Saw some guys hanging on hooks today. Was driving around for fun and traffic came to a snarl in Wellawatte, Tamil Town. Got out to have a foot around and saw a bunch of floats, a parade, presaged by the bits of litter before. Called the Aadi Vel Festival (I believe), what looked like a Hindu procession along Galle Road. The processions I’ve seen lately have been mixed (Hindu, Buddhist, Corporate) but I think this may’ve been primarily Hindu. This is some video of a devotee hanging by hooks in his back. It looked mundane almost and people abouts were going about their business. I’m still quite impressed.
I saw a bit of it too when as I was going for a swim around 5ish and got caught to the traffic near Pamankada Pizza Hut… Huge crowd and long procession it was… and amazing and nice..:)
Its a hindu custom. Makes me feel painful when i see devotees doing this. Hinduism does not say we have to do all this. Its created by man as a way of devotion…..
this is one of the core ‘cultural’ problems of the diaspora tamil community–deference to tradition and authorized cultural expression. Filial piety. Rolling around the goddamn temple, prostrate, hoping for a miracle.
Nayagan
I understand what you mean when you worry about these practices being reflective of people’s fatalism and making them believers in miracles. But from what i know(from being the son of a father who is a is trustee of a temple in jaffna) that this close affinity to cultural practices in the temple is what has got people going despite the devastation that they have witnessed for decades now. Temples remain with all the politics that they bring to it (caste etc) the only public spheres and mode of cultural entertainment for people in Jaffna. (EPRLF (Pathmanaba wing) Sritharan made a similar remark at an election meeting in Jaffna which thenee.com carried)
As for in the diaspora lets not forget that these people have left their countries reluctantly. tamils have this habit of carrying around their communities wherever they go). I have visited disapora temples in England and Australia (not sure about Canada) and my observation was that they are visited mostly by the older generation for whom there is nothing better to do when there is no one at home in the busy life that is in the West.
Aachcharya,
yes, i’m being a bit harsh and my family did leave without wishing to do so but that way of thinking poisons everything. What keeps you going during the harshest times can seem like a cure–all to those who have survived it. Even after the mechanisms by which immigrants ascend the economic ladder in the US are made clear to the previous generation (education, work ethic, ‘keeping your nose clean,’ etc) they still advise a Homa to be conducted or some other ritual for the removal of obstacles. The jaffna branch of my family did follow one of the most catankerous Saivites around and despite the intervention of a much more ‘modern’ guru, they are still in that mold.
i can’t help but worry. The poorest diasporic populations (Malaysia, especially) seem to practice this kind of exhibitionist worship more than any others.