2012 Tour of Shiva temples (5 elements)

My first ever posting in this blog was about our trip to Aarupadai Veedu (6 sacred temples) of Lord Murugan in September 2011. Upon landing in KL after that trip, I got a phone call the very next day from my friends to arrange another temple tour in India this year. The plan for this year's journey begun to take shape. 

At first 3 of us booked, then another 4 joined in. We decided to tour the 5 temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and the 5 elements, the Panchabootha Sthalas ("pancha" – meaning five, bootha – meaning the elements: earth, water, fire, wind and space and "sthala" meaning location) : 

• the Jambukeswarar temple at Thiruvanaikaval, in Tiruchirapalli, where the Lord is worshiped in his manifestation as Water
• the Natarajar temple at Chidambaram, where the Lord is worshiped in his manifestation as space, some refers to sky
• the Annamalaiyar Temple at Tiruvannamalai, where the Lord is worshiped in his manifestation as Fire 
• the Ekambareswarar temple at Kanchipuram, where the Lord is worshiped in his manifestation as Earth  
• the Kalahasti temple at Srikalahasthi, where the Lord is worshiped in his manifestation as air/wind. 

After a year of waiting, last month we managed to complete the tour of the temples, together with some other famous temples across Tamil Nadu. The story of our journey is depicted in the images below:

Our 1st stop was Trichy's landmark Pillayar (Ganesha) temple. It was raining non-stop for few days in Trichy, which made our climb on top of the 83 meter high steep rock formation was treacherous and dangerous.

The 5 of us, who began the tour of temple (with umbrellas). From left Jayabalan (JB), Sureshkanna (Boy), Sujendran, Shanmugam & me.

The awesome view of whole Trichy, from the top of the rock hill.

Sri Ranggam temple can be seen in the rain mist from the rock hill, with mighty river Kaveri running in the foreground. I'm already thinking of another tour around Vishnu temples in the future :).

The 'cute' Pillayar Sannathi, it can't fit more than 20 people at a time, I wonder how Vinayaga Chathurthi crowd will be.

Carving of Naalvar on the rock face.

The 5 element temples that we planned to visit is scattered around the south east of Tamilnadu - Trichy, Chidambaram, Tiruvanamalai, Kanchipuram and Kalahashti (Andhra).

1st temple - Water element : Tiruvanaikka Jambukeswarar Temple. This column is more than 20 meters high, hand carved in the ancient times.

Another view of the mass columns.

Auto-timer shot at the temple.

View of the Gopuram at Tiruvanaikka Jambukeswarar Temple. In this temple, the Lingam is situated on water source (ootru) from river Kaveri. The water is visible for 6 months in a year.

2nd temple - Space element : Chidambaram Natarajar temple. In this temple, there's a space which is usually  referred as Chidambara Rahasiyam (the secret of Chidambaram). In this area it was believed the Lord and his consort has taken the form of space.

Huge space, built entirely on carved granite. Makes you wonder how they managed to build these temples without any modern technology.

We met with JB's cousins (2 on the right) who've been studying music at Annamalai University for the last 8 years. With them is a Japanese, who got hooked on learning Tavil drum after watching some videos. He's also based in Chidambaram for the last 5 years!!

We took a day off to rest at Pondycherry (Pudhucherry) the French colonial settlement. Here you can see the state-town built on grids similar to France. This particular building was featured in movies like Ayyan. 

The view of Bay of Bengal from the beach cafe. Its still raining, continuously.

JB is wondering if the rain will ever stop.

Wet, but largely clean Pondy is definitely a place to spend some good time, in summer.

Colonial architecture, this is a Dutch church.

Inside a huge cathedral in Pondy.

Inside a huge cathedral in Pondy.

Cathedral in Pondy.

3rd temple - Fire element : Annamalaiyar Temple, Tiruvannamalai. Online resource stated :

History of the temple:

There is a very interesting story behind the existence of this temple. It is said that goddess Parvathi once closes the one eye of Lord Shiva in a playful mood for a moment’s time. But to the earthly world, it is equivalent to thousands of years. Upon the prayers of all humans and Devathas, Mata Parvathi requests lord to emerge on earth to provide light. He accepts the request and emerges as fire from Annamalai Hills. Hence the temple here is related to the element fire. The very hills of Annamalai are considered as the Linga of Shiva.   

So far completed the tour and darshans at 3 out of 5 targeted temples. The feeling is great.

We had our well-deserved rest at Kanchipuram after hours of traveling from Tiruvannalamalai. In the morning, we got ready to visit the temples in Kanchipuram. The set is now dressed for the occasion :)

Kanchi Kamatchi Temple Gopuram

View from the main entrance of the Kanchi Kamatchi temple. I was instructing the 'cameraman'!

4th temple - Earth element : Ekambareswarar Temple. Legend has it Goddess Parvathi, was once separated from her husband, came to Kancheepuram and made a Sivalingam out of sand and installed it under a mango tree on the banks of a river and worshipped it and got Shiva's hand in marriage.

The legend of earth Lingam formation under the mango tree. We witnessed the unique Lingam during our darshan.

Complex carved granite columns at the temple. Very minute detail are seen.

Happy crew, JB begining his varma kalai mudras.

Inside the temple.

We briefly stopped at the Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple, which was built using mixture of sand. This temple preludes the Tanjore big temple, which has striking resemblance.

Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple

From Kanchipuram, we head to Chennai before our trip to last temple of Panchabootha Stalam in Andhra.

5th temple - Air element : Sri Kalahasthi Temple. Among the 5, this temple's Lingam is the most unique. Read the info in following picture.

About Sri Kalahashti and the Lingam.

The shape of the Lingam at Sri Kalahashti

5 friends, 5 temples across 1000 kilometers. We've done it! Thank you God for keeping us safe throughout the journey.

En route to Tirupathi Tirumala temple. One of the 7 hills leading the Ezhumalaiyan temple.

Tirupathi Tirumala temple in view.

View of Andhra from top of the hill.

We completed the journey and waiting, for almost 7 hours in total. Fulfilling though.

At the foot of the hills, after completion.

The gang of 5, we'll be back for more!!

Vanakkam solla enna tayakkam? - வணக்கம் சொல்ல என்ன தயக்கம்?

Thank you Ms. Anitaa Madhu for inspiring this thoughts.

The whole world is learning from the rich heritage and culture of India, but Indians are more obsessed with foreign culture - Samuel J. Dass

"Vanakkam", a simple word used by South Indians (mainly Tamils) to greet another person with respect and love. The word is far more polite and welcoming when compared to simple a "Hi" or "Hello". Vanakkam also connects the divine aspects of the person greeting and greeted, with the gesture of joining both palm to signify togetherness.

However, we are slowly forgetting our tradition of greeting one another with Vanakkam. Some of us take the trouble to greet others in their own language like assalamualaikum in Arabic, hi in English, Ni Hao in Mandarin, but don't remember to greet another Indian with Vanakkam.

Why not feel proud of our culture and tradition? Why we have to change the way we greet each other just to blend into some foreign culture? We shouldn't be ashamed to use our greetings in public, even if not seen as  part of the emerging "modern Indian" (whatever it means). 

Summa greetings-leh gempak pannamal, olunga nam kalacharathai kahpom. From now on, try to consciously say Vanakkam to our fellow Indians, or even to others if you feel so. Vanakkam Vaalgha Valamudan.

Where are the Malaysian Indian athletes?

Note: This posts is to express my views & concern on the declining interest and participation of Malaysian Indian athletes in many sports, that they used to dominate. In no circumstances, I'm implicating or belittling our athletes from other ethnicity who represent Malaysia. No, I'm not writing to end up like the infamous Manoharan Malayalam or Johari Pain.

Olympics, the greatest sports event that had occupied the last 2 weeks of our lives. Almost everywhere we go, we speak or hear about the events, athletes, results and medals. Last weekend the whole euphoria of Olympics is done and dusted.

Malaysia managed to get 1 silver from Dato Lee Chong Wei and another surprise bronze from the diving darling Pandelela Rinong. Thank you very much for putting the nation's name on the medal tally.

I'm not sure, how many of you have seen the list of athletes represented Malaysia in London. These are the athletes participated in London for our country:

There are 29 athletes sent, not 1 from Indian ethnicity. Have we completely lost our sports culture within the community? In the past we used to excel in the following sports:

• athletics (middle & long distance)
• martial arts (taekwondo, karate, judo)
• football
• hockey

Over the years, our athletes have been gradually disappearing from the scene. Up until the late 90s, how many of you remember the Malay Mail Bigwalk, KL marathon, PJ half-marathon etc. dominated by our people? What about hockey, where majority of the players were from Indian & Sikh community. At least quarter of the football team was our people. Martial arts, none other than our heroes.

Our community have been working hard and winning medals for the country, both locally and at international meets like SEA Games, Asian Games even in Commonwealth games. Who can forget great names like Dr. M. Jegathesan (athletics), late Dato Punch Gunalan (badminton), M. Ramachandran & Munusamy (mid distance), Ponniah and his family (karate), Santokh Singh, Arumugam, Shebby, Gunalan, Jeyakanthan, Ramon Regunathan etc. (football), V. Subramaniam (walking) and many other illustrious sportsmen in many events.

But now, we can hardly see our people in mainstream sports. In hockey only S. Kumar & Kelvinder, in football only 3 to 4 players, all road races now are conquered by african runners, martial arts are not being promoted much. Where are all our sportsmen? What happened to our interest and ability?

My assumption on the this slow and steady decline is attributed to many causes. 

• Parent's focus on 'education' and limiting kid's participation in sports at school. 
• Kids are preoccupied with exams and TV, computer games etc.
• Good talents from school are sidelined from advancing to district or state level competitions. 
• Decades of neglect, no recognition and reward for sportsmen. (who can forget Spiderman Arumugam getting his Datoship almost 20 YEARS after his untimely death!!).
• No funding, support from Indian corporate sponsors for sports teams/bodies.
• Retired (good) sportsmen are not absorbed as official, technical committee, coaches etc. for youth development programs.
• Gov's focus for glamour sports, which yields advertising revenue rather than world-class sportsmen.
• No systematic development assistance, initiative by political party / sporting authorities.

I'd like to relate one incident which I witnessed almost 20 years ago. I was sitting at Maha Mariamman Temple KL after tuition class. Behind me, 2 individuals discussing about sports:

Person 1: I've been running middle distance from school, Uni, state till national, but until now no recognition

Person 2: It happens only to us

Person 1: I've won medals in SUKMA & SEA games, but see no future without proper training and support

Person 1: After Uni, quit running and start working (polepeh parpom), no point sacrificing future for sports

I turned around to see who are these people, to my utter disbelief, Person 2 was the ex-coach for walking Mr. V.S. (attached with Telekom) and Person 1 is A.M, national athlete for middle distance!!

We do see some pockets of funding like RM530K for Tamil school football, but without grassroot development and proper support, athletes from our community will further disappear from the scene, very soon. I'm dismayed.

Hindu deity images shouldn't end up as rubbish

We have seen many times, images of Hindu deities used (or misused) for commercial purposes. We jump, protest and scream when those images end up on shoes, bikinis, hand bags like this :

But why we don't say anything about wedding cards, prayer items, calendars and many other things that uses the same deity images, and ultimately ends in a garbage bin? Throwing away our deities pictures cannot be avoided, because there are tonnes of products use the images as the packaging.

Although we can't stop the years of acceptance of producers using Hindu deity images, we can start small by to avoiding having deity images on greetings cards or invitation card. Show respect to the Hindu images.

வளர்ந்து வரும் சாராய சமூகம் - valarnthu varum saaraaya samugam

Have not been able to write for last few weeks, due to hectic schedule.

Lately, suddenly, particularly in KL, I'm seeing many small liquor shops opening near our neighborhoods. A quick look shows, in 1 kilometer radius from where I live now, there are at least 5 of them popped up over less than 4 months.

Predominantly these outlets are frequented and patronized by mostly youths in their early twenties. Some will say, nothing wrong in that, as its their choice to drink whatever and be however they want. Right?

 (illustration image)

Hmmm true, but ... what if youth below legal age of drinking have easy access to cheap liquor just around the corner of their house or school? How to be sure the alcohol sold here are only sold to adults over 18 years. Even then, what if the kids are influenced by adults sitting around the shop and drinking in broad daylight?

  (illustration image)

Remember The Star Probe in 2010 revealed a school in Rawang with gangsterism and alcohol abuse problem? You can read about that here & here. See the pics below, it might refresh your memory (inset pic 6) :

Not enough with that, almost every Tamil released these days has a drinking and bar scene shown as highlight. Such as SMS, Aadukalam, BeB, Mayakam Enna etc.

There are also large amount of fake booze in the market, which may inadvertently end up in these neighborhood liquor shops for a cheap price, easily bought by our people.

Drinking alcoholic beverages is one's own choice, some may say rights (I do). Liquor shops which are operating are licensed and they are in for the business profits. But easily accessible fake, cheap alcohol to younger generation will eventually erode some moral values among your youths. 

Eppadi irunthalum, tervuh unggel kaiyil ... Just my 2 cents.

Let's help OUR Tamil schools, 1 at a time!

.. you might have already heard or read about this Tamil school, producing high achievers in UPSR exams. The school is in dire need of better facilities. I started this page to find ways to assit the school without any political inclination and personal gains. Please join in and suggest ways for us to save 1 Tamil school at a time ... united we stand!

 

In a sorry state: The condition of SJK(T) Subramaniya Barathee in Glugor has been deteriorating for the past 20 years.

Read : The Star article 

I've started an FB page dedicated for sharing information and a platform for us to contribute ideas and resources to assist any Tamil schools that may need our help, big or small. Visit https://www.facebook.com/help.our.tamil.schools.

I plan to visit the school end of this month to have a 1st hand look at the state. It doesn't matter how little we are going to do for the school, but that little thing should start a bigger wave of self-help for the community! I'm not anti government or pro opposition, I'm just a plain man wishing to help my community's school. If you think you can help, in any way, drop a comment or suggestion here. Ondru pattal inggu vaalvu!