Dear Church Family and Friends,
On June 3rd, I board a plane to India where I will spend three weeks. I have been invited to lecture for two of those weeks at United Theological College in Bangalore. This ecumenical seminary is nearly a hundred years old and has an outstanding reputation for being well-grounded in a progressive theological orientation. While I am there, I will be lecturing on two subjects: Christian social movements and liberation preaching.
Follow this link for the latest video update on July 5th…
For years, my father has traveled to India to give lectures on an Indian mathematician named Srinivasa Ramanujan. Ramanujan lived from 1887 to 1920. Due to his amazing genius, his works are still plumbed for their riches, while India has a national holiday celebrating him. As it happens, my father will be lecturing in India as well in the coming weeks. Before I begin my lectures, I will join my father for a week as a tourist traveling to the historic sites and temples of cities such as Mysore and Chennai.
For those of you unfamiliar with India, let me give a brief sketch of the cities that I will be visiting. Bangalore is the fastest growing metropolitan area in Indian and is currently its third largest city with roughly 5,300,000 inhabitants. It is familiar to many in the United States for its call centers, but is also known as the technological capital of India or “the Silicon Valley of India.” Fortunately for me, it is also known for its relatively mild climate.
Mysore is a unique city known for its impressive palace, its unique art, and its stylish silk saris. (Perhaps, I will find a gift for Eunita there!) Chennai was formerly known as Madras. It is now India’s fifth largest city with roughly 4,500,000 inhabitants. It is known as the musical and cultural capital of India. The Oscar winning composer behind the soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire was once called the “Mozart of Madras” by Time magazine. Chennai is also known for its many Hindu temples.
I am grateful for the opportunity our church has given me to travel to India. I hope to share with you the knowledge I gain from my travels upon my return.
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Brooks
June 30th – Video of Mamallapuram
Hi everyone,
Not far from Chennai is the coastal village of Mamallapuram (watch the video, length 5:07). This is the home of a number of ancient ruins. These ruins date to the 7th and 9th centuries. The tsunami of 2004 apparently had a devasting impact on the village. The tsunami also uncovered parts of an ancient port city as well as parts of a temple.
There may at one point have been more temples. A British traveler in 1789 mentioned there being “seven pagodas.” One of our hosts said that until the tsunami two of the seven still existed, but the tsunami washed one of them away.
A couple of notes about what is seen…
I describe one of the two lighthouses as modern. It was actually built around 1900, but that is relatively recent compared to the other.
Part of the film includes a narration of a rock carving by our host. His accent may be hard to understand, but he is indicating that Vishnu is laying on a bed that is actually a serpent. The serpent in turn is floating on a lake composed of milk.
June 30th – Video of Temple in Madurai
Hi everyone,
For one of my weekends, I visited the city of Madurai. Madurai has a population of at least 1.2 million people. It is known for its Sri Meenakshi Temple complex (watch the video, length 4:44). The temple was designed and built in the 16th and 17th centuries after an earlier temple had been destroyed by Muslim invaders in the 14th century.
A few details about what is seen:
1) The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and the Goddess Parvati. Specifically, it is dedicated to them when they were in the form of Sundarswarar and Meenakshi. According to legend, Shiva came down to earth in the form of Sundareswarar to marry Meenakshi, an incarnation of Parvati. The marriage was supposed to be the biggest event on earth with the whole world gathering near Madurai.
1) There are a total of 12 towers in the temple. Four of these are large towers with the largest one being 170 feet tall. Each of the towers has a number of statue figures on it. One has as many as 1,511 figures of dieties, mythical animals, etc. The figures maintain their bright colors because they are repaired, repainted, and reconsecrated every 12 years.
2) One of the rooms is full of pillars. To be exact, there are 985 decorated columns.
3) The Golden Lotus Tank is a place where devotees can bathe themselves in holy water. I only saw one person dip into the water, however. The area around this tank was the meeting place of the TamilSangam – the ancient academy of poets. This academy judged the worth of any work of literature presented before it by throwing it into the tank. Only those that did not sink were considered worthy of attention.
4) Near the end, I show a statue of an elephant god and a mouse. The elephant god is Ganesha. He is thought to be the son of Shiva and Parvati.
June 30th – Video of Seminary in Madurai
Hey everyone,
On one of my excursions, I visited a seminary in Madurai (watch the video, length 6:36) where I spent the night and chatted with various professors during the day. This seminary is by far the most progressive and socially active seminary I have ever encountered. They have a number of programs focused on particular areas of social concern: dalit struggles, women’s issues, prison ministry, rural agriculture, etc.
Students actually spend time living in rural villages where their homes lack bathrooms and electricity. For a period, they do organic farming to get a sense of the labor their parishioners endure on a daily basis. They additionally spend time living in urban slums.
Students from different Protestant denominations attend here. As you will see at the end of the clip, I stayed at a guest house made possible by the UCC’s United Church Board for Homeland Ministries.
June 16th – Video of National Park
Hi everyone,
During part of my stay here, I spent the night at Bandipur National Park, a wildlife reserve. While we were there, we got to see wild boar, monkeys, fleeing white spotted deer, elephants, peacocks, and termite hills. There are also tigers on the reserve, but we did not get a chance to see any of them.
(watch the video, length 2:38)
The monkeys at the park were professional bandits. They were very aggressive in trying to steal food from us. They knew exactly what to look for. If they saw you carrying a bag close to the ground, they would run by and try to swipe it. One monkey entered our car and began rumaging through my father’s bag in search of food. Another monkey stole a bag of our apples. Nevertheless, so long as they were not harrassing us, the monkeys were fun to watch as they played with each other.
June 16th – Breakfast Video
Hi Everyone,
(Here is a video, length 0:47) I took at breakfast recently. A common breakfast food is Masala Dosa. There are different varieties of it. Typically a dosa is like a pancake, except it does not have eggs in it. There is one type of dosa that is thicker and is made mainly of onions. In this video, I ordered a paper dosa. This means that the dosa is extra-thin. The dosa is wrapped around a spicy potato mixture.
All the best,
Brooks
June 16th – Video of Market and Street Scenes
Hi everyone,
This video should give you a sense of some of the daily life of India. In addition to capturing part of the market in Mysore, I taped some scenes captured while riding in the car. On our way to Bandipur National Park, we pulled over to buy cocunuts from which to drink.
(watch the video, length 4:32)
Driving in India is a distinct cultural experience which is hard to capture on video. Part of the experience is that there are animals roaming everywhere. It is common to see cows, goats, and sheep on the roads. The cows seem rather oblivious to the cars. They don’t mind wandering across the road or laying down in the middle. Locals jokingly refer to the cows on the road as “brake inspectors.” Here I have captured a video of goats being herded down one of the roads on which we drove.
All the best,
Brooks
June 11th – Update from Mysore
Yesterday, I travelled with a friend to visit the town of Sravanabelagola (the Monk of the White Pond). In this town is Vindhyagiri Hill. At the top of this hill is a 17.5-Meter high statue of the Jain deity Gomateshvara. He is also known as Bahubali. This statue is claimed by some to be the world’s largest monolithic statue. (watch video, length 5:47)
One must climb 614-steps cut out of rock to reach the top. One cannot wear shoes. However, socks are permitted when the rocks are hot. I wore socks, but my friend Tim braved it without socks.
A couple of notes of explanation: (1) at the beginning of the video, you may briefly see someone being carried in a chair. Those who do not want to climb the steps themselves can hire a “dholi,” a portable chair, that is carried by bearers for 150 rupies. That is about $4. (2) For a brief moment, you will see a silver statue of a Jain teacher. This is inside a temple about two-thirds of the way up. There was a “guide” who showed us these statues. He allowed me to video tape him, but I could not hear the audio, so I reduced this portion of the tape to just showing the silver statue. (3) Jainism was founded around the same time as buddhism by Mahavira. Like buddhism, it formed in opposition to the Hindu caste system. (4) Every 12 years, millions come to the statue of Gomateshvara for a ceremonial festival that involves pouring all kinds of fluids, pastes, powders, and precious metals over the statue. According to our host, wealthy Jains dump ghee over the statue with helicopters. Here is a picture of the covered statue:
June 8th – Update from Brooks
The pride of Mysore is its palace. An earlier palace was burnt to the ground in 1897. This one was designed by an English architect named Henry Irwin. It was completed in 1912 at the cost of 4.5 million rupies. (Sorry, I can’t tell you what that would have been in dollars at the time.)
Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed inside the palace. The inside had these incredibly high stained glass ceilings. I believe the stained glass came from Scotland. Almost every doorway had detailed carvings made out of rosewood. In one case, however, the doors were made out of silver and had intricate designs.
Apparently, there is still a prince alive who lives in part of the palace. He is a very old man at this point. It is my understanding that he will be the last prince to live in the palace.
Note: During part of this video, you might hear me debating with an Australian gentleman in our group whether or not the Maharajah was a puppet ruler for the British similar to Herod being a Jewish ruler in the Roman Empire. Perhaps, the dynamics were different. Nevertheless, inside the palace, a large painting of King Edward seemed to suggest I might have been on the right track in drawing this comparison. My tour guide book also adds that a British official called the Resident “closely watched” over the Maharajah and was “the British de facto governor” for this area and others.
June 7th – Update from Mysore
A lot gets lost in translation here despite our hosts speaking English. I will need to do more research at a later date to fully understand everything I saw at the temple seen in this video.
Nevertheless, as I peered down the hallway of doors inside the temple and saw the golden statue of the goddess, I felt a “hush” of the sacred that was unlike anything I have experienced. I would attribute this in part to Hinduism being an aesthetically superior religion to Christianity. Or, maybe my reaction simply reflects the newness of it all.
In the area separating myself from the goddess, there were priests dressed in robes taking offerings such as garlands of flowers to the goddess. The sacredness of the temple was apparently protected by the requirement that one not take pictures inside or wear shoes inside. Still, one could buy sweets in the temple after viewing the goddess. Outside of the temple one could also buy postcards of the goddess. I will see if I can get some before I go.
On Thursday, we are planning to do the hike up the hill to the temple.
June 5th – Update from Bangalore
Pastor Brooks has arrived in India. On his first day, he met his father who is delivering math lectures at a conference. The conference is being held outside of Bangalore at a technology campus for the Infosys corporation. Here is Pastor Brooks’ first attempt at using a video camera to record his new surroundings. Tomorrow I head to Mysore. Hopefully, I will get some good shots of their palace.