January 29th, 2021 With yesterday’s reverence, today we’re revisiting my post from 2013 about Thaipusam in Singapore, with updated and additional photos. Depending on when you’re reading this, pour yourself a cup of coffee, tea or wine. This is a lengthy post of first impressions, explanations and historical background of an event I knew nothing about at the time.
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January 28th, 2021 Today was Thaipusam in Singapore, hence the reason we’ve flown the magic carpet back to one of my favorite destinations. Thaipusam is an elaborate and deeply moving day of devotion in the Hindu religion. When I lived in Singapore, I attended it twice and will never forget the experience. On its surface, it can be shocking, hard
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November 23rd, 2020 After yesterday’s arrival at Uluwatu Temple, tonight we’re watching the Kecak Dance. The dance has an interesting origin as an adaptation of sanghyang, a repertoire of sacred dances in Bali — some of which are trance dances, during which a supernatural force enters the body of the performer(s). In the 1930s, German artist Walter Spies (visiting Bali
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October 30th, 2020 After several days exploring Death Valley, today we’re back on the magic carpet. I want to take you away to Singapore for an event happening this weekend. The Firewalking Festival at Sri Mariamman Hindu Temple begins early Sunday morning and will be broadcast online. I went to the temple and saw the early phases of the festival
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I am entirely new to the complex world of Hindu faith and deities, so explaining Thaipusam and the events of Sunday feels a bit like cramming hundreds of years of history into one comparatively minute composition. Impossible. I’ve been going at it for nearly two days – writing, researching, deleting, rewriting and here I am again revisiting the introduction. I
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