The Hindu elephant god, Ganesh, made of bananas
Ganesha is the Hindu god who orchestrates between form and formlessness. He is the omnipresent energy out of which all things manifest and into which they will ultimately dissolve.
In the village of Sambalpur in Odisha, a small group of 11 people calling themselves the Natraj Club create a Ganesh sculpture every year. This one is made of five tons of green bananas and stands 27 feet tall. When the bananas ripen, Ganesh himself will be dissolved as all the parts of his sweet and edible body are distributed to the poor.
(Thanks to Harriet Sams for this story.)
|
To discover other stories of inspiring people, stories, photos, and ideas, subscribe to
|
MORE RADICAL JOY REVEALED
Beauty and Terror
Polly Howells of Glenford, New York writes of her confrontation with two great forces: For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still [...]
“Affection for an Unwelcome Guest”—Our Global Day of Mourning
“How do we stay in affectionate relationship with an unwelcome guest?” mused Francis Weller. The unwelcome guest he was referring to is COVID-19, and Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow, was speaking on the [...]
The Cure for COVID is Medicine for the Earth
A recent edition of Toronto’s Globe and Mail featured an article with a bold, yet fundamentally obvious point of view: curing COVID will take more than a vaccine; it demands a new relationship with the Earth. The [...]