India's flashpoint temple, off limits to women

SABARIMALA, India - The stage is set for a fresh showdown in India with traditionalists aiming to prevent women from gaining entry to the Sabarimala temple, one of Hinduism's holiest sites.

In September India's top court ruled that women of all ages could enter. But when it re-opened in October, hardliners stopped women from getting to the site.

Some 700 women are among the hundreds of thousands of devotees who have registered online to pray at the temple in a 2-month holy period that began on Saturday.

GOLD-PLATED

The gold-plated Sabarimala Sree Dharma Sastha Temple complex sits atop a 3,000-foot (915-meter) hill in a forested tiger reserve in the southern state of Kerala.

It contains a shrine to Lord Ayyappa, believed to have been the Earth-born son of 2 of Hinduism's 3 main gods, Vishnu (in his female avatar) and Shiva.

Legend has it that Ayyappa was found abandoned as a baby. A king of the Pandalam dynasty, which is still active in temple operations, found and raised him.

At 12 Ayyappa showed his divinity when he emerged from the forest rode a tigress. The boy fired an arrow which landed at the site where the temple now is.

NO SEX OR SHAVING

Those wishing to visit undergo a 41-day period of introspection and detachment -- vratha -- abstaining from sex, meat, intoxicants and even shaving.

After this period many devotees, wearing ritual bead necklaces, walk barefoot for dozens of kilometers including, and especially, the final steep climb.

The pilgrims now mostly take one of two routes -- one steep and short and the other easier but longer -- through dense forest to the top.

Only those who have observed the vratha and carry the irrumude, a symbolic offering, can enter the main courtyard up 18 divine golden steps.

The sacred offerings, tied in a cloth usually carried on the head or shoulders, include coconuts, rose water, rice and pepper.

Offerings are made by smashing the coconut at designated stops along the trek, chanting the mantra "Swamy Sharanam Ayyappa" ("God, I come to your feet").

MARRIAGE PROPOSAL

Legend says that the goddess Malikapurathamma asked Ayyappa to marry her. He said he would only do so once no first-time pilgrim visits him -- which has never happened.

Believers celebrate a festival each year when a procession of the goddess is taken to a spot close to the temple 3 times -- and she is forced to wait.

The reason for Ayyappa's refusal is because of his celibacy -- one of the arguments against allowing women of menstruating age to enter.

Currently, only females younger than 10 years old and over 50 can enter. Women can access most other Hindu temples in India.

LEGAL WRANGLINGS

The Supreme Court order is opposed by supporters of India's ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The September ruling was one a string of recent decisions to have eaten away at some of India's traditions, including outlawing a ban on gay sex and on adultery.

On November 13 the Supreme Court agreed to hear challenges to its decision from January 22, but said that until then its September ruling stood.

However, the board managing the temple is to ask the Supreme Court, likely on Monday, to be allowed to delay implementation, citing a "lack of infrastructure".

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Google launches digital tour of Cambodia's Angkor Wat

ANGKOR WAT -- Cambodia's Angkor Wat has been digitally mapped for the first time, allowing people to visit the World Heritage Site from the comfort of their armchair using Google Street View.

The project is part of a growing trend aimed at Internet users who might otherwise never have the chance to visit the cultural and architectural wonders of the world.

Google took more than a million photos of Angkor -- the result is 90,000 360-degree views of more than 100 temples.

Street View allows web users to zoom in on an area, and then explore.

"Recently we've done the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, Mount Fiji," said Manik Gupta, project manager at Google Maps.

"But the scale of Angkor Wat is what makes this unprecedented," he told AFP at the project's launch on Thursday.

"It is such an iconic place, people say it is the eighth wonder of the world, and it gives you this incredible sense -- look at every single small nook and cranny, you'll find art work."

The Angkor Archaeological Park contains the remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, dating from the 9th to the 15th century.

Cars, trains and trekkers

To create the project Google used a new innovation called "Trekker."

Fifteen digital cameras are attached by a long pole to a backpack, and each one records a 75 million mega pixel photo every two and a half seconds.

By walking around the Angkor Wat temple complex, they are able to photograph areas that Google's Street View cars cannot reach.

"Street View launched in 2007, and since then we've amassed a huge amount of experience. We've even used snow mobiles and trains, and Trekker is the latest tool," Gupta said.

Google Maps was launched in 2005, followed by Street View two years later and more recently Google Art, which provides tours of major galleries and museums.

For the latest project, five local men were tasked with trekking around the temples for up to eight hours a day, to record what many people say is the eighth wonder of the world.

A huge amount of Cambodia's heritage was destroyed during the Khmer Rouge regime in the late 1970s.

"If there is a country where this is needed the most, it is Cambodia," said Amit Sood, Google's director of cultural heritage, which is trying to bring as many international cultural artifacts online as possible.

"There is so much about Cambodia that is not known in the west, because it was erased, but Cambodia has a very rich cultural heritage."

Digitized museums booming

About 4.2 million tourists visited Cambodia last year, a 17 percent increase on 2012, the majority of whom visited the temple complex.

Sood believes that by having Angkor Wat online for people to enjoy, it will encourage more people to come to see the real thing, like with art galleries.

"All digitized museums are experiencing unprecedented growth. Physical attendance is booming," Sood told AFP. "There definitely isn't a negative effect."

But although Google offers a visual digital experience, allowing web users to spot things that would be easily missed by the naked eye, some visitors say that it could ruin the moment you see something for the first time.

"I wouldn't go see it on Google Street View before I went there," 21 year old Dutch backpacker Liesbeth Gerritsen told AFP in the shade of one of the long carved corridors at Angkor Wat.

"For me it is cooler to (come) and see it, and then look it up afterwards."

And travel experts believe nothing can truly replace experiencing something on your own.

"I can't imagine that seeing pictures online or a 360 view as presented by Google Maps would be a real substitute for actually going there," said Tom Sturrock, a Bangkok-based travel editor and writer.

"The online experience is never going to be an adequate replacement for actually being there when the sun comes up at Angkor Wat."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com