Onam - best time to visit Kerala!

Kerala’s biggest festival – Onam brings 10 solid days of carnivals and celebrations this august. The water channels of Kerala come alive with high-spirited boat races and the main lands with royal marches of caparisoned elephants, music, dance, elaborate ‘onasadya’ meals brightly decorated temples and streets with serial-lights and flowers.

Onam is an ancient harvest festival which also celebrates the monsoons as well as the annual visit of Asura King Mahabali – during whose reign it is said that Kerala flourished. Onam is celebrated during the Malayalam month of Chingam (August-Septermber) and lasts 10 days.

‘Vallamkali’ or the snake-boat-race is the high-point of Onam where the main boat races are held in a 40-kms stretch on River Pamba – the third longest river of Kerala. Lengthy snake-boats (chundans) which hold fifty oarsmen each participate in ferocious races on all 10 days. These oarsmen not only paddle swiftly in perfect coordination, they also sing in perfect rhythm while they race to win. Each of these race-boats has 150 people aboard of which 125 are oarsmen; 4 are helmsmen and 25 are singers. Vallamkali epitomizes perfect team play and all it takes is one mistake of one oarsman to overturn the boat.

This is also what brings thousands of non-resident Keralites and other tourists to Kerala each year. You will find countless photographers and media perched on the banks of river Pamba struggling to get a clear shot of the racing snake-boats – standing amidst thousands of onlookers who themselves behave boisterously –cheering for the boats.

The rich Kerala cuisine cooked during the Onam days – the ‘Onasadya’ - comprises a lavish 9-course meal of 13 primary dishes - a veritable rainbow of colourful vegetables cooked in fresh and flavourful locally grown ingredients and served in fresh banana leaves. Onasadya is not only a convergence of culinary and cultural influences of centuries; it is also one of the most colourful and attractive displays of food in the world.

‘Onakalikal’ are games played on Onam with great fervor. This is one of the rare occasions where you would get to witness the martial arts of archery (ambeyyal); combat games (kayyankali); kabaddi (kutukutu); mask dances (kummattikali); dancing in tiger-like body-paints (pulikali); folk dances of women (thumbithullal & kayikottikali); and rugged ball games (talappanthukali) among other festivities.

‘Pookalam’ or traditional flower arrangements made on each morning in front of each house during the Onam days is another colourful representation of festivities in Kerala. Comprising 6-10 varieties of flower petals, the pookalam activity is a joyous event among the Kerala women folk all over the state. You would get to see some of the most creative and arty patterns and designs of flowers during Onam.

The dazzling parade of caparisoned elephants amidst incessant fireworks, music and drum roll all day is worth all the struggle of earning one spot among the thousands in the crowd alongside the parade route. More than 100 elephants parade the main streets of all the major towns of Kerala.

 

The Onam week has also been declared as the Tourism Week by the Kerala government so that other people can visit and enjoy the true essence of Kerala at the right time. And certainly, Onam is the best time of the year to visit Kerala!

Pix courtesy: Indianexpress, timesofindia, keralapix, loadtr, yahoogroups, fanimages, prinjuprasad.blogspot.

Hemis Festival in June 2012.

The largest Buddhist Institution in Ladakh – located in the highland town of Hemis at 11,000 feet altitude, 40 kms from Leh – the Hemis Monastery celebrates the birth anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava in a grand and elaborate annual 2-day festival held in the Hemis Monastery on 29^th & 30^th of June this year.

The high-point of the Hemis Festival is the performance in the Monastery courtyard by the Lamas of the Monastery – a Mask Dance which depicts the victory of good over evil. The brightly coloured costumes and large multi-coloured masks constitute the performers’ attire during the Hemis Festival Dances performances which stretch for two days. The over-sized and grotesque masks are the main aspects of the slow and graceful dance. Few other Lamas provide the music for the Hemis Festival with percussion instruments such as the drums, cymbals and long trumpets.

Guru Padmasambhava is also known as Guru Rinpoche and is regarded as the second Buddha by the followers of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism since the 8^th Century. Guru Padmasambhava is the first one to have introduced ‘Tantric Buddhism’ to people.

During the 2-day pageant, a 30-foot high painting of Guru Padmasambhava is displayed centre-stage. Several other performances, religious ceremonies and discourses and exhibition of Buddhist relics are a part of the Hemis Festival which is not only attended by the Buddhists from all over Jammu & Kashmir, it is also attended by the non-Buddhist locals of Hemis and Leh.

Tourism & Tour operators design tours of Leh which include a visit to the Hemis Monastery and its adjoining Hemis National Park (India’s largest National Park) during the Hemis Festival as this is the best time of the year to see Hemis. You will also find the media and photographers from all over the world witnessing to cover this event. Visitors of Hemis stay at Leh which is at 40 kms and do a day trip to Hemis.

In the backdrop of the Ladakh Mountains that overlook the Hemis town, the Hemis Monastery with its multi-coloured splendour gives a fascinating appearance and experience.

Pix courtesy: James Gritz, Baiyu, vkiran_2000 @ flickr, wikipedia & ABOUT.