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hosay and ramleela are two celebratory memorials within the indian community that take place around the same time of the year (september, october, & november) here in trinidad and tobago. there is a large indian (people from india) community here in trinidad. they make up about 45% of the total population and that number is still growing. i know what you're thinking... how did people from india find their way to the caribbean?
ok. so, when christopher columbus arrived, there were only natives here. they were the peaceful arawaks. they mostly all died from disease, and i found out that a lot of them committed suicide (by jumping off a cliff) because they would rather be dead than be slaves. so, the spanish brought in slaves from africa to do the work. after slavery ended, the black people didn't want to work the land anymore (and who could blame them?) and if they did, they would charge really high wages. so, the government brought in immigrants from india under an "indentured servant" system. so, what that means is a person would come here from india and would have to work a certain amount of years (like 7 years) for a certain planter as repayment for the trip here and for clothing, food, housing, etc. so.... it's basically slavery but with a time limit. however, some indians got tricked into coming here and sometimes got tricked into working for longer than their contract was supposed to be for. anyways, they came... and they stayed. and they celebrate hosay and ramleela.
hosay is a muslim commemoration of the death of iman hussein and his brother hassan, who were both grandsons of the prophet muhammad ("peace be upon him" [and you're supposed to say that every time you mention him... and i don't want no muslims mad at me). after the death of the prophet muhammad ("peace be upon him"), the selection of his successor (called a "caliph," ruler of the islamic world) created a rift in the muslim community... and i think this is one of the reasons why there is no peace in the middle east today. some muslims believed that caliphs should come from the prophet muhammad's ("peace be upon him") family. those people are called shiites. other muslims believed that the caliphs should be chosen by the elite of the middle east. they are called sunnis. so, hassan stepped down from the position of caliph after just being it for six months. a couple of years later, he was poisoned. after a couple of years, his brother, iman didn't agree with who had been chosen to be the new caliph, a guy named yazid, so he went to damascus to discuss his concerns. yazid issued an order to capture iman if he refused to honor him as the new caliph. so they fought. in the battle of kerbala, iman's party was attacked by yazid's army... they managed to not get captured and to defend themselves for 10 days before all of them were killed (except for the women and children). so, this battle and the deaths of the two brothers is what hosay memorializes. hosay lasts for 10 days in october once a new moon rises, and it begins with fasting (no meat, no grease, no alcohol, and NO SEX) and praying. they build large tadjahs.. which are like floats that look like muslim temples.. to represent the tombs and coffins of the brothers. they also build these two huge half-moons (one red, one green.. to signify the blood shed and the poisoning of the two brothers) which someone carries through the streets during a procession on the 9th night. afterwards, the tadjahs are taken to the sea and thrown away ("drowned"). and by the way, women are generally not allowed to take part in any of this (we can't even go into the yard where stuff is built)... and it's basically because of our periods. lame. -_- there's a lot more details that go into.. so, if it sounds interesting, i hope you google/youtube it! i think when it's celebrated in the middle east, people actually hit themselves in the head with swords.. blood and everything!!!
ramleela is a lot more fun though, and i think the disney version of this story is featured in one of my favorite films "a little princess." ramleela is a hindu reenactment/play. "leela" means story.. so ramleela means literally "ram's story." it is a REALLY LONG STORY.. and each section of the story is performed at night over 10 days. i'll try to make this as brief as possible. so....... the world is supposed to be a perfect balance between good and evil, but there's too much evil. so, the hindu god "vishnu" comes down to earth and is born as rama. rama is the ultimate good guy character. he marries sita, who is also a reincarnation of the hindu goddess "lakshmi." she is the highest ideal of womanhood.. which means pure and !obedient!. rama is supposed to inherit the throne, but one of his father's wives makes his dad banish him so that one of her sons can take the throne. so, rama, sita, and his younger brother, lakshmana, leave the kingdom of ayodhya and go into the forest. so, this nosey ugly chick, surpanakha sees rama, who is supposed to be hot by the way because he's the "ideal man," and she disguises herself into someone who is beautiful and tries to get it on with him, but he isn't having it. somehow, he ends up cutting off her nose. she goes back and tells her brother who just so happens to be ravana, this evil, immortal dude with 10 heads. he gets pissed and goes to kill rama... until he sees sita, who is beauitful. he figures out a way to steal her.... and so the great war begins between rama's army and lanka, the place where ravana is from and where he is hiding sita.
rama's army ends up building a bridge to lanka... and rama is able to shoot an arrow through ravana's only weak spot, his belly button. and so, he's able to kill ravana and get sita back. now... in the disney version, that's where the story ends. but HERE'S THE KICKER (to me anyways), after sita gets back, ravana makes her do something, i can't remember what, to prove that she was faithful to him the entire time she was gone cause she was with ravana for a really long time. i can't remember what it was that she has to do, but it is something ridiculous like engulf herself in flames or something. anyways, she does it and is unharmed so, rama takes her back. soon though, she gets pregnant. but... you know how everyone is!!! she was with ravana for a long time before being saved so they think that it's probably ravana's baby. and rama starts thinking it too... so he sends her away. she has twin boys alone, and when they are old enough, she sends them to rama. rama looks at the little boys and immediately recognizes them as his own. he goes back to sita and is all like "oh baby.. come back to me" and all that jazz... but sita is like "HELL NO, i had to prove myself to you not once... but twice." and immediately after she refuses him, the earth opens up and swallows her. WTF? lol.
and here's the true kicker... recently proof that the story might be true was discovered. you see... rama's kingdom, ayodhya is india... and ravana's kingdom lanka is the country sri lanka. and recently they found a man-made bridge that connects india to sri lanka... the bridge that rama's army apparently built to get to sri lanka to fight ravana. hindus in india are trying to get it preserved as a historical landmark through the U.N. because the government/private companies want to turn it into a canal for ships (like the panama canal). the government/businesses argue that it isn't the bridge from the story... that it's a geological occurrence and not man-made... i think they're just tryna make money! because, it definitely looks man-made to me.
india and sri lanka have beef though. and there's a whole bunch of racial stuff involved with it too. people from sri lanka are supposed to be darker than people from india... you know how it is.. the darker you are, the more evil and dumb you're supposed to be. so, when ramleela is performed in trinidad, the evil ravana is made dark. there is racial discrimination here.. but i'll get into that another day. it didn't used to be that way. and it used to be that women couldn't be in the play. they would have young boys with high voices play the female characters. but, now, it's an honor for young village girls to play sita... but if you're chosen to play her, you're supposed to be very virtuous in your real life and for the rest of your life... so, no parties EVER.
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after our lecture, we took a long bus ride to the caribbean indian museum. when we got there though, the damn museum was CLOSED. and, after a day of learning all of that interesting history, i really wanted to see that museum. it's kind of funny now, but at the time, i was thinking, "how you gone schedule us to go to the museum on a day it's not even open?" so.. we went to our next destination, the temple in the sea. years ago, this indian guy wanted to build a temple because i think there weren't any in trinidad at the time. the government wouldn't let him do it because they said all land was owned... or something like that. it was plain discrimination really. so, he was like "... well, no one owns the sea" so, everyday for months, when the tide was low, he would go out with bricks and sand and start filling in the ocean until he got enough land accumulated out in the sea to build a temple on it. it's an amazing story. it reminds me that i can't let other people tell me what i can and cannot do... i just got to figure out how to do it and then do it!!
there was also a temple nearby called the dattatreya mandir. i think it's a place of meditation.
after this, we were supposed to return home... but all the other students were making a big deal out of kenwyn's birthday, planning to take him out and other things. he talked them down to pizza, and from the beginning, i knew this all excluded me. i don't even know why i walked into the pizza hut with them... i had 148 TT$ total... that’s like $24 in the U.S. that’s U.S. broke. and i had to live on it for 6 days. i knew it was doable, but only if i practiced self-control. so... no pizza. i thought they were going to bring it back to the dorm, but somewhere along the way, going back to the dorm turned into going to the social club on campus. i don't really know what it is because i didn't go inside. i told the driver to go on and take me to campus...because i mean.. what am i going to do? watch people eat?
and really, the whole group thing is wearing me down. i hate being in groups. i never liked it. (even, when i was in kindergarten... and i was in the "green group," i was like, "you mean i have to go to the reading book module, computer module, play kitchen, AND building blocks with these same kids?!” lol). i find solace in being alone and privacy... a chance to think. in a group, is always "blah blah blah" because have u ever been in a group and it's completely silent..?? it's uncomfortable. so everyone is just talking talking talking all the time. there's no time for me to really look around and take in what's around me. and, i hate group work. anything non-physical a group can do, i'm almost certain i can do better and more efficiently by myself. and then, there's all these politics.. and i have never been a good campaigner. i can only do it for so long before i'm just like "forget it." there's no one else in our classes... no one else on our trips except for our social coordinators and their families... barely anyone else in our dorms... it's just the same group 24.7 doing activity.. after activity.. after activity....from the time i open my door... until the time i close it. it's become an ever so gentle-like nightmare.
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