Brokefoot Mountain

It is difficult to put into words the happenings of last night in Thiruvanimalai, but I will do my best (I took very few photos because I didn't think it was appropriate nor did I think it would do the event justice).

First off, I'd like to give a piece of advice: never, under any circumstances, walk 13 miles barefoot on a concrete surface, if you have the choice that is. On the other hand, if you have no choice, try to do it as painlessly as possible. Last night I had no choice. I started walking around the mountain in the town of Thirvanamalai with my sandals on unil someone told me I was disrespecting the gods. So, I took off my sandals and walked the next 12.8 miles barefoot. By the end of the 13 miles, I could barely feel my legs, the arches of my feet were cramped and would not uncramp, and my mind was physically exhausted.

The best desciption I can give of what happened last night is that there was an all-indian half marathon where the racing suits were sari's and lungies, the people were barefoot, and where everyone was a winner, including the people, the gods, the vendors, the temples, the cows, and my friend Sati and I.

After a 2.5 hour bike ride through rice paddies, villages, moutains, and plains, we arrived in Thiruvanimalai at our palace, the Park Hotel, which costed $3 for the night. We were tired and heat-stricken so we took a one hour nap. Following this we headed to a restaurant to eat parotta and dosas with vegetable korma, onion raita, and a variety of chutneys, all of which were spread out on a giant banana leaf. After this snack and a chai, it was time to begin the night. First we went to the main-main temple (there are 5 main temples in the city)and went inside where we saw thousands of devotees who were praying, eating, socializing, and drinking (water), praying, sitting, meditating, sleeping, laying, relaxing, and praying. Next we decided to head outside into the streets and just start following the direction of people. This is where the 13 mile walk began. For the next 4 hours we follwed the 300,000 some-odd people around the mountain. We were shoulder-to-shoulder with people the entire time and we may have been the only westerners there. Every few minutes people would come to talk to us to see who we were and why we were there. "what country sir?", "why here sir?", "what do you do sir?", "married sir?", "sisters sir?", "you look smart sir", "do you know George Bush sir?". Those questions are the tip of the iceberg. Every 50 meters or less, for the entire 13 miles (20km) there was a temple (so, about 400 temples in total) which usually had a huge urn in front of it which was filled with a fire and which continued to remain lit by these styrofoam things (I think they were styrofoam) that people would throw into it. Most people stopped at each temple to pray. Every 10 meters or less there was a sadhu (holy man; search google images for 'sadhu' to see what a typical one looks like), a beggar, or a person with some kind of physical deformity who was begging for money. Every 15 meters there was someone selling chai, idli, parottas, dosas, snacks, drinks, popcorn, sweet corn, pakora, and bhajia. Most of these places also had chairs where you could rest. Along the 13 mile walk there were 6 small trucks with 5 blind men in each who played indian prayer music and who were trying to earn money for their cause. There were weird robots that had headphones hooked up to them and if you paid 5 rupees you could here the robot tell you about your life. There were palm readers, parrots who told fortunes, elephants that tapped you on the head to bless you, there was the smell of incense everywhere, and there were men, women, children, and grandparents as far as the eye could see. There were people selling food to give to the cows. There were shrines, temples, ashrams, and meditation centers along the way. Everyone seemed to have a purpose but also no purpose at all. The situation was surreal yet normal. There were moments or pure silence, moments of song, moments of laughter, and moments of loud cheering/screaming. The moon was full and was high in the sky the whole night. There was chaos but also organization. There were different places where food was being handed out to anyone who would wait in line. There were people selling goods, from bracelets to purses to incense to glass sculptures to I don't even know what. Everybody who was there was praying. The amount of spirit that was around this place last night must have been unbelievable. Everyone seemed posessed by a higher being but also still within themselves.

I mean, imagine 300,000 people walking around a mountain barefoot, praying at different temples along the way with everything I described above and some things I forgot to describe.....it was wild.

Sorry, but that's the best I can do. I may be forgetting things, actually I am forgetting things, but just think of crazy things and they were probably there.......my legs and feet still hurt today. Maybe I should have stretched first........


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