4 weddings and a padai veedu
I figure I've posted enough Tamil Nadu South India temples, so a break from the temples. And its overwhelming, there are 100s and 100s and 100s of temples in Tamil Nadu. And I'm still going to post more later, but now a sort of break.
I have this plan, its the theme or the goal or whatever you want to call it. It's actually now a promise (made in secret, for the gift I received, which came in answer, for the wish...) Anyway...It's to visit the six padai veedu of Murugan, or the six sacred sites of the Lord Murugan. And I will continue to return to South India until I make tracks to all six sites.
There is a long story to how I learned about the six padai veedu to Murugan. And I really should tell the whole story and get off my ass and start writing something longer than three paragraphs that are three or four sentences long. Anyway again, I was watching this Old Tamil movie a mythological bollywood type deal, that was about Shiva, Parvati, Ganesh, and their other son Murugan. It was the most amazing movie ever, totally obscure to anyone in the West and much loved by everyone Tamil who lives in South India. The title was Kanthan Karunai, all about the deeds of Lord Murugan. I watched this movie and at the end, they showed paintings of the six padai veedu temples. WOW . That was it, I said, "I have to go see those." And well five years later, and 13,000 miles from home, there I was standing in front of the Murugan temple at Swamimalai, my first pilgrimage to one of the padai veedu of Murugan.
This post I'm not going to show any shots of the temple proper, but of what was going on inside. As we walked into the temple there was more than the usual great crowds. There were also video lights and flowers everywhere. What we had come across that day was four weddings taking place at an auspicious hour. Now I learned later that this temple is really popular for weddings, its a good luck site for unions. So this couple hours we were at Swamimalai we got to witness and were actually asked to take photos of the four traditional weddings that were happening simultaneously there. What really added a touch of the 20th century to the whole proceedings was the wedding video dude, taping the happenings. He had video lights, and that really helped to get some good shots without having to use flash.
Here are a few of the photos I took from that day.
reaching for the flame
gettin' it on videotape!
the video dude, with his nifty power cord belt attachment
wedding couple
adorable girl watching the weddings
biggest eyes EVER!
flowers, flowers, and more flowers
I have this plan, its the theme or the goal or whatever you want to call it. It's actually now a promise (made in secret, for the gift I received, which came in answer, for the wish...) Anyway...It's to visit the six padai veedu of Murugan, or the six sacred sites of the Lord Murugan. And I will continue to return to South India until I make tracks to all six sites.
There is a long story to how I learned about the six padai veedu to Murugan. And I really should tell the whole story and get off my ass and start writing something longer than three paragraphs that are three or four sentences long. Anyway again, I was watching this Old Tamil movie a mythological bollywood type deal, that was about Shiva, Parvati, Ganesh, and their other son Murugan. It was the most amazing movie ever, totally obscure to anyone in the West and much loved by everyone Tamil who lives in South India. The title was Kanthan Karunai, all about the deeds of Lord Murugan. I watched this movie and at the end, they showed paintings of the six padai veedu temples. WOW . That was it, I said, "I have to go see those." And well five years later, and 13,000 miles from home, there I was standing in front of the Murugan temple at Swamimalai, my first pilgrimage to one of the padai veedu of Murugan.
This post I'm not going to show any shots of the temple proper, but of what was going on inside. As we walked into the temple there was more than the usual great crowds. There were also video lights and flowers everywhere. What we had come across that day was four weddings taking place at an auspicious hour. Now I learned later that this temple is really popular for weddings, its a good luck site for unions. So this couple hours we were at Swamimalai we got to witness and were actually asked to take photos of the four traditional weddings that were happening simultaneously there. What really added a touch of the 20th century to the whole proceedings was the wedding video dude, taping the happenings. He had video lights, and that really helped to get some good shots without having to use flash.
Here are a few of the photos I took from that day.
reaching for the flame
gettin' it on videotape!
the video dude, with his nifty power cord belt attachment
wedding couple
adorable girl watching the weddings
biggest eyes EVER!
flowers, flowers, and more flowers