On Thursday 24^th we visited two local Toda tribes, one near the Gudalar junction and one near Glenmorgan.  At the first village we were told about the Toda temple - it is tall and circular and is the only one of it’s kind in the Nilgiris.

Interesting facts about the Todas:

-the priest lives in the temple for 3 months of the year around festival time

-the grass roof of the temple gets changed only once every 12 years

-the Todas are well known for their black, red and white embroidery

-the men play a game to show their strength and impress the girls by lifting and rolling a boulder from the ground to over their shoulder

-they also play a game which involves running and crawling underneath a small bridge made of stone.

When we went to the second Toda village we were able to look inside a traditional Toda house which belonged to a Toda lady.  She showed us around- there were lots of brass pots and cooking equipment in there.  The Toda huts have small doors so it can keep the heat in and so no wild animals can enter.

Our second trip was to the Tribal Museum on Thursday 1^st of May.  The museum had information about all the tribes of the Nilgiris including Todas, Kotas, Irulas, Paniyans and Kurumbas.  We had a brilliant time learning about these different tribes and we wrote notes and drew pictures to remember the things we had learnt.

Towards the end we dressed up as tribe’s people - some of us held water containers, others blew a trumpet, some of us even held swords and bows and arrows.  After that we went outside to the Toda hut and dressed up and posed as Todas.  It was great fun!  We even tried to keep a straight face in the photograph!

We’ve had a wonderful time learning more about the tribes that live around us here at Hebron.  Thanks to Miss Raman for organising the trips.