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In northern Kerala, a wide range of ancient ritual "performances", loosely known as Teyyattam , are performed between October and May. They might include bhuta (spirit or hero worship), trance dances, the enactment of legendary events, and oracular pronouncements. The role of teyyam (performer) passes from father to son; they are usually from low castes, but during the ritual, a brahmin will honor the deities they represent, so the status of each individual is reversed. During a performance several teyyam will be involved, but only one at a time may sit on the chair of the deity and become possessed. Although Teyyattam performances can now be seen in government-organized cultural festivals, the powerful effect is best experienced in an all-night ceremony in the courtyard of a house or temple, in a village setting. Some figures, with intricately painted faces and bodies, are genuinely terrifying; costumes include meters-high headgear, sometimes doubling as a mask, and clothes of banana leaves and bark. |
You may be lucky enough to stumble upon a very rare performance involving fire rituals. Amid frantic drumming, a teyyam will volunteer to demonstrate the demonic power temporarily held within him, either by walking on red-hot coals or by rapidly dancing around the fire and throwing himself on it, an auspicious 52 times. Each time the teyyam allows the demon to drive his body onto the fire, the temple brahmins pull the possessed teyyam back. |
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