The Vel Festival...Aug 13, 2005

Saturday, August 13, 2005

ahhh high speed connection ;)

I think I stumbled into the only highspeed connection in the country, in the middle of a mall?! (I think the Sri Lankan Prime Minister is sitting next to me, she probably can't find a decent connection either...)

Speaking of the government...I saw a bunch of police the other night milling about...leave it to a friend stateside to tell me that the Foreign Minister just got assassinated?! Honestly, you would never be able to tell here...it's not in the papers or anything...then again my Sinhalese is a little rusty... :o)

So I'm sitting in Colombo and have decided to cut my two day trip here down to one. Not that the day hasn't been aboslutely brilliant, 'cause it has...but it's sweltering! It cools down to about 90 degrees F at night...It's monsoon season, all that means is it's a little cooler ?!?!?! and a LOT more humid, I've been drier in a bathtub! You know it's bad when no matter how much water you drink, you don't pee...and just sitting creates a puddle!

So "Arugula"...for 2 hours today I thought the Tamil Hindus were chanting about a leafy vegetable?! Then I think I sorted out the chant to either "Alugala!" or "Alohara!"

Today was indeed the start of VEL! For those back in SF you heard me whine more than once how I was going to miss the HUGE Tamil festival, Kataragama, because the SL government posted the wrong dates...well lets just say I don't think I would have been ANY more impressed by the Kataragama festival than by what I witnessed today! Keep in mind, I'm a little experienced (ok jaded). I've seen my fair share of Hindu festivals... to start off with I found this one unusual in that some of the participants were children! I'm talking about 9 year old's with pierced cheeks clenching a silver cobra head in their teeth and parading down the street for miles carrying decorated frames on their shoulders! The older kids (teenagers) would have the ubiquitous Tamil Hindu hooks in their backs, sometimes 4 or 6, sometimes a couple of dozen. A slight variation for this festival is a friend would stand behind them with ropes attached to the hooks and pull them in only to hurl them out, like a human yo-yo! As the procession progressed some of the tranced-out teens would be swung in circles by the ropes, (remember "crack-the-whip" as a child?)! The Caller would shout out "ALUGALA!" or sometimes "VEDI VEL!" and the chorus would mirror back the chant. After the swingers came the 5(!) chariots of Maruga, Skanda, etc., all were beautifully decorated giant, wooden vessels for the gods, painted up, with incense waifing. Four men would sit on top, handing out blessing in the form of flowers or coconuts. The Coconuts would be offered up, (smashed), in front of the chariots. It was gorgeous.

You know me, I've saved the best for last...So following the chariots were pick-up trucks. Not ordinary pick-ups, but portable swings for the young men to suspend from flesh hooks! The swings were created by extending 20 foot masts from the bed over the front of the truck. The poles were decorated with leaves and garlands. From the tip of the pole, ropes came down and attached to the hooks that penetrated the surface skin of the back, calves, shoulders, and thighs. Sometime the men were suspended face up and one was suspended in sitting position! The trucks would excelerate forward 10 feet then slam on the breaks to create swinging motion, sometimes friends would grab their arms and twirl them around. It was AWESOME! (yeah, of course I took a ton of photos...)

But believe it or not, I was even more impressed by the men and women who rolled like logs along the entire route, mile after mile on the baking tarmac, in the blazing sun, through the unmentionable filth.

I also got to meet a Sri Lankan tattooist...s-c-a-r-y! He was certainly nice, had cool designs, but I can't get over my western hang-up of wanting a sterilizer! He just reuses the same needle person after person...

(Traditionally in Tamil and other Hindu festivals, tattooists will be found offering their services of providing talismanic or commemorative tattoos).

Anyways, I'm off to the movies (more about the aircon than anything!) Tomorrow I will head south for the beaches before the final festival climax, the Pera Hara, The Procession of the Buddha's Tooth!

xxpaul