Temples

Salangai Poojai at Iraivan Temple, Path Timelapse

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Young budding bharatanatyam dancers from the Hawaiian island of Oahu, flew to Kauai with their teacher and parents so they could perform the Salangai Pooja at Iraivan Temple. Sarithra and Piyusha are fourth and fifth graders and officially received their bell anklets today from their teacher acharya, Dr. Janani Lakshmanan. They were accompanied by special guest dancer, Kavya Bhagawatula. The family prepared a beautiful pamphlet to commemorate the occasion. Below is a description of the Salangai Poojai from the pamphlet–

“A Salangai Poojai is a sacred milestone in classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam. It is the auspicious ceremony where a student receives and wears their salangai (ankle bells) for the very first time, symbolizing their readiness to transition from a beginner to a practicing dancer. In Bharatanatyam, the salangai is treated as a divine instrument of the art which consists of small metallic bells tightly woven onto a cotton or leather strap. The ringing bells are said to awaken the divine energy within the dancer and connect their rhythm to the cosmic rhythm of Lord Nataraja (the Lord of Dance).

“The event usually takes place on an auspicious day at a temple or a dance studio, often in front of family, friends, and invited guests. The ceremony begins with an invocation (usually a pooja dedicated to Lord Ganesha) to remove obstacles from the dancer’s journey. The ankle bells are placed on the altar and blessed through sacred chants. The Guru (teacher) personally ties the salangai onto the student’s feet. This highly symbolic act represents the passing down of knowledge, tradition, and the Guru’s blessing. After the bells are tied and the Guru grants their final approval, the dancer gives their first performance indicating the dancers ability to match rhythm. The Salangai Poojai remains a soulful, spiritual celebration of the teacher-student bond and the dancer’s lifelong commitment to the art.”

Here is a short clip of their dancing today–

We also just received this short timelapse created by drone footage of the concrete path recently constructed around Iraivan Temple. It is best viewed as a visual representation of the process rather than a frame-by-frame record of the actual construction sequence.

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Nitya Shankaran’s Final Days on Taskforce

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As Nitya Shankaran Mogan comes toward the end of his taskforce stay, he is spending about a week helping out the Minimela staff in the mornings. Here he is at the cashier desk, being efficient with time by making more bracelets in between visitor purchase inquiries. He also shared a couple of the photos he took over the last few weeks.

Thank you Nitya for your tireless service for a month.

  • Finished bracelets and other items on display
  • Nithya took this photo during the Iraivan Samvatsara Puja
  • Nithya took this sunrise photo from the back porch of our taskforce residence
  • A clear day this morning before heavy rains are forecast starting this afternoon through tomorrow

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Mahasivaratri Preparations

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Below are some of the preparations for Mahasivaratri night at Iraivan Temple, plus today’s morning golden light on Kadavul Temple dhvajastambha.

  • Bilva leaves collected for pujas
  • Tent for coffee and tea, and prashadam at the end
  • Wind and rain protection, just in case
  • Garlands just arrived

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Iraivan Northwest Corner Buildup

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The ground-level perimeter of Iraivan is planted with two types of grass, separated in the middle by paver stones that form a pradakshina path. One can perform the circumambulation walking on the stones or on the light green short grass next to them. For a while now, the northwest corner of this grassy area and paver stones has been sunken, accumulating mud and standing water. We are now in process of rectifying this. Paver stones in the corner were removed and dirt brought in to raise the area. A pipe was placed under the new dirt to help channel water around the corner and away. When our employee returns to work, he’ll finish re-installing the paver stones.

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Kadavul Guestbook, and Sadhu Paksha begins

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Morning sunrise at Shanmuga Banyan

The first two weeks of April, August and December are called Sadhu Paksha here in the Aadheenam, during which the monks have a individualized early morning routine. We can do personal sadhanas on various parts of the grounds, and catch up on extra rest if needed.

For many years we had a handwritten guestbook in Kadavul Temple for visitors to leave their contact information if they wished. We consider the email address as the most useful information, as we can conveniently send a followup note sharing our services some time after they visit. While handwriting is consider quaint these days, we often find the letters written to be questionable at best, and illegible at worst. Too much time was spent trying to decipher email addresses, not to mention typing them into a computer list in the first place. Also, many people did not leave a email address at all. We finally decided to switch to a digital guestbook, which not only encourages correct spelling and is fully legible, but allows us to simply copy all the email addresses for a given period and paste into a followup note.

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Kadavul Temple Reroofing Begins

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  • Reroofing begins
  • Tiles passed down to scaffolding…
  • Moved along more scaffolding…
  • Then pushed across this beam…
  • into the dump trailer

After protecting Kadavul Temple’s wooden roof from the elements for about 40 years, it’s finally time to remove the monier tiles, which had begun to crack here and there, causing some water damage underneath. They will be replaced with shingle tiles after conducting any necessary repairs of the wood ceiling beams underneath and placing a new layer of thick plywood and tar paper. As can be imagined, this project causes quite a disruption to the flow of visitors who normally attend puja and mill about throughout the mornings. To be fully on the safe side, we have shut down public access to the temple and surrounding area for the duration of the project.

Yesterday was the first day of work for the contracted team. The first photo shows how much tile they have removed from one side (under the blue tarp). The job is estimated to last a couple weeks or longer, pending discovery of needed repairs or weather issues. Just today, it rained a fair amount (needed by plants after a dry spell), so the workers can only resume when that stops.

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