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Princess Gouri in her tenth talk with Zuzana Zwiebel explains the concept of the Kaani tribe white diet.
My husband’s grandfather was a famous Namboodiri - what you call it 'Vesha Vaidyam' or 'the one who dealt with snake’s bites' and had some special knowledge. In the morning he would say to his assistant: “Go and bring this particular herb from the garden, somebody is coming and he will need it!” He had some kind of intuition. He knew about the things or events before they happened. In the case of snakebite, the timing was important for taking the poison out. You had to act immediately, because if you waited too long and the poison took cold then you could do nothing. It is like the antivenin today. You have to get it immediately.
THE TRAVANCORE ROYAL FAMILY is the ruling house of the Indian princely state of Travancore. The family lost the ruling rights in 1949 when Travancore Kingdom merged with the Indian Union and their privileges were abolished by a constitutional amendment in 1971. The Travancore Royalty could be also considered descendants of the ancient Cheras, Ay-Venad, Pandya and Chola dynasties, due to consistent intermarriages with these lines over the centuries. The Travancore royals are among the rare breed of royals who follow the matrilineal system.The members of the family are based in Trivandrum, Kerala and are the ones who keep alive the traditions and rituals of their ancient dynasty including the upkeep of the famous Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple. Read more >>
Kind of… and 'the Nagas' - it is very interesting and you should asked about that - all the big houses, not necessary the palaces, all the big Theravadas, had what they called 'the kava' a sacred grow for the snakes.
If you look at it, it is really an ecological thing. You kept one small portion of the property undisturbed. You were not permitted to slash and burn, you were not permitted to cultivate there. Only the tribal people were allowed to go into these areas and do any changes to the vegetation. They had some kind of divine relation with the environment and with the nature. It is like when you go to the nature reservations; you find what they call it 'the kanikara'. Kani tribes knew to live with the animals, to live with the nature, so they got on fairly peacefully with the wildlife.
Today’s needs of 'Kaani tribe people' are different. They lost their ancient skills and at the same time they are not integrated fully into the modern world. They are living really unhappy in between.
You know, one of the Kaani chiefs told me: “We never had anything white!”
I asked: “What do you mean you never had anything white?”
He said: “We drunk no milk, we ate no salt, we ate no sugar, we did not consumed processed flour - we had the millets, the grains in the forests, we had tamarind from the forest, we had turmeric from the forest, we had ginger - these were the things, which were used for seasoning and chilies for flouring.”
And they lived quite happily with that kind of diet. Today they live in colonies and they experiment with fry aims, chips which you find in the plastic sachets and it upsets them - they are sick and they do not know, what makes them sick.
THE GRANDMOTHER OF THE JUNGLE
Lakshmikutty Amma is called Vanamuthassi, The Grandmother of the Jungle in Malayalam. Her mission is to preserve the healing traditions of Kaani tribe, settled in the deep forest of Kallar in Thiruvandrum district in Kerala.
Yes, every household had a little 'Tulsi' or 'Tara' and it has so many wonderful medicinal healing properties! Every body had 'tulsi kashayam'. But before using it, you have to wash it carefully in the water called 'chukulam'. My grand mother was the great one for to see that everything was washed properly. And today, of course, with the spraying and pesticides and artificial fertilizers, you cannot really pick anything, even off the tree and just bite into it.
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Read next chapter of THE TALK WITH PRINCESS GOURI Nº11
The Travancore Kingdom Royalty are considered the descendants of the Gods and ancient Cheras, Venad, Pandya and Chola dynasties, who brought the philosophy of ayurveda to the world.
Founder & Director of Ayurveda Trails, healing collection of (extra)ordinary people and their stories, whose experiences are transferred into various trails shared by travelers.
He calls himself The Lone-traveller. In section about him is written: Don’t have a clue yet. He silently stalks Kochi Muziris Biennale artists and transform their visions into photographs.
Since 1991 Joji turned his attention to photography as a full time activity with particular interest in recording the social, cultural and political landscape of Kerala.