I had an epic night last night. Not epic as in amazing, just epic as in the normal sense of the word. Seven hours of hard, painstaking and sometimes painful work to put dreadlocks into the hair of one of my friends.
He's been growing his hair for a few months and I remember a while back I said I would do his dreads for him but I'm pretty sure I meant it in jest. when I got back to town I offered again not really expecting him to take me up on the offer. Then a couple of days ago he said he wanted them doing so we arranged it for last night. Having never done a full head of dreads from scratch I tried to overestimate the time and said about 6 hours. How wrong I was.
I went round at about midnight and he had just had a shower so we had to wait for his hair to dry. I explained some rules before I started that Winter had laid down for me... No wax, that is cheating and not proper dreadlocks. No shaving them off or taking them out in any way for a long long time, this is a big commitment. You have to name your fatty dread, it's not normally intentional to do a fatty it just kind of happens but it must have a name (FYI I don't have enough dreads for there to be a fatty but my favourite dread is called Patrick, as in Spongebob and Patrick). You have to learn to look after them, all the work that goes into them it's a shame for them to come out...
Rules laid down and we began at about 12.30am... The first one was a bit skinny, I had underestimated how much hair would need to go into the dread but for my first ever attempt at a dread with no prior work it came out pretty darn good. It wasn't the most comfortable of situations, I had made him sit on the floor and I was on the edge of his bed so the aching back set in pretty quickly. Doing the needle work is painstaking but enjoyble because it's an instant result, the figuring out of the placement of the dreads in a bit of a pain. You don't want them to be too uniform because that would look stupid, but there needs to be a neatness to is so when you weave your roots you're not going to put hair in the wrong dread and have them all mesh together...
Die Hard 2, Labyrinth, Back to the Future, classic films that passed the time even if I was watching them through squinting, sore eyes obscured by a mass of thick, curly black hair! This was probably the first time we had watched films together and neither of us fell asleep before the end, as much as I wanted to at some points... It got to about four dreads for the end and I swear he fell asleep resting his head on my leg as I was dreading the other side, the 'just resting my eyes' excuse was pulled out but I wasn't buying it. The last few were painful, I'd lost count of the amount of times I jabbed the needle right into my finger and there is definitely some of my blood in those locks.
Then it was finished. Everything ached, sore arse, numb arms, frozen back, aching and bloodied fingers. But it was worth it because they look pretty darn immense even if I do say so myself. The one right at the front needs weaving down a bit because it sticks up a wee bit too much and some of the ends need rounding off a little bit more but that will only take an hour or so and can be done over time. I crashed out pretty much stright away after sunrise about 7.20am and was awoken with him taking my lunch order and coming back with food for my poor aching body! I swear I will not be doing that again in a hurry but I'm glad I got to do something really cool for a very good friend who needed cheering up!
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Taipusam... Amaze!
I only ever seem to blog about Hindu festivals but I think it's because they're the most open and public and tend to get out on the streets to celebrate. Muslims tend to be reserved with their celebrations doing them mainly at home and Buddhists seem to concentrate theirs at temples.
From what I can gather Taipusam is a big prayer day asking for good luck and stuff. I know that's vague but from what I've read online and been told by friends it celebrates different things. This is what Wiki says about it - 'Kavadi Attam is a dance performed by the devotees during the ceremonial worship of Murugan, the Tamil God of War. It is often performed during the festival of Thaipusam and emphasizes debt bondage. The Kavadi itself is a physical burden through which the devotees implore for help from the God Murugan.' This dance and carrying the Kavadi is what I saw today and it was pretty special.
I hitched down to Ringlet where the local parade was going on and wasn't sure what to expect. I know it Kuala Lumpur the festival is massive and the Kavadis are really elaborate and they do extreme piercings but I wasn't sure what a small town would be doing and if I was going to see any piercing. I love watching piercings and tattoos to try and understand how other people deal with pain, I 'zone out', just think about different things because I believe pain is mind over matter and if you don't think about it then you can't feel it.
When we arrived town looked pretty quiet and I thought it could be a bit of disappointment... We were told to walk 500m down the road and we would see the start of the festival and when we got there we saw some men praying wearing traditional dress and I was a bit bummed out, I want piercings and music!! I wasn't disappointed and a big Kavadi turned up covered in peacock feathers with a Hindu deity on the top, not sure which one and I wouldn't want to guess, but it was really elaborate and beautiful. A man turned up as well who looked pretty hardcore, long hair, tattoos and there seemed to just be an aura about him that said this dude means business.
After some prayers and offerings the action really got going and the man who was going to carry to peacock feather and deity contraption sat down under the harness and some other men started to hook the end of small chains through his upper arms. The hooks looked pretty thin and I don't think they would have hurt too much but he also looked like he was in a trance. From what I know people who do this will meditate and go into a sort of trance like state so they block out the pain, kind of how I deal with this stuff. After the hooks went through his arms the serious stuff started and he was pierced through his cheeks horizontally and then the tip of his tongue was pierced with a spear about 6 inches long so he couldn't put his tongue back in. It looked amazing and he didn't show any signs of pain and there didn't seem to be any blood. He started dancing and slowly made his way down the little hill and onto the road on the way to the temple.
Next was the dude who had the aura, he was getting limes attached to his back with similar little hooks, a row across his shoulders and a cluster near the bottom of his back. There seems to be a considerable weight on the hooks and when he stood up the skin visibly stretched. It looked amazing, the way someone would go through that for what they believe in. When he stood up he began to bless people, Hindus would kneel at his feet and stand up and have red powder pressed on their foreheads and Chinese would bow with their palms together and get the same red powder. This really struck me that the two religions and cultures would respect each other so much and allow each other to join in. After this a Chinese man with obviously Buddhist tattoos got his cheeks and tongue pierced and three spears through his forehead. The next Chinese man got spears with what looked like pretty heavy heads on put through the flesh on his neck and one in each bicep and forearm. When he was getting pierced the men doing it would spit orange juice on the wounds, I assume this is for antiseptic properties, it did look pretty minging though.
I can't figure out what the Chinese element of this was, three of them got pierced in total and some others had big axes that they were having knocked into their bellies, not enough to cut them but enough to leave marks. They weren't Hindu because as I say they had obviously Buddhist tattoos and I've asked a couple of Chinese people and they're not sure what I'm on about. If I find out I assure you I'll let you know!
After all the piercing excitement everyone started to walk towards town. The man with the limes had his whole face covered in the red powder he was blessing people with and kept stopping and dancing in the street with a massive staff he was carrying. It looked amazing if a little scary, I nearly got hit with the staff a couple of times! When we got to town there was another Chinese man who at first was rolling about on the floor getting soaked in water then he stood up and got a sword and started cutting his tongue. Not sure why, looked a bit scary so I went and follwed Lime Man again. When it got to about 1pm I thought I had seen enough of what I wanted to see and decided to hitch home.
It was an amazing experience and I'm rather glad I was in a small town to see it rather than in KL which sounds really manic and I'd probably be unlikely to get anywhere near as close as I did today. I got some amazing pictures and videos that are on Facebook. It really touched me the way the commuities came together, in town there were stalls offering juice out to everyone, I didn't want to take it at first but when I was offered it I felt rude saying no, and I'm pretty confident that there were two different festivals going on but each respected the other and I didn't feel out of place or unwelcome even when I was one of only three or four white faces in the crowd. A smile definitely goes a long way in these situations! So another festival experienced and I'm going to get one of my Hindu friends to explain things a lot more. I really feel like I'm getting a great cutural education in Malaysia, and I'm really loving it!
From what I can gather Taipusam is a big prayer day asking for good luck and stuff. I know that's vague but from what I've read online and been told by friends it celebrates different things. This is what Wiki says about it - 'Kavadi Attam is a dance performed by the devotees during the ceremonial worship of Murugan, the Tamil God of War. It is often performed during the festival of Thaipusam and emphasizes debt bondage. The Kavadi itself is a physical burden through which the devotees implore for help from the God Murugan.' This dance and carrying the Kavadi is what I saw today and it was pretty special.
I hitched down to Ringlet where the local parade was going on and wasn't sure what to expect. I know it Kuala Lumpur the festival is massive and the Kavadis are really elaborate and they do extreme piercings but I wasn't sure what a small town would be doing and if I was going to see any piercing. I love watching piercings and tattoos to try and understand how other people deal with pain, I 'zone out', just think about different things because I believe pain is mind over matter and if you don't think about it then you can't feel it.
When we arrived town looked pretty quiet and I thought it could be a bit of disappointment... We were told to walk 500m down the road and we would see the start of the festival and when we got there we saw some men praying wearing traditional dress and I was a bit bummed out, I want piercings and music!! I wasn't disappointed and a big Kavadi turned up covered in peacock feathers with a Hindu deity on the top, not sure which one and I wouldn't want to guess, but it was really elaborate and beautiful. A man turned up as well who looked pretty hardcore, long hair, tattoos and there seemed to just be an aura about him that said this dude means business.
After some prayers and offerings the action really got going and the man who was going to carry to peacock feather and deity contraption sat down under the harness and some other men started to hook the end of small chains through his upper arms. The hooks looked pretty thin and I don't think they would have hurt too much but he also looked like he was in a trance. From what I know people who do this will meditate and go into a sort of trance like state so they block out the pain, kind of how I deal with this stuff. After the hooks went through his arms the serious stuff started and he was pierced through his cheeks horizontally and then the tip of his tongue was pierced with a spear about 6 inches long so he couldn't put his tongue back in. It looked amazing and he didn't show any signs of pain and there didn't seem to be any blood. He started dancing and slowly made his way down the little hill and onto the road on the way to the temple.
Next was the dude who had the aura, he was getting limes attached to his back with similar little hooks, a row across his shoulders and a cluster near the bottom of his back. There seems to be a considerable weight on the hooks and when he stood up the skin visibly stretched. It looked amazing, the way someone would go through that for what they believe in. When he stood up he began to bless people, Hindus would kneel at his feet and stand up and have red powder pressed on their foreheads and Chinese would bow with their palms together and get the same red powder. This really struck me that the two religions and cultures would respect each other so much and allow each other to join in. After this a Chinese man with obviously Buddhist tattoos got his cheeks and tongue pierced and three spears through his forehead. The next Chinese man got spears with what looked like pretty heavy heads on put through the flesh on his neck and one in each bicep and forearm. When he was getting pierced the men doing it would spit orange juice on the wounds, I assume this is for antiseptic properties, it did look pretty minging though.
I can't figure out what the Chinese element of this was, three of them got pierced in total and some others had big axes that they were having knocked into their bellies, not enough to cut them but enough to leave marks. They weren't Hindu because as I say they had obviously Buddhist tattoos and I've asked a couple of Chinese people and they're not sure what I'm on about. If I find out I assure you I'll let you know!
After all the piercing excitement everyone started to walk towards town. The man with the limes had his whole face covered in the red powder he was blessing people with and kept stopping and dancing in the street with a massive staff he was carrying. It looked amazing if a little scary, I nearly got hit with the staff a couple of times! When we got to town there was another Chinese man who at first was rolling about on the floor getting soaked in water then he stood up and got a sword and started cutting his tongue. Not sure why, looked a bit scary so I went and follwed Lime Man again. When it got to about 1pm I thought I had seen enough of what I wanted to see and decided to hitch home.
It was an amazing experience and I'm rather glad I was in a small town to see it rather than in KL which sounds really manic and I'd probably be unlikely to get anywhere near as close as I did today. I got some amazing pictures and videos that are on Facebook. It really touched me the way the commuities came together, in town there were stalls offering juice out to everyone, I didn't want to take it at first but when I was offered it I felt rude saying no, and I'm pretty confident that there were two different festivals going on but each respected the other and I didn't feel out of place or unwelcome even when I was one of only three or four white faces in the crowd. A smile definitely goes a long way in these situations! So another festival experienced and I'm going to get one of my Hindu friends to explain things a lot more. I really feel like I'm getting a great cutural education in Malaysia, and I'm really loving it!
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