Mauritius 3, Hinduism
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Tue 27 Oct 2015 21:35
| There is a very visible Hindu presence on the island and huge amounts of effort and money are being expended erecting garish temples and shrines all over the place. This overt display seems to be of recent origin as the Indian population have been on the island for over a hundred years but there seem to be no old temples. We’re not sure what’s going on, but i hope it’s not in response to a more assertive Muslim influence elsewhere in the world. VS was in Mauritius for the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi when models of Lord Ganesh, the Hindu elephant-headed god, are for some reason immersed in the nearest convenient body of water. In the modern context this means huge crowds lining the beaches and watching Ganesh models being taken out to sea in speed boats crewed by young men and dumped overboard. It makes about as much sense as any other religion I guess.   On the top of the island are some truly amazing shrines. Here are two gods, I know not which:   The scale of these things is incredible - look at the flight of steps to the right of the first guys feet, or the normal-sized builders’ scaffolding enveloping the statue on the right. And leading up to these characters, who are right on the very top of the island, is this simply enormous processionally route with the adjacent two lane road giving scale:  Sadly these pictures just serve to demonstrate how little (nothing) the crew know of one of the world’s biggest religions. |