வேள்வி (Vaelvi)- A Ritual

A direct translation of the Tamil word ‘Velvi’ can have many different meanings. When used as a noun, it is a multi-step ritual/spiritual process to please or thank the god. When used as a verb, then it becomes more complicated. The process involves many steps, some of which are ultimate tests of human faith, endurance, and sacrifice.

The backdrop of this documentary is Kilinochchi, a centerpiece of around a three-decades-long brutal civil war in Sri Lanka.

The war claimed the lives of many thousands of people (accounted for and unaccounted for), and the majority are from Vanni, a collective region with several districts, including Kilinochchi. According to some statistics, there are approximately 86, 000 war widows in this region and several thousand children who have lost their parent/s.

According to some legends, a cobra was born to a couple in the region some 350 years back, then chased away by the couple for being too disruptive. The couple understood their mistake later on, and a voice in their dreams helped them find the snake at a different place in Jaffna, around 60km away. Realizing their mistake, they raised a temple for the cobra and started to go back to the original site where they found the snake and came back as a parade with offerings to the cobra temple.

Centuries passed, and the ritual is still alive. Thousands of Hindus from all over Sri Lanka and abroad visit this temple - Puliyampokkanai Nagathambiran Temple, for the annual festival. The routines are unchanged; the bullock cart parade remains the same even after many centuries, and the faith in the Cobra god grows.

Significant numbers of these people have lost their family members and relatives to the brutal civil war that lasted around three decades. Many of the members were unaccounted for or last seen alive, and many of the remaining family members were still hopeful that the missing persons would return home one day. In January 2020, roughly eleven years after the war ended, Sri Lanka’s president declared that the disappeared people were dead.

Villagers are waiting with the offerings for the small party of temple bullock carts which started the journey last night from another temple some 60km away.

'Thookku Kaavadi' is one of the most extreme level of the hindu worship. Usually this is part of the wish for better luck and blessing from the higher power. Multiple hooks pierce through the skin and the devotees hang from a larger platform which is then moved up and down, often aggresively during the latter stages. The platform is mobilised with the help of a tractor for long distance towards the temple.

Thousands of coconuts which were offered to the god were being splitted into half at the back of the temple. These will then be offered back to the devotees, while some endup as coconut chips to the kids hanging around here.

The roosters that were sold at an auction. Their fate remains unknown, and often unpredictable anyways when the contest is furious between the tastebuds and faith.

The birds collected as offerings during the journey are being sold at an auction near a village market en-route to the temple.

At certain locations the temple party and the followers are being greeted by servings of hot lunch consisting rice and curries on banana leaves. These free meals are some of the most important part of majority of the hindu festivals.

Meanwhile at the main temple free meals are being prepared to an extent that will feed hundreds if not thousands of devotees.

$Often the rituals end up unexpectedly. Here a devotee just fainted while hanging on hooks. I once saw a man rushed into an emergency department where I worked as a medical officer with multiple fractures in all four of his limbs afte a fall from a s$

Often the rituals end up unexpectedly. Here a devotee just fainted while hanging on hooks. I once saw a man rushed into an emergency department where I worked as a medical officer with multiple fractures in all four of his limbs afte a fall from a similar structure.

Meanwhile the temple party is traveling through rough terrain , dried up rivers, and uninhabited lands which were once the prime war zones during the decades long civil war in the region. After a day long journey the carts will finally reach the temple roughbly around the night fall.

Villagers arriving to the temple in trailers connected to the tractors. This is a well established and cost effective method to transport large number of people in the region.

With the passing time the temple premises becoming more chaotic with heaps of devotees getting concentrated in one small place.

As the night falls the rituals turn to their peak intensity. A pretty confusing visual and auditory treat for the onlookers.

A child was given to the men hanging on the hooks. Hopefully with the trust on the energy of the tired man the child will pendulate for several cycles which equates to him being actually performed the ritual.

It is believed that at an auspicious time during the festival the cobra finally arrives at the holy tree inside the temple. While there were numerous accounts to claim that it actually happens often closer to midnight, sometimes it is not just the case in certain years. However majority of the people strongly believe that the cobra is still living in the tree.

Devotees keeping the offerings around a tree where the holy cobra lives and prey for a best future, and the answers for the past.

By around 9pm the rituals are still continuing and will do so for many hours to come. It was a test of the human endurance towards higher faiths.

A young Kavadi dancer at the festival.

Significant numbers of these people have lost their family members and relatives to the brutal civil war that lasted around three decades. Many of the members were actually unaccounted or last seen alive and many of the remaining family members still being hopeful that the missing persons will return home one day. In January 2020, roughbly eleven years after the war has ended, the president of Sri Lanka declared that the missing people are actually dead.

Fire plays an important role in Hindu worships. It resembles energy and people continued to put camphor so the fire will continue, thus the collective energy.