Temple ferver in Udupi
Trip Start
Mar 03, 2008
1
5
10
Trip End
Mar 31, 2008
Udupi,
India
Thursday, March 13, 2008
I found a hotel with 24 hour hot water and scrubbed myself for a good 20 minutes - it was bliss! Udupi is famous for being the home of South Indian cooking, especially for inventing the dosa and my meal at Woodlands restaurant didn't disappoint even though I was stared at by seven waiters in the empty restaurant for the entire duration of my meal! On the way back, I bumped into some French girls I'd met at Honey Valley who were also staying in my hotel. We went down to the temple to see the evening pooja but had missed it and I met the guide they'd used that day - Pranesh - who I arranged to show me around the next day.
Udupi was stifling hot and the room was suffocating. I was happy to get out of there for the day to meet up wtih Pranesh for breakfast. Udupi is essentially an important temple town for Vaishnavite pilgrims who visit the Krishna temple there which is the birthplace of a Hindu saint. The legend is that a Krishna deity turned around and allowed a low caste worshipper to enter the sanctum so now all people are allowed in. The large temple is surrounded by 8 monastries and full of activity. The pilgrims make massive donations to the temple from around the world, paying for the huge silver and gold temple chariots, 200 temple cows and every day thousands of people come for lunch which is provided for free. The Lonely Planet devotes two paragraphs to this town which is a shame as it's actually very interesting. No fear though as I had Pranesh to show me around. We first took a bus to see a Ganesh temple which to be honest was not worth it for the 45 minute bumpy ride (have you guessed yet how fed up I am of buses!). Ganesh is the 'remover of all obstacles and bringer of good luck' so people bring their new cars and motorbikes to be blessed by the priests who bring sacred fire, water and coconuts to break under the vehicles!
On the bus back, Pranesh told me that he was 40 years old and his sister was married but now it was too late for him and his father was dead so no-one was taking care of marrying him off. He said he wanted to confide in me and got rather tactile (which is a major no-no in Indian culture - well I suppose in any culture if you've only just met someone) as he told me about how he was sexually frustrated and how he masterbated in his room and wanted to go to Europe to 'experiment' but he was scared as he was inexperienced. Believe me, I wanted the floor to swallow me up at this point and kept reminding him that he was my guide!!!! Against my better judgement, we explored the rest of the sights on his motorbike although I kept my eyes firmly shut. We went to the little fishing village of Malpe, 5km away, where we saw boats heaving with fish mostly sardines and mackerel docking in the port and women with baskets transferring them to trucks. Nearby some small piles of fish were being auctioned off to groups of local women to sell on at markets around the area.
I made an excuse to shake off Pranesh for a few hours back in Udupi as he was doing my head in! I picked up some emails and learnt some sad news about a family friend who had died. In the evening, Pranesh picked me up and insisted we go to a Kali temple a few kilometres away as Friday was the day when people came, by appointment, to tell their problems to the goddess Kali (an incarnation of Shiva's wife Parvati and responsible for world order and in her form as Durga, she is the goddess of destruction and war). A queue of people and family groups stood to tell their woes of infertility, divorce and other personal matters in earshot of everyone as the Brahamin priest 'interpreted' Kali's response/advice with some ritual pacing and shaking of holy basil leaves!
This was not the end of a day of bizare sights. We went back to the Krishna Temple just in time to see one of the massive chariots (at least 15 metres high) being pulled in a processional ceremony. These celebrations are effectively sponsored by different benefactors to the temple and happen a couple of times a week in their honour. The temple elephant led the procession around the temple grounds, but first a band and drummers led the deities of Krishna and Garuda out of the temple in a golden hand held chariot and they were taken up the ladder into this massive 'vehicle' - watch the videos as they show what happenned! The chariot, looking like a hot air balloon on an ornately carved plinth, was hauled around the grounds by a 200 strong crowd of worshipers and lit by a generator which was wheeled around at the back of the procession! Two young boys stood ceremoniously o n the plinth in a turbaned uniform and then coconuts were cracked open on the floor by the 'sponsor' family. Half way around the circuit, the procession paused to allow the 3 meter 'demons' to dance around ahead and then a line of flares were lit and some piece of white cloth was burned before some fireworks were set off. Then the crowd strained to take the weight of the chariot again around the rest of the circuit and the deities were returned to the temple. The whole thing was exciting and entrancing.
That night the heavens opened and a massive storm and unseasonal rain unleashed itself on Udupi and the whole of South India....
Pranesh at morning pooja
people died in Kerala and crops were ruined across the country. With the monsoon not due for two more months at least, climate change is really affecting people's livelihood. 
