30 Elephants, 300 Umrellas & 300,000 Friends
That's a few of the ingredients for the famous Trissur Pooram, a multi-day festival held in the central Keralan city of Trissur. We met up with Sarath, my friend Harilal's nephew, and we stayed with him and his family for a couple of days. His parents Sashi and Rama, and his younger sister Saranya (or Sharu, or Spunky Monkey) live about 1.5 kms from the city center, so it was an ideal home-base for participating in this immense and amazingly crazy festival.
The festival has many parts, and many meanings; and I won't do them justice if I try to explain it. But essentially there are two main temples that 'compete' for the attention or approval of Shiva, each trying to outdo the others. The two main parts of the festival that we saw were the elephant pagent and the fireworks. Each temple has a team of 15 huge male elephants each dressed up and carrying 3 priests; each team is also carrying a sacred female deity. The two lines of 15 elements face each other from 150 yards apart, surrounded by several hundred thousand people (don't know the exact figure, but it's BIG), and spend several hours hoisting a beautiful array of colored umbrellas. They go through probably 50 or 60 sets in all, and the crowd goes wild each time. Traditional drumming and horn playing is accompanying the pagent the entire time.
Sarath's father Sashi is well connected, and he was able to secure us free passes for a tourist-only special area to view the action from 20 feet away from one of the elephant lines. It's a good thing too, because the crowd is huge, hot, and wild. Easy to get lost in there.
At 3am (not sure why it's so late/early) they start a fireworks show. Also part of the competition, the two temples try to outdo each other again; the opening salvos of fireworks were by far the most intense and overwhelming sight and sound I've ever seen--and I was 1.5 kms away! Ian got up and went into the city center for a close view, and he'll have to relate that story. Hundreds of huge explosions of light and sound going off just overhead... about 10 times more intense than anything you'd see in the States. It looked like hell on earth, a pyromaniac's dream come true.
The next day we spent on the train, heading for Trivandrum. Blissfully cool and quiet, the 2-tier AC sleeper car was just what we needed before preparing to fly out. More soon.
Love,
Mark, Lenka & Ian
Festival adornments for the elephants
The festival has many parts, and many meanings; and I won't do them justice if I try to explain it. But essentially there are two main temples that 'compete' for the attention or approval of Shiva, each trying to outdo the others. The two main parts of the festival that we saw were the elephant pagent and the fireworks. Each temple has a team of 15 huge male elephants each dressed up and carrying 3 priests; each team is also carrying a sacred female deity. The two lines of 15 elements face each other from 150 yards apart, surrounded by several hundred thousand people (don't know the exact figure, but it's BIG), and spend several hours hoisting a beautiful array of colored umbrellas. They go through probably 50 or 60 sets in all, and the crowd goes wild each time. Traditional drumming and horn playing is accompanying the pagent the entire time.
Waiting for the pageant
The elephants in full regalia!
Sarath's father Sashi is well connected, and he was able to secure us free passes for a tourist-only special area to view the action from 20 feet away from one of the elephant lines. It's a good thing too, because the crowd is huge, hot, and wild. Easy to get lost in there.
The crowd gets into it
At 3am (not sure why it's so late/early) they start a fireworks show. Also part of the competition, the two temples try to outdo each other again; the opening salvos of fireworks were by far the most intense and overwhelming sight and sound I've ever seen--and I was 1.5 kms away! Ian got up and went into the city center for a close view, and he'll have to relate that story. Hundreds of huge explosions of light and sound going off just overhead... about 10 times more intense than anything you'd see in the States. It looked like hell on earth, a pyromaniac's dream come true.
The next day we spent on the train, heading for Trivandrum. Blissfully cool and quiet, the 2-tier AC sleeper car was just what we needed before preparing to fly out. More soon.
Love,
Mark, Lenka & Ian
posted by Mark and Ian at
11:46 PM
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