Tag: tamil nadu
14 Posts
Off to India!
So, I’m off to India again to conduct my 3rd spiritual adventure for the year. First stop is Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and it is a brief stay here before heading further south to Madurai. I came across this Tamil movie poster that I had photographed a few years back. I love the posters that are&...
Read More
Hiking in the Western Ghats
At the end of our Culinary and Spiritual Tour Markley spent 4 days hiking and camping in the Western Ghats, the mountain range that runs down the spine of South India and divides Tamil Nadu from Kerala. After the heat of the plains, the cool mountains and spectacular scenery was a welcome change....
Read More
In the Madurai Airport
Madurai has a brand new state-of-the-art airport. But there are still some traditional Indian touches…
Read More
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 crow...
Read More
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...
Read More
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...
Read More
Bathing the Elephant
Driving down the road to Thanjavur, we crossed a river where a temple elephant was about to get one of her two daily baths. We leapt from the bus and hurried down to the river side to watch. Olga led the charge and quickly developed a special affinity with Shamala the elephant. While elephants ar...
Read More
Lunch with a priest’s family
The only way to taste true Tamil cuisine is to be fortunate enough to be invited for lunch with a family. We had that pleasure yesterday when we dined at the home of Kailas Deeksitar, a priest at the spectacular Chidambaram temple. We were greeted by his wife, son and daughter. Both sons also ser...
Read More
