The Hindu Temple at Thiruvanammalai

by Grace Muth

         Last weekend our global group went on a three-day excursion to Thiruvanammalai.  The trip was an amazing, eye opening experience with a very interesting peek into Hinduism.  At one of the Hindu temples we visited we were blessed, not only by the chief priest, but by an elephant as well.  I would like to describe this amazing experience and what it meant to me.

            Before I begin the story, it is important that you understand a little bit about the Hindu myths.  Hinduism has a total of over thirty-three thousand gods.  There are three main gods, Brahma the creator, Vishnu the protector, and Shiva the destroyer.  Brahma will create something, Vishnu will do his best to protect it, but when the something is too old or in too much trouble Shiva will destroy it, so Brahma can reincarnate it.  Another important part of Hinduism is the gods have no actual magic powers, only the goddesses do.  In Thiruvanammalai there is a holy mountain that is the embodiment of Lord Shiva himself.  James will talk more in depth about this mountain, but it was important for me to mention this because the temple we went to was honoring Lord Shiva and his wife Pavarti.  Now that you know enough about the Hindu myths to understand my experience in the temple, I will describe it for you.

         My experience at lord Shiva’s temple is one I will never forget.  We were told to leave our shoes, water bottles, cameras (if we wanted to), and anything else we didn’t need on the bus.  After a short walk across the “parking lot” we entered the temple.  The sight was jaw dropping.  There were 9 towers that were really  high, and were carved with important figures from Hindu culture, such as cows, Ganesha, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Pavarti, elephants and many others. 

There was a huge stone tank that once held water and had cow statues all around it.  As we went further into the temple there were 3 or 4 main buildings all made out of what looked like black marble.  The first building had a very intricate black marble cow that was decorated with many flower garlands; the building was a shelter for the cow.  People were coming up to the cow and whispering their wishes in its ear.  The next building was 4 pillars and a roof, and inside was an elephant.

        This elephant was not a statue, nor was it fenced up.  This elephant was living, breathing and blessing people.  The elephant was even dressed for the occasion; it had white paint on its forehead in intricate and interesting patterns, and a red dot in between its eyes.  People would give the elephant a coin, the elephant would bless them, and then the elephant would give the coin to the person next to them who was collecting the coins.  When an elephant is blessing people, what do you do?  Get blessed of course.  Everyone started passing around two rupee coins so the whole group could get blessed.  When it was my turn I walked up to the elephant, which held out its trunk for the coin, and dropped the money into its nose.  Then the elephant gently bumped me on the head with its trunk and I walked away, grinning the whole time.  The elephant blessing was probably my favorite part of the temple visit, but the rest was still pretty cool.

After getting blessed by the elephant, we went into a church like building and proceeded to wait in line.  The building smelled like incense and after a few minutes we were escorted into a tiny, over heated room.  There the chief priest started chanting and blessing us.  We were pressed together and up against a wood gate.  Behind the wood gate was an archway that led to another small room.  Inside that small room was a statue of Pavarti that was golden and covered in flowers.  The room was designated to worshiping Pavarti, Shiva’s wife.  After being blessed the chief priest gave us kunkumin (like red chalk) to put on our foreheads.  The room was so hot and my forehead was so sweaty that the dot fell off as soon as I raised my eyebrows.  Leaving the tiny room, even the hot Indian sun was a nice cool relief.  Unfortunately the cool bliss did not last long, we still had Shiva’s temple to enter.

         Lord Shiva’s temple was kind of unpleasant at the time, but looking back on the experience it was also super cool.  We waited in yet another line and were crammed into yet another tiny room, this one literally felt like we had entered a sauna (not that I would know.)!  A woman (who was with her friends) managed to squeeze in with us and sat on my toes.  The tiny room was the same as the first one but instead of a statue of Pavarti there was a statue of Shiva.  About four times during the chief priest’s chant he had to stop because the woman’s friends were yelling at her to come back and wait with them, and each time she got up to leave, she realized it would be impossible and sat back down a little farther up on my foot.  There was also a family sitting behind me with a one year old and a four year old who were surprisingly well behaved.  The process was the same as in Pavarti’s temple but we were given ash (white chalk) to smear across our foreheads, I didn’t get any, but oh well.  We left the tiny room and stood directly in the sun, and yet I was so refreshed by the “cool” breeze and the personal space.

         The last thing we did before we left the temple was an ending “ceremony”.  The chief priest took a piece of perfumed cloth and draped it over us like a cloak, while blessing us one final time. 

As he was putting the cloth over my shoulders the elephant, which had blessed us earlier and was now on break, walked by.  It was awesome!   

 Next the priest gave Dad and our guide marigold garlands and mom a handful of jasmine flowers.

 Finally he gave all of us a small bag that had a sheet of paper with all of the biggest gods on it, and two packets of powder, one of kunkumin and one of ash.  Then we took lots of pictures and the chief priest led us out of the amazing temple.

         To conclude I would like to reflect on how this temple made me see religion in a different way.  It was interesting to see people wait in line just to worship a god or goddess and get blessed by a priest.  I was surprised by how unhappy the women in line were when their friend went into the tiny room with us and was blessed by the high priest.  Going to this Hindu temple made me see Christianity differently, it made me feel almost like a religious slacker.  Sure we go to church on Sunday, but do we wait in line and get turned into sardines just to worship the god of destruction, on a random and unimportant Thursday?  No we don’t.  This makes me feel almost guilty, its good that we don’t have to remember that 33,000 gods created the world, and yet, there is no God Mountain, or even a cow that grants your wishes 200% of the time.  I guess what I’m trying to say is Hinduism, compared to Christianity, can be described as extreme, but Christianity can also be seen as lacking.  Though these religions are very different, there is still the same basis; Brahma created the world and everything in it, so did God, God tries very hard to protect the world from evil, and Vishnu does as well, and finally Shiva just has to destroy something, and so does God.  Which makes me wonder, are all of the gods and goddesses from every religion ever working together to make the world work?  Its entirely possible, but I’m no theologist. 

I think going to Lord Shiva’s temple in Thiruvanammalai was one of the most amazing experiences that I will never forget.  It was eye-opening, jaw dropping, and thought provoking.  I was completely floored by the experience and it has changed the way I look at religion forever.  I hope I described it well enough to leave you as amazed as I was.