
Shallots – 100gms
Garlic – 1 pod
Ginger – 1 inch
Coconut (grated) – half cup
Tamarind – Small quantity
Red chillies – 2 chillies
Salt – to taste
Oil – 1 table spoon

Preparation Method
1. Place a frying pan on the stove
2. Pour oil and heat
3. Add red chillies, finely chopped small onions, ginger, garlic and the remaining ingredients and mix well.
4. Then add the mint leaves and grated coconut
5. Remove the mixture after the coconut flavour disappears
6. Then grind the mixture in a grinder to make it a paste
7. Transfer the mixture to a bowl
8. Serve as a side dish…

We were very keen to eat this at the end that we forgot to take a photo of the final product….sorry!

We gather for our final cooking class

Two recipes are being taught today...

Some of the ingredients...

Main ingredients for the kola urundai kolambu

These little dumpling like things are then steamed.

The Kola Urundai Kolambu is almost complete and tastes absolutely delicious

Markley poses with Amma (mother) after the cooking class. Nobody makes a meal better than Amma...Part of what we aimed to do on this culinary adventure is learn from mothers. And this Amma knows how to cook!

Feb 252012

At the Ayyanar temple

Spiritual Adventures No Responses »

Ayyanar is a village god, loosely affiliated with Hinduism, but emerging from a folk tradition of protective deities that keep disease and misfortune away from small rural villages. In one area of Tamil Nadu, the Ayyanar cult is particularly strong and many villages have Ayyanar shrines on the outskirts of town, where, for hundreds of years, villagers have offered terracotta horses to Ayyanar as thanks for blessings, or in the hopes of future good fortune.