Making Faces: Self and Image Creation in a Himalayan Valley

Epilogue

103 THE CONSECRATION OF OBJECTS IS NOT MUCH different from the consecration of spaces and structures. The various components of ceremony and ritual remain more or less the same for the part as for the whole. As I was unable to witness the consecration of either mohra or chhatri while I was in Himachal, I conclude with an account of the consecration of a new temple building for an old god in Kullu. Preparations had started weeks and months in advance of the date, with local families being contacted to participate in the sharing of ritual space and ceremonial expense: for most people it is a special honor to contribute silver and gold, food and festive paraphernalia for such an event, a privilege to participate more intimately in the feting and feasting of the local deity. The day began early, and people from near and far arrived at the premises in the small hours of the morning. Many had walked miles, others traveled by bus or car, though the largest component of the crowd was from the town and vicinity of Kullu itself. I was invited to the ceremony by a local patron, who picked me up at my hotel at 4:30 a.m. We walked past the bazaar and up the higher fork in the road, then past a school, to the new site of the temple. The foundation was already laid, the plinth completed in readiness to receive the superstructure. The consecration ceremony of this new site involved the ritual raising of the door frame, the portal to the future abode of gods. As the crowds gathered on the terracelike verandah, gods on palkhis began to trickle in from neighboring temples and towns (figures E.1 and E.2). By 6:00 a.m. the guests— divine and human—had all arrived, and the ceremony began. This temple in Kullu is one of few where the oracle of the deity is also its priest—a man from the brahmin caste. EPILOGUE 104 Epilogue (More frequently, the priest belongs to the brahmin caste, while the oracle is from the shudra caste.) As the auspicious hour approached, he changed from civilian garb to ceremonial attire, tying a saffron dhoti around his waist, topped by a waist garment of coarse, unbleached wool, pleated all around and held in place with a long cord of dark wool. He loosed his long hair, otherwise tied in a knot, and began the service by feting and honoring the visiting gods, all those mohras on palkhis that represented deities from surrounding areas who had come to celebrate the establishment of a temple for one of their kin. The air filled with chants and the heavy swirl of incense smoke as this first round of worship was initiated (figure E.3). Once all the gods had been appropriately welcomed, the actual ceremony of consecrating the plinth and the doorway of the new temple could begin. A sacrificial sheep—a robust, unsheared creature—was brought Figure e.1. Crowds of people, gods on palkhis, all on the verandah of the new temple Epilogue 105 forward just as the carved and polished parts of the doorway were being assembled on the plinth by local artisans (figure E.4). Accompanied by a deep rumble of incantation and very loud music, the sheep was passed over and around the portal three times before being swiftly slaughtered. Its blood was sprinkled near the threshold, followed by further chants and prayers (figure E.5). The animal sacrifice was meant as a cleansing of the ground soon to be hallowed by gods. Both priest and crowd then returned to the terracelike verandah, Figure e.2. A visiting deity being feted Figure e.3. The priest in ritual attire, greeting visiting deities Epilogue 107 the chants growing in pitch and tempo. The crowd fell into a large circle around him as the priest fell into a trance, his body shaking and trembling by turns. People stood four to eight deep in a large circle about 20 feet in diameter with the priestas -oracle at the center of the crowd, immersed in a slow, captivating dance. Another elder from the community, also attached to the temple and its deity, entered the center of the circle and joined in the dance, mimicking the priest’s movement at times, mirroring it at...