Carly the God of Punishment

Today we were driving down the street, and saw what looked like a parade coming towards us. Wipul, (our very sweet and imformative guide and driver) told us that it was a religious celebration and sacrifice to the Hindu Gods. As the group of 60 or so people got closer and closer, we could see two young men tied up to large wooden frames with strings pulling from the frames, which were attached to their bodies. The men were bound by their hands and feet to the frame, and there were about 50 hooks (like rusty fishing hooks) attached to many parts of their torso and legs. They were bleeding and it was shocking. I’ve never seen anything like this in person. Wipul said that it was a Hindu celebration and a sacrifice, and that any man who wanted to become a Hindu priest had to take part in this ritual. Wipul went on to say that it could be very dangerous too, as the young men could get infected from dirty hooks that weren’t sterilized and sometimes picked up disease and even died from events such as this. What seemed like such a colorful lively event from far away was grim and harsh up close and I was very grateful that Luna didn’t fully grasp what she was seeing out her window.

So often, you come to a tropical place like this, and hole up in a hotel resort on the beach and don’t get to see what life is really like. Many people here still live in villages with outhouses, little or no running water, limited electricity, etc. We went on an adventure the other day where we were able to take a jungle wooden catamaran through a marshy area to the agricultural areas just off the water. While we were on the boat, we were in a marshy area where there were giant lily pads all over the place. The men rowing the boat scooped up the lily pads and created Peter-Pan looking hats for us, complete with purple flower “feathers”. They even made Luna and I necklaces from water lilies and other plants. Luna loved this- as she felt like we were all dressed as fairies! She was being so imaginative and began seeing fairies all over the place in this magical land.

When our boat ride ended we arrived at the farm and saw them growing watermelon, banana, gourds and onions on public land they reclaimed from the jungle (for free from the government). Each night, one person from the village stays on to make sure that the crops aren’t destroyed by wild boar or wild elephants. They stay perched out in lookouts at least 30 feet up in the trees on a platform. They need to chase wild animals out each night! We drank coriander tea at a woman’s home from coconut shells. After tea, we took an ox cart ride, which Luna didn’t like at all because they had a switch and the farmer was smacking the oxen at moments. From there, we went and had a traditional lunch at a mud hut, and we were able to see how the average woman makes dinner in Sri Lanka. She sat on the floor of the hut, and made curry and chopped vegetables, hulled the rice and cooked it all in front of us. We ate the food with only our hands (no utensils used here) and it was really quite tasty. We are noticing that Luna is really watching things now too. She is observing and learning from the things that we are seeing and when we left lunch, she took my hand and said, “Mama, now I see why Nashville is so special.”

For the last few nights, we’ve stayed at some very interesting places. We’ve been at a place in the middle of the jungle where there were wild animals all over the place. Go to dinner, a snake falls from at tree. Walk past a wild peacock on the way to breakfast, see a 4 foot lizard hanging out in the sun. One afternoon, Luna and I sat in our bungalow and watched a group of monkeys push their baby monkeys into the canopy below us- you could practically here them scream out “wheeeeee!” We stayed at a working farm one night this week and we were able to take a tour to see cocoa, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, coconuts, and so much more growing in huge fields. Although we use many of these things on a daily basis at home, we’d never seen pepper corns growing, or seen how cinnamon was cultivated by scraping bark off trees. It was really amazing to see everything. Luna loved seeing the cows and chickens, pineapple plants and mango trees.

There are Buddhist and Hindu temples and mosques everywhere here. Luna has been a trooper seeing them, but is also getting a bit tired of going into them. After our last one she said, “I like the temples, but I’m done with them. I don’t want to see anymore. Bleh.” Wipul recently asked us if our names had specific meanings in the US. We told him that they were more nostalgic than anything else. He said that here when you have a child, you go see an astrologer and based on the baby’s chart, they give you letters that would bring the child luck and good fortune in life, and you create a name based on those. He also said that Carly is the Hindu God of Punishment. If you want someone to be punished, you go and pray to her to ask her to punish someone. She also doles out punishment based on what she thinks is right and wrong. As a parent, I sometimes to feel like the God of Punishment. We laughed out loud when Wilpul told us all of this- perhaps not the best name to have in a place with Hindu people? As we were leaving a temple today, Luna and I were talking about all of the hundreds of Hindu Gods, and how belief systems are different all around the world. Luna looked at me and said, “Grandpa’s definitely a God, because he’s got lots of magic!”