{"id":435,"date":"2007-07-24T14:15:08","date_gmt":"2007-07-24T06:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2007\/07\/24\/devotees-from-malaysia-and-singapore-fulfil-vows-to-deity-for-transsexuals\/"},"modified":"2007-07-24T14:15:08","modified_gmt":"2007-07-24T06:15:08","slug":"devotees-from-malaysia-and-singapore-fulfil-vows-to-deity-for-transsexuals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2007\/07\/24\/devotees-from-malaysia-and-singapore-fulfil-vows-to-deity-for-transsexuals\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotees from Malaysia and Singapore fulfil vows to deity for transsexuals"},"content":{"rendered":"

source<\/a><\/p>\n

By WANI MUTHIAH<\/b><\/p>\n

KLANG: The five-day celebrations dedicated to Goddess Bahuchara Mataji, the Hindu presiding deity for transsexuals, ended yesterday in a ceremony that saw some 400 participants from Malaysia and Singapore at a temple in Pandamaran near here.  <\/p>\n

The temple, dedicated to the deity whose main temple is in Shankhalpoor in Gujarat, India, is owned and managed by the local Hindu transgender community.  <\/p>\n

The celebrations began last Thursday with the highlight on the third day when devotees fulfilled vows by carrying pal kudam<\/i> (milk pots) and thee chatti<\/i> (earthen pots with fire).  <\/p>\n

Dressed in green sarees, the official colour for Bahuchara Mataji, the entourage, led by the community's matriarch M. Asha Devi, 63, carried the pal kudam<\/i> and thee chatti<\/i> to the temple.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\" <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Two devotees balancing milk pots as they enter the temple at Pandamaran last Saturday.<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

This was followed by a chariot procession in the evening with Pandamaran assemblyman Datuk Dr Teh Kim Poo as the event's special guest.  <\/p>\n

Asha Devi said preparations for the celebrations began several months ago, as arrangements had to be made to accommodate the devotees.  <\/p>\n

"Devotees also prepare themselves by fasting for at least three months before carrying the pal kudam<\/i> and thee chatti<\/i>," said Asha Devi, who runs a food outlet in Kuala Lumpur.  <\/p>\n

According to her, a flag bearing the Goddess' emblem was raised on the first day followed by an ubayam <\/i>(special prayers) on the second day.  <\/p>\n

"The fourth day was also observed with prayers for Mataji. On the final day, which is today, we have special prayers for a male deity known as Veera Vetai Karar Muniandy followed by anathanam<\/i> (feeding of the masses)," she added.  <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, S. Komathi, 50, who cooked for the devotees, said this year's event was special as they were praying hard to obtain a piece of land from the state government to build a proper temple.  <\/p>\n

"The temple is currently situated in the home of one of our members' grandmothers. Due to space constraints we cannot do any renovation," said Komathi who owns a flower shop in Klang.  <\/p>\n

Komathi said the community badly needed a bigger temple to accommodate the crowd.  <\/p>\n

"In the past, it was only our community which prayed here but now others are also coming to the temple."  <\/p>\n

For K. Janani, 27, who came all the way from Singapore to carry the pal kudam<\/i>, the event was both fun and colourful.  <\/p>\n

"I like the festive atmosphere. I have been coming here for the past two years to offer prayers as our community does not have a dedicated temple in Singapore," Janani added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

source By WANI MUTHIAH KLANG: The five-day celebrations dedicated to Goddess Bahuchara Mataji, the Hindu presiding deity for transsexuals, ended yesterday in a ceremony that saw some 400 participants from Malaysia and Singapore at a temple in Pandamaran near here.  The temple, dedicated to the deity whose main temple is in Shankhalpoor in Gujarat, India, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-temples"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}