{"id":3716,"date":"2006-08-22T10:20:18","date_gmt":"2006-08-22T15:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=3716"},"modified":"2006-08-22T09:40:24","modified_gmt":"2006-08-22T14:40:24","slug":"snake_boat_race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2006\/08\/22\/snake_boat_race\/","title":{"rendered":"Snake Boat Races in Kerala"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year on the second Saturday in August, the town of Allapuzha (or Allepey), Kerala — the “Venice of the East”<\/a> — hosts the Nehru Trophy Boat Race<\/a>. \"Aranmullavallamkali.jpg\"<\/a> The boats used in the comptetition are traditional “snake boats” or “Chundan Vallam”<\/a>. The boats have as many as 120 oarsmen, and have a large hood in the rear that rises twenty feet in the air, which resembles a cobra’s head. I’m not quite sure what the function of this hood is from a “boat science” perspective, but these boat races are both ancient and highly ritualized, and I get the feeling no one is thinking about a fiberglass redesign. Anyway, the snake boats look pretty cool; see more snake boat images<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\"allapuzha<\/a> For the first time this year, a team of 10 foreign women<\/a> of various nationalities came from Dubai to participate in the women’s race. The foreign team was led by a British woman named Julie Amer, who describes herself as an “adventure tourist.” The team from Dubai worked together with 25 local Allapuzha women — and their boat came in first in the women’s race.<\/p>\n\n

Two thoughts: 1) It’s cool that the women race in Saris (or are they Mundus?). 2) I love the umbrella; I wonder if it’s only for the women’s boats?<\/p>\n\n

The winner in the men’s competition<\/a>, for the third year in a row, was the “Payippad Boat Club.” Threepeat! The “Jesus Boat Club” came in second in its first appearance, according to the Hindu<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

About 300,000 people went to Allapuzha to watch the race this year. Among them were about 5000 foreigners. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year on the second Saturday in August, the town of Allapuzha (or Allepey), Kerala — the “Venice of the East” — hosts the Nehru Trophy Boat Race. The boats used in the comptetition are traditional “snake boats” or “Chundan … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}