kannur

i have been residing in kannur : "ur" = place of; "kan" = baby krishna --> or more commonly, the place of krishna. this 'modern' indian city is quite nice - suprisingly green, relatively clean, and rather well off. for the past several weeks i have been completely absorbed in my course and training in ayurvedic massage and panchakarma therapy. when i am not busy with theory class, practicals, studying, or practicing - i am off exploring the surrounding areas and shopping in the crazy network of streets that comprise the market.

i am sharing a house with an amazing hungarian couple: Robert and Csheela, and also Hiro, a japanese boy who has been looking after the house for Mika (who owns the house, and is presently in japan). Hiro's friend, Ciril, has befriended us, and basically helps with everything. he has taken us to adikadilai beach - which is pristine and private (read: western swimwear allowed!), and also trekking to a waterfall in a river on the boarder of karnataka, where we saw signs of elephants and spent the afternoon just sitting in the cool water, splashing and laughing and singing and sharing about our countries. he also took us to mutthapan- a unique religious ritual found only near kannur - which entailed an elaborately painted man dancing around in trance and acting out a scene from the upanishads - who then channeled a diety. at this point in the ritual all the attendees came up for darshan and to speak to the god about their problems. it was really very beautiful and quite moving - the energy was potent and tangible. this weekend i plan to attend a larger ritual (the one i mentioned was very small, maybe 40 attendees) which apparently marks the end of the theyyam season. theyyam is a similar ritual - involving trance dancing, prayer, acting out of mythological stories, elaborate head dresses, fire walking/rolling, and these last ALL NIGHT LONG. the best part is usually around 5 am, where the ritual peaks in intensity. both of these rituals are accompanied by drumming the entire time.

my course is comprised of one french woman, a man from portugal, 3 saudi's, the hungarian couple, and a young doctor (BMS) from goa. together we have explored the theory and history of ayurveda, and i think that i actually understand the tridosha concept! really! however, a month is really a VERY short amount of time to spend learning all this, and i can completely see why india requires 5 years of study to recieve a BMS (their degree of ayurvedic doctor). ive only barely scratched the surface of a ginormous pluton of information - rich in texture and stunningly deep.

one interesting thing i learned in class when we were discussing the history of ayurveda, is how the buddha died. due to the buddhsit belief in non-harming, the use of surgery in ayurvedic medecine declined. the surgical techniques that they had developed were top notch - they preformed brain/crainal surgery as well as cosmetic surgery (changing the shape of the nose and ears) thousands of years ago. however, the buddha developed an infection in his anus, where a new channel is created by infection going from a hole or wound in the colon through the muscle tissue in the butt. you end up with two holes then, where waste material moves through. obviously, the infection-caused channel is quite painful (and i think can be fatal), and one way of healing it is by taking a medicated string and passing it up through the channel and then down through the rectum and out the anus. you continue this process until the string will no longer go up through the channel, which indicates that it is healing and has closed off. this is what the buddha was prescribed, however he did not follow the doctor's orders and perished.



regarding PHOTOS: i have selected the best representations, and have posted them all on facebook, where the format is much easer to deal with and view, so please, if you wish to view them navagate to(three different albums):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109821&l=85520&id=527995523
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=98918&l=d01aa&id=527995523
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=104798&l=4eb15&id=527995523