THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Early Wednesday morning, 101 tribals will set out from Kottoor, a forest region within the Agasthya hills in Thiruvananthapuram district, for the Sabarimala hill shrine. They will carry as offerings wild honey filled in bamboo, frankincense and other produce collected from the forest.
“We go every year. But this is the first time such a large group is going,” said Vinod, trustee of the Mundani Madan Thampuran Temple, Kottoor, from where the pilgrims begin their journey of devotion every year. Kottoor is around 30 kilometres from Thiruvananthapuram city.
“The tribals are from various settlements in the region and the group includes elderly women and children. For the community, the ‘Guruswami’ is Agasthyar himself,” said Vinod.
Offerings also include bunches of Kadali banana and boxes made of cane and bamboo. This year, the temple trust has arranged two big buses to transport the pilgrims to the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in Pathanamthitta district.
According to the trust, the pilgrimage is an age-old tradition with the tribal settlements in Kottoor. Usually the group is made up of 75 to 80 people.