Earlier this week, I finally caught up (for at least a while) on buying clothes. Each girl decided to buy a couple of sarees, in addition to several pajamas (pronounced PAH-JUH-MAH; this is where the English word, "Pajamas" came from). I had no idea that when you buy a saree, it is literally 9 yards of fabric of your choice. Then you take it to a different shop where you buy fabric for a petticoat which you wear underneath. They also cut some of the fabric off so that a blouse can be made, or you can choose a different fabric for a blouse. Then you take it to a tailor so they can make it all up for you. Quite the process! Luckily we have fabric shops and tailors within walking distance of where we live. Once the sarees were ready, our kitchen staff helped us put them on. It is SO complicated! I don't think I'll ever learn! They were folding it and twisting it in all kinds of ways I couldn't keep track of. They also did a lot of safety pins. We all wore our sarees for our trip to Simhachalam Temple, a very sacred/famous place in south India. For this trip, we just wore t-shirts under our sarees because our blouses weren't ready yet.
My neighbor kindly took this picture:
The entrance to Simhachalam Temple. We couldn't take pictures inside the temple at all so we mostly took pictures outside. We visited a few different parts of the temple grounds.
Our kitchen staff came to the temple with us, which was a huge honor for them. Dr. N. said it was a great gift to them to take them with us, as they would likely have never made this trip in their lifetimes if left to their own means. This is a picture of Ellee, one of the students, with Sidhu, the 4 year old. They are thick as thieves!
Before the following picture was taken, we were able to witness an interesting ritual that I didn't take a picture of unfortunately (I think I could have). One of our cooks Durga, is the mother of Sidhu, and also a 1 year old baby (I don't think I can spell his name). Apparently Durga had made a vow of some kind before the baby was born that if he was born healthy and strong, she would shave his head and give his hair as a gift to the gods. The hair is given to charity, actually, and made into wigs. At this temple we were able to witness the shaving of her baby's head. He already had thick dark hair as a one year old. They use a straight blade so it was kind of scary at first, but it was a very clean job. He is now a bald baby! I'll have to get a picture of him sometime. He's super cute.
This is a fountain where people can bathe after shaving their heads or just wash their feet.
Our tour through the temple was unique. Because of Krishnayya's high connections, we were privileged to be able to enter the inner sanctum of the temple. 99% of people are NOT allowed into that area. It is a small enclosed room, almost like a cave, and has a kind of container inside of it where the god supposedly resides. It is especially sacred to those of the Hindu religion. Unfortunately for me, the room was incredibly humid and felt stifling. I actually came very close to fainting, and Craig and I had to exit early. I was very embarrassed as this was a sacred place to these people and I didn't want to be a distraction. Dr. N told me later that if I had fainted, they would have assumed that I had gone into a spiritual trance and it would have been interesting, haha.
After Craig and I left the inner sanctum, I felt much better, and so we started the rest of the tour before the others. There is one part where you go to this big cement pillar and wrap your arms around it. Since I am married, we both wrapped our arms around it at the same time. It is actually supposed to bless you with fertility. Then they wrap a scarf around you and you are done. We actually had to do it twice because spectators thought it was so interesting that a white couple was there and wanted to take pictures.
After that, we saw a few other gods and then left the temple.
Picture of people taking a picture:
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