The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : An ambassador for Pongala

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Friday, Feb 22, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

An ambassador for Pongala

Special Correspondent

Dianne Jennett

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Every year, when winter gives way to spring, Dianne Jennett develops a yearning to undertake a pilgrimage to a land halfway round the world from California.

A professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, California, Ms. Jennett is a regular visitor to the Attukal temple here during the Pongala festival.

Talking to presspersons here on Wednesday, Ms. Jennett recalled how she had completed a dissertation on the Pongala for a doctorate from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 1997. “Since then, I have returned almost every year for the Pongala,” she said.

“My first experience with the festival was in 1994 during a visit to Thiruvananthapuram. I was amazed at the gathering of women. I wondered why they were doing this. That was how I decided to take up the subject for my thesis under the guidance of M.S. Hema, Professor in English at Government College for Women here. I interviewed a lot of women for my study that was later published in several journals.” Years later, Ms. Jennett is still awed by the annual turnout of women for the Pongala.

“What a glorious celebration. It upholds so many values; the idea of sharing, cooperation and harmony, for example. It is equally a symbol of women’s empowerment. Many of the devotees I talked to said it gave them immense power and joy. It is also wonderful to see a temple festival transcending religious boundaries; I have seen Christians women offering Pongala along with Hindus.”

Ms. Jennett was instrumental in the entry of the Attukal Pongala in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest turnout of women. She was the first to recommend the festival to the Guinness book.

Back home, at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Ms. Jennett teaches women’s spirituality. Transpersonal psychology, she said, incorporates spirituality into normal psychology. She is interested in the evolution of temples from small shrines in Kerala.

Like in the previous years, Ms. Jennett will offer Pongala at Ms. Hema’s house at East Fort.

This year, she is accompanied by a friend from Chennai. Quizzed about how her friends in California have responded to her fascination for a temple ritual, she said, “I regularly bring my friends and students and teach them how to make the offering. Some of my friends in California also offer Pongala in their backyards at the same time the offering is made here. That means they do it in moonlight,” she said.

Ms. Jennett has also made CD presentations of the Attukal Pongala to audiences in several countries.

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