when i first arrived in my village, i noticed a gigantic construction site right next to our school. that big it was hard to miss. i was left wondering for about four months what it was all about, until someone told me that it was going to be a new hindu temple. along with that, i was warned: whenever it would be completed, there would be a week's worth of partying. 'eh?', i said, 'partying?'. a couple of days later, my ears still hurt. the story goes like this: as is probably common knowledge, the hindu religion is commonly associated with everything colourful and loud. these two adjectives describe the temple opening in perumalmalai perfectly, it was colourful (you would not believe the detail and passion put into carving and then painting all the little figures of gods) and loud (the entire hindu population of all surrounding villages attended the opening, playing drums, shouting, singing). at one point, loudspeakers were hung up around the village in the most curious places - that is in palm trees, next to entrance doors and next to one of the three churches. thinking they had been forgotten during the political elections last month, i didn't feel that bothered..
until one day, all the covers were taken off the construction site and there was revealed a bright and shiny new hindu temple, worshipping a god whose name begins with the letter 'm'. (did you know that in hinduism, there are 3,5 BILLION gods? it is common for each caste, each family and each region to worship a particular god. and most hindus only know the most important gods anyway, that is shiva, krishna, ganesh, lakshhmi, murugan. looking on the bright side, having so many gods means that everyone can choose a god that corresponds to their spiritual needs 100%, no need to worship someone with whose ideology you only agree half of the time). the loudspeakers, conveniently spread in a way that they could be heard wherever you were, started playing hindu chants, prayers and preachings loudly at 5am every day and did so until midnight. in addition to that noise, every night there were fireworks and - which was, i admit, quite beautiful. last tuesday, i took part in a big parade which went from the small hindu shrine in perumalmalai halfway to kodaikanal (6km), with people drumming, carrying offerings on their heads, women losing themselves in religious ecstasy.. i have never experienced anything quite like it. i'm sure i've said this before, but hindus are extremely devoted and emotional religious followers. nothing compared to religion in the west, where yes, there are beautiful churches, but only a handful of ancient-looking people inside, where solitude and tristesse seems to be omnipresent.
only a day later, last wednesday, our own village-temple was officially opened. it took me quite some time to convince myself to be at the opening event, but ultimately i realized that i would probably never again have the chance to witness a traditional, south indian temple opening in a small village, away from all tourists. this was just the way it works, in its purest form. even when walking down from bodhi zendo (which is about 3km up a hill) i could hear the sound of people talking, yelling, music playing. there must have been about 1000 people there, as well as several local radio and tv stations. everyone was gathering outside the temple and on top stood a brahmin priest, spraying the crowd with holy water. children were staring at the bright colours and at the masses of devotees, devotional love was in the air.
going inside felt like being in the middle of an extremely enthusiastic crowd at a music festival - people were yelling, jumping around, simply 'partying' to lovely religious pop music and to priests preaching over the loudspeakers. it felt bizarre, really, like a massive religious party. who in austria would ever party for a religious reason or get excited over a church opening? (at this point i'd also like to mention that here, not only hindus were celebrating, but also muslims and christians. and yes, in our tiny village we have two churches, two hindu temples AND a mosque and no one feels like their personal space is being invaded by someone of another faith. i mean.) what's beautiful to see is that women here may only enter official temple grounds when wearing a special temple-sari, which is expensive and made entirely of silk. the men's shirts have to be nice and freshly washed. the people here are beautiful, good-willed and dedicated and i will now let the pictures speak for themselves.
crazily enough, after this big opening the commotion died down within a matter of hours. the next day, there were no more loudspeakers hanging, the whole 'festival area' had been cleaned and it was business as usual (i.e. preaching every morning, now conveniently right next to my window). although i tend to complain about the music blasting from the general church and temple speakers at 5am every morning, i'm sure that once i'm back in austria and london something will be missing - in six months here i've really gotten used to the way things work here. all the colours, sounds, the general chaos, the incredible openness of the people,..i was invited to many peoples' homes many times in the little time i spent at the opening (they seem to be blown away by the fact that a foreigner cares about what's going on in this tiny village).
seeing as all this temple commotion started to get a bit much, i decided to go to bodhi zendojune, however (and now..wait for it) it was postponed for two weeks because the government was too slow with printing the school books. therefore, miraculously, a new law appeared saying that all schools in tamil nadu would only be allowed to open on the 16th. (only in india, right?) so again, i haven't been doing much. my work has somehow shifted from working with montessori children, to working with montessori teachers and teaching english, to doing the administration of the school, to being the guest administrator at bodhi zendo while the lovely actual one is on leave. when i come back i can surely say that i've done many many things during my time abroad (which will also surely come in handy at one point). also, i have decided to definitely come back here in a year's time. :) unless i get a great internship somewhere else.
another major event in may was father ama samy's 75th birthday. when i first came, i didn't even realize it was going to be his birthday which is apparently a reason for many members of the sangha (i.e. his official disciples) to fly here especially. so in the few days before his actual birthday on the 21st of may, during silence time, you could hear muffled sounds coming from the bodhi zendo basement, here and there the gentle strumming of a guitar or some people thumping on the ground in the room next to you. no one REALLy knew what was going on, we only knew that we would have a big celebration in the evening after sitting. and so it was. a great number of the guests staying in the zendo at the time had prepared little acts for him (i myself was part of a little play (had the great part of playing a cow along with two great ladies) in case you're interested, the story goes that a zen student is unable to solve the master's koans and angrily gives up, walks away..on his journeys he encounters three cows, he pets and feeds them and suddenly, boom, becomes enlightened. what is the moral of the story? you tell me :)) anyway, people were performing songs, one-acts, playing instruments, dancing.. and father ama definitely looked happy. not to forget, we had two (incredibly fattening) cakes made specially for this event which were just delicious. singing for father ama also was a very bonding experience with all the guests who were staying here..everyone took on a role (someone who had never worked with a group of singers started to be the choir teacher, another conducted, a third decided to strum the guitar..) and ultimately, we had a great evening.
in general, speaking of great times: my fantastic time in india has almost come to an end, i'll be leaving the country on june 27th (to singapore, where the great singapore sale (i.e. SHOPPING PARADISE WITH UP TO 80% DISCOUNT ON EVERYTHING!) will be going on - how convenient, i need to stock up on clothes that can be worn in the western world..). i haven't been thinking about saying goodbye too much, mostly because it will probably come as a big shock. half a year has passed so indescribably quickly. at the same time, i cannot wait to get back to austria, back into my community of friends. that is all for now :) next week school starts...the kiddies will be back!!
