Today, I caught the bus outside of town to Alagar Koyil ('koyil' means 'temple'). The busride was long and crowded; most of the passengers on the bus were pilgrims heading out to the temple as well.
The bus stopped at the base of mountain road leading up to the temple. I hopped out ahead of the crowd to begin the ascent upwards. The sun beat down ferociously from above so I tied my Khmer scarf around my head for protection. After walking for a few minutes, I passed a Dravidian man who was also making his way up the mountain. He looked at me quizzically and asked me something in Tamil. All I could do was just look at him. He gestured and seemed to be a bit agitated about something. What could I do? I just looked at him, cocked my head and smiled. He smiled in return and then wandered into the shade to sit down, muttering something to himself.
It was only a bit later that I figured out he was probably trying to tell me that the hot asphalt road I was walking along was primarily intended for those making the ascent by bus, car or motorcycle. The path for those on foot was down below, under the shade of the trees. Oops.
After winding my way down a small trail from the main road to the footpath, things were markedly less hot. Families, couples and groups of young boys walked laughing and joking up the mountain.
And then there were the monkeys.
Lots of aggressive, crazy looking monkeys, all keenly watching us humans for signs of food and any hints of weakness. Heading up the mountain, I saw monkeys swoop down a couple of times on little kids and then run off, leaving the kids crying and minus whatever food it was they had been carrying. These attacks prompted me to spend a few minutes searching around for a nice, long walking stick (to whoop some monkey ass should any decide to step).
As I neared the top of the mountain, I noticed a number of men and boys passing me on their way back, all with freshly shaven heads covered in some type of yellowish paste.
At the top of the mountain road, I removed my shoes along with everybody else for the final climb up the steps to the temple. The temple was covered in monkeys hopping around its edges, scooping up puffed rice and other food dropped upon the ground and steps. Inside, devotees descended down to an area where they walked through showers of water from the sacred waterfall at the heart of the temple. Where the head shaving happened, I never quite figured out.
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