Ganga Talao - Le Grand Bassin

There is no official religion in Mauritius - Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Buddhists all have their own places of worship, traditions, and public holidays. Almost 50% of the population is Hindu though, making Hinduism the most practised of the major religions.

Grand Bassin, or Ganga Talao, is the most sacred Hindu site in Mauritius. It's a crater lake around 1800 feet above sea level, in the highest and wettest part of the island. As well as being a place of pilgrimage, it's a major tourist attraction, but you have to choose your day carefully as the weather is pretty unpredictable. I've been on days where the sky was blue and cloudless, I've been on sunny days but where the clouds closed in and the rain came down within minutes, and I've been on a day when the weather was so bad that you couldn't even see the lake from the top of the steps.

Mum wondering if she dares to ring the bell

The road leading to Grand Bassin is possibly the best maintained road on the whole island, with a pavement as wide as the road itself to accommodate all the pilgrims. At the end of the road, the world's second largest statue of Shiva stands guard. The detail on the statue is incredible. It's an exact copy of one in India and measures 108 feet.

I've been reading about the origins of Ganga Talao and have found a couple of conflicting stories. Since I don't know which is right, I'm not going to tell you either of them. Despite being considered holy by Hindus for hundreds of years, the site was only actually declared sacred in 1998. Every year, towards the end of February, 400,000 Hindus from all over Mauritius walk to the lake to pray, make offerings, and collect water to take back to their local temple. It can take them a few days to walk the whole journey, and it often rains. They say that Shiva sends the rain so the pilgrims don't get too hot.

Once you make it past Shiva and down the steps, you can see temples all around the lake, with statues of different Hindu Gods. I eavesdropped on a tour guide's speech once, and learned that those with several arms didn't really have several arms. The extra ones are there to represent their supernatural powers.

Even when there's no festival, people often go to make offerings, and the edge of the lake is full of coconut shells, bananas, and miniature statues. The food attracts local wildlife including birds and monkeys, and some strange lake dwelling creatures.

My friend Anne took this photo

I've only ever visited Grand Bassin at quiet times, and would love to see all the colour and celebrations of Maha Shivaratri. I've heard that the pilgrims are very welcoming and happy to answer questions from curious onlookers about what's going on, but I think I'd still find it a bit strange to be caught up in the middle of it all. If we're still in Mauritius next February, perhaps I'll try and get there.

Lessons from my Mauritian family

Merv's family is huge. His parents have several brothers and sisters each, and he has more cousins from one aunt and uncle than I do in my whole family. After fifteen years outside Mauritius, he wasn't as close to them as he used to be, but since Pierre's accident we have seen each other a lot more, and I've been learning all kinds of interesting things from them. 

1. How to pick a mango

Sounds easy, right? That is, until you learn that a mango tree can grow up to 40m tall. Unless you have incredibly long arms, you need to find another way to do it. If you just get a big stick, you can bash your mango to the ground, but you risk damaging it in the process. 

What you need is a large plastic water bottle, cut in half and fastened to the end of your stick, making a perfect mango-sized cradle. Once the mango is inside the bottle, providing it's ripe enough, a quick flick of the wrist is enough to detach it from the tree, and you can lower it down gently.

 2. All about bananas

If you've read the blog before, you'll know I had a bit of an obsession with some bananas growing in my neighbour's garden. I've moved house now, so will never know what happens to them, but I did get to assist recently as one of the cousins chopped down a banana stem. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera for this one though.

The bananas grow on a stem, like the one above, and after one stem of fruit, the plant is pretty much useless and needs chopping down. That's not the end though, as, by this time, the plant will have produced several offshoots which will all be growing new fruit. In fact, a banana plant can be a bit of a pest in your garden as you never know where the next one will pop up.

3. How to eat

Merv's family is a perfect example of how multicultural and religiously diverse Mauritius is. His grandparents were both Catholic, but one of his aunts married a practising Hindu, and their daughter married a Muslim. This aunt sadly lost her husband two weeks before Pierre died, and we were invited to their house during the traditional prayers which take place after the funeral. Only the immediate family took part, so I don't really know what went on; we just saw lots of flowers and fruit offerings and burning incense sticks. We did, however, get to eat all the delicious food they had prepared, including the seven (vegetarian) curries which are customary at Hindu events. For each dish we ate, we had to put a small piece onto a different plate. It was to show that we were sharing our meal with Ton Kumar who had passed away.

The curries are eaten with ti puris, which are a bit like chapatis but fried, and served on a banana leaf. I'd already eaten briani before using my fingers instead of cutlery, but it's a whole different thing when it's just curry and no rice to stick it all together. I wanted to fit in as much as possible though so I refused offers of a spoon. (Unlike one of Merv's cousins who brought shame on his parents by eating with a spoon while I used my fingers!) Everyone seemed really pleased that I was making an effort, and it kept them all entertained as well. They all had their own technique they wanted me to try, and by the end I was doing pretty well. I learned how to pick up the food with the tips of my fingers only and to flick it into my mouth using my thumb.

I realise as I write this post that all I've talked about so far is food! It's a good reflection of how important eating and sharing food is in Mauritius. And I think it's one of my favourite things about the country; there's so much that is new to me, and I want to try as much as I can.

4. Preparing brèdes songes

One of the curries we ate was "brèdes songes", or taro leaves in English. I'd eaten this dish once before in a nice restaurant and wasn't really a fan, but the fun thing about this time was that we actually went walking to pick the brèdes, and I learned how to prepare them.

We walked near a reservoir in the north of the island called La Nicolière. It's quite high up so we had some great views and it was really quiet and peaceful.

I went paddling in the river with the children while the men did the hard work. I also ate some "goyaves de Chine" which were growing along the footpath. Apparently called strawberry guava in English, it was another fruit I'd never heard of. You need to be careful though; if they're not ripe enough, they taste horrible!

When we arrived back at the house with our loot, the women of the family sat around a big table in the garden to begin preparing the leaves for cooking. There was a really nice friendly atmosphere; everyone laughing and joking and pitching in to help. I asked if they would show me how to prepare them as well, but they said I should just watch because my hands would get dirty! I laughed it off and said they would always wash, and that I wanted to help, so they showed me how to break the leaf and peel off the woody outer stem, before they were chopped into small pieces for the pot. It wasn't as easy as they made it look! As I mentioned, the curries were being prepared for the meal accompanying the prayers the next day. I was terrified one of the visiting priests would end up with inedible food because I was so bad at the preparation. I seem to have got away with it though.

They were not kidding about the dirty hands though - by the time I'd finished, my hands were black. I had to scrub with wire wool to get it all off. Ouch.

5. Speaking Kréol, or at least understanding what's going on

This is an ongoing thing. The first time we visited Merv's family in 2012 I had absolutely no idea what was happening, or what they were saying about me! Most Mauritians speak French or English, so I don't really NEED to learn Kréol, but I love languages, and hate feeling ignorant, so I'm doing my best. Depending on who's speaking, I can usually understand the gist of a conversation, and I can say 2 or 3 basic sentences now.  However, as with any new language, when there's a big group of people all talking together, it's almost impossible to follow. The cousins and nieces are very good about speaking slowly and being patient if I don't know what they're talking about. I'll write more another day about the language itself.

The whole family have decided we should spend more time together, especially now Pierre is no longer here, and have invited me to visit them whenever I like, with or without Merv. I'm sure they've got a whole lot more to teach me, and hopefully I can share some of my own culture with them. A little bit of England in Pamplemousses. Yes, they actually do live in a village called "Grapefruits", isn't that great?!