on the road: women preparing a colored powder decoration, with symbolic patterns, for a marriage celebration.
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we spent one night at a village in koraput district. it happened to be the end of the mourning period for an old man, who died 10 days before, and a pig was sacrificed for the occasion. the sacrifice was held in front the deceased man's house, with no reference to the sacred tree at the village entrance. several different clans live in this village, but only the deceased man's clan participated, together with relatives that came from another village.
warning: some pictures below show explicit killing and blood. if you are uncomfortable with such things, you can skip to the pastoral scenes on the next page:views.
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first, the pig was fed with rice on a banana leaf.
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several people from the clan participated in the feeding. the pig had enough, but it was forced to eat more.
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on the deceased man's balcony, the women of the clan were wailing. the crying was loud, expressive and rythmical, and gave the impression of following a fixed formula.
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the widow threw herself in a trance-like state on the pig, beating it violently and shouting at it.
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then the pig was slaughtered, his blood collected in a coconut shell, and the head put on the banana leaf.
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palm sap liquor was poured from a metal cup on the head, and then the men of the clan took their turns drinking.
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the head, blood and body were taken away, and prepared for a meal. meanwhile, one man was roasting a chick on a broken clay vessel (a sign of mourning), and preparing rice with some side dishes. this food was for the deceased man's spirit. notice behind him, the banana leaf with the partially cleaned pig's blood stain.
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shortly after sunset, the men walked to the unpaved road behind the village with the dead man's meal. they threw away the vessels, arranged the food in the middle of the road, poured liquor on it with their hands held together, and left some cigarettes. then they went back, shouting at the deceased man's spirit to go away. before reaching the village, they stopped for another ceremonial drinking.
then they ate the meal prepared from the slaughtered pig's meat. only clan members were allowed to parteke of it. this, and the emotional interaction of the widow with the pig before the sacrifice, give the impression that the pig was somehow connected to the dead man's presence, like some "vital energies" that should return to the clan. the spirit that was fed and sent away represents the haunting, persistent and disturbing presence of the dead among the living, that stayed with the clan for the 10-days mourning period, but now should be gone.
the mourning being over, later in the evening gopi the guide arranged for a performance of singing and folk dancing by the village people. this went on until an unclear scandal broke out around some drunken man's behavior. then the gathering was dispersed, and everybody went to bed.
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