Born as a Hindu in India, one is in the center of the milieu of the religious foundations of the country by default, thanks either to the devotional fervor expressed by commoners in daily life or to the passionate political propaganda driven by those in power.
Being exposed to the varied festivals through the stages of childhood & teenage, celebrated as a fun-cum-familial coming together of relations & friends or through the maturity of adulthood, as a spiritual occasion of celebration of a cosmic event, the Hindu-ness is ingrained as a part of growing up in Hindu-stan.
Visiting places of worship in the form of neighborhood temples as a child, for the sweet ‘prasad’ offered by the priest or as a teenager, for the expectation of a certain fruit of/ despite one’s efforts (especially during the examination season) to a crusade of key pilgrimage sites for quenching a genuine curiosity of exploring one’s roots to know more about oneself during adulthood or as a senior citizen, making the most of the golden years to understand the meaning of life and ticking the bucket-list; the Hindu-ness only flowers or blossoms further in this land of the Aryans.
However, these Hindu fundamentals are almost taken for granted and as a country with a colonial past of many decades, the perpetually ‘looking-West’ posture has been a fetish in search of India’s own identity in the global order, that’s led to ‘overlooking-East’ as a mirror of the genesis of one’s originality.
It is in this setting that to the ~15% of the world’s population as a citizenry of India and followers of Hinduism, other locations spread to the East of India, with a historical Hindu background, are almost bygone. It is on exploring some of these parts of the globe that one realizes the true worth of the legacy of a culture that’s survived millennia and has been passed down generations successfully to keep the Sanatana way of life thriving in Bharat, despite the varied attacks on its individualism.
Here I reflect on the recent explorations of 2 such locations – Bali, Indonesia & Siem Reap, Cambodia; both culturally rich with a Hindu tradition, but now evolved, almost mutated into a state of existence that’s visibly different from the original Hindu concept.
Bali, Indonesia
The Indonesian island, Bali has been a haven for tourists from all over the world, but particularly so for Indian newly-weds celebrating their honeymoon in this exotic destination. Whilst the clean beaches and water sports cum diving opportunities are a draw for the touristy crowds thronging the island, the real crowd-pullers are the uniquely located Hindu temples across the island.
Unfortunately, though, despite the epic locations of these temples:
- One is only allowed to roam around the vicinity of the temples and not allowed to enter the main sanctum sanctorum chamber of the residing deity, a privilege only accessible to locals on special occasions.
- Almost all temples are pay-for-entry temples with a decent entry fee only to see the temple from outside or be in the vicinity of the temple without entering inside.
- The commercialization of the vicinity of some of the temples is almost troubling to note, be it the Starbucks located right at the entrance of the Pura Taman Kemuda Saraswati temple (popularly known as the Lotus Temple) in Ubud or the additional photo fee charged towards Instagrammisation of the entrance ‘heaven gates’ of the Lempuyang temple, wherein the queues for a pic could at times take a few hours (mind you, the temple which is right in the compound where people halt for their turn to get a pic, is hardly visited by most people or rather its almost expected not to be visited and hence kept shut at most times).
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| The Ubud Starbucks balcony at the temple entrance; View of the temple from the 1st floor window |
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Instagrammed Bali Temples - Pura Taman Kemuda Saraswati temple, Lempuyang temple & Tirta Ganga |
Siem Reap, Cambodia
A relatively humbler dwelling, Siem Reap in Cambodia is most known for the Angkor Wat Archaeological park, a complex of >1000 temples originally dedicated to the Hindu pantheon of Shiva, Vishnu & Brahma, built over a few decades by the King Suryavarman II during the early-12th century.
Despite their distinctive architecture and virgin settings, these temples:
- No longer are active temples, but are mainly reclaimed ruins of the original construction, due to the many centuries of natural atrophy as well as man-made destruction of idols and carvings for the commercial value of these antiques.
- Whilst not active as temples anymore, the many changes of ruling dynasties have transformed these Hindu temples into relics of Buddhism, with the idols in the sanctum sanctorum of the temples being replaced with those of the Buddha per the order of the ruling kings during their reign. The carvings on the outside walls of the main Angkor Wat temple though, are immaculate representations of scenes from the Mahabharata with very specific episodes being carved into the motifs representing the various Pandava & Kaurava characters as well as the supreme charioteer, Krishna amid the war-scene, at the helm of Arjuna’s chariot; bringing to light the variance in ideology over the dynasties as well as shift in religious sentiment driven by the royalty. Most of the relics of Hindu Gods & Goddesses are only to be found in the national museums located in the city away from the main temple complex.
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| Left: Carving of Arjuna's chariot; Right: Bheeshma on the bed of arrows |
- Several remaining Buddhist idols too have been left faceless, with the civil war initially and the Khmer Rouge later, impacting people’s daily lives enough for them to resort to trading their heritage relics and antiques for their own survival (with full idols being heavy and immobile, only the faces were cut-off to be able to trade for commercial purposes).
- Importantly, despite the idols visibly carved into their entrance gates, even in case of well recognized temples like Ta Prohm (translated as Old Brahma / Ancestor Brahma), the deity faces carved out at the gates are now called-out to visiting tourists as representing the 4 faces of Buddha by the official guides – clearly, the local influence of key opinion leaders shaping the larger public view of the massive international tourist audience that visit these temples, with regard to their original deities and religious genesis. (Trivia: The Archaelogical Survey of India is supporting the preservation of the ruins of some of these temple as clearly indicated at the entrance gate of specific temples).
- Most of all though, a temple brings with itself an aura of the presence of the presiding deity, for whom prayers & rites are regularly performed by the priests and combined with the offerings & faith of the visiting devotees, the temple serves as a mirror of the core spiritual values of that society. Whilst idyllic in their setting, the remnants of the Angkor Wat temples leave behind a dry feeling, lacking the aura that once may have been a part of their charisma– the outside shell of the temples as though stands still in time, but the innermost spark of these structures has been eroded away over time.
Standing in the temple complex during the early morning, as the sun rose to changing hues of colours in the sky, it felt like the temples briefly came to life for a few brief moments, from the dark of the night into the kaleidoscopic shades of dawn, subtly calling out to reclaim their history & glory until the shifting hues of their background passed away into the brightening azure, only to finally slip back again, once the sun was shining in its full yellow attire.
Having visited both these places of Hindu genesis recently and having seen their transformation first-hand, it only made me feel proud of being born as an 'Indian' Hindu in a country that has been able to keep most if not all of the original Hindutva alive in us! Jai Hind!!