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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.
Frams Torners….letters in disguise
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…
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Rice, food of the south
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 of...
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A gorgeous sunset in Chettinad
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 ...
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Fire ceremony at Pillayarpatti
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 pray...
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Learning Chettinad Cooking
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...
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At the Ayyanar temple
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 o...
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