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Festival
Taming the bull Ponggal Festival |
WE WERE at the
celebration of the Ponggal Festival at Jalan Yeap Chor
Ee. Bulldozers once threatened to oust from their land the
settlers who have lived there
since before the Brown Estate. They were saved from eviction thanks to
the intervention of a legal aid team, headed by  Cecil Rajendra the poet
and founder of legal aid in Penang. He was, of course, the guest of
honour of the celebrations on the four acres of land saved. There
was a lot of dancing, a greasy pole with a prize at its very top to be
gained and the traditional gruelling taming of the bull said to
have come from the time of Jesus Christ.Ponggal is the only Indian festival to follow the solar calender. The first day celebrates a good harvest; the second day - Mattu Ponggal - is a worship of cows; on the 3rd day - Kanni Ponggal - maidens pray for a good husband.  One Preston Merchant describes Jallikattu - Tamil Nadu's Ancient Bull-Taming Festival: The festival begins on January 15. "A cross between a Spanish running of the bulls and Texas rodeo", contestants try to tame a charging bull by grabbing onto the hump and riding or dragged to the finishing line. They can also pile on the bull, forcing it to stop. Another goal is to grab the gold coins tied to the horns of some of the bulls. Jallikattu is mentioned in Tamil classical poetry, suggesting that it dates from before the time of Christ. In the old days, winners walked away with a village’s loveliest brides. Today they take home TVs and gold coins. |
 "As
the festival starts, the door to the stockade is opened and the
ferocious bulls are let loose into the arena. The young tacklers
try
and lead them in different directions. They pounce on their backs. They
hold the bulls’ tails. They seize their necks. They catch hold of their
oiled, pointed horns. Somehow the bulls have to be tamed, and the
bloody battle between man and beast is on. Suddenly a tackler falls to
the ground with his stomach ripped open. It’s part of the risk
involved."" ... Farmers train their bulls to attack, even to thrust their horns, which have been sharpened, at objects on the ground. On the day of the festival, they oil the humps and tails, decorate them with turmeric and vermilion, and garland them with marigolds -- the Pongal festival venerates the cow."  At Jalan Yeap Chor Ee, this bull could not wait his turn and impatirntly jumped out of the lorry. The other bull being "tamed" escaped his "cowboys" by jumping over the heads of the crowd with the prize money on his head. He was last seen quietly grazing on the hill slope behind the worshippers.  Photo: Preston Merchant |
|
Sri Mutiara Galleri Exhibitions of works by artists both young and old, regulars as well as first timers at Armenian Street Curator: Koay Soo Kau |
| ______ INDEX Point to the
article that you want to read, and
CLICK Food guide In search of Gold (7) Ismail Hashim Letter from Pulau Tikus Ponggal Tan Kai Shouan Terrorist rap! - poem Visiting Tanjong |
| _____________________ The Penang File Issue 64 |
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