Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Versatile Palmyra

The Palmyra palms dot the landscape all along the Indian coast line. The leaves of this useful tree is used to thatch the cottages . You can see a thatched cottage under the tree.
The palmyra leaves were used as paper to write books in ancient India. The letters were written with an iron stylus. The picture above shows some 13th century palmyra manuscripts preserved in a museum. You can see the stylus too.
The plamyra fruit is black, and has sections where you find transparent, jelly like edible parts.

A man was selling these palmyra leaf bowls filled with sections of palmyra fruit which were dunked in palmyra toddy. The toddy is the sap of the palmyra collected in mud pots. It is sweet when it is fresh. They make a local beer from the sap by fermenting it for a few days.
After a eating the palmyra fruit and drinking the sweet toddy, we felt invigorated enough to stand under the raging cascades .






We were oblivious to the fact that our dry clothes were being stolen by monkeys, to the amusement of everyone around.
This is my contribution to My World. To see more and fascinating pictures, please click on

13 comments:

  1. What a interesting post and such marvelous photos! And I have to admit I was laughing by the I finished reading. Those darn monkeys! Wonderful look at your world! Have a great week!

    Sylvia

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  2. Sounds like fun - other than the monkeys stealing your clothes! Wow - what a wonderful waterfall!

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  3. I have seen Oriyan artists converting strips of palm leaves as book marks with beautiful paintings on them.

    So you returned home wet? :)

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  4. Monkeys stole your clothes? Did you get them back? Wonderful shots of the waterfall.

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  5. Hi,
    These are called Nongu in Tamil. Extremely tasty fruit. Still remember eating lots of this in my childhood.

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  6. S0 beautiful waterfalls and thank y0u f0r sharing about the edible palmyra. weekend getaway @ kenting

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  7. Such an interesting post! This palm is not seen in these parts. Wow, I'd love to taste the fruit dunked in toddy. Honestly, how did you get back;))
    Great shots of the waterfall.

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  8. Your world is very interesting. I loved the writing, from the 13th century is amazing. The story about the monkeys is great.

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  9. Interesting info about the palmyra palm! Great shots of the cascades! Your header shot is gorgeous also.

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  10. The force of the waterfall is overwhelming. . .

    Thank you.
    ruma

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  11. Sylvia, The monkeys finally threw most of the clothes down!
    Africanaussie, the monkeys were part of the fun too.
    Lanie, thanks for your visit.
    Indrani, I have seen those bookmarks too.They are beautiful.
    LadyFi, we got most of our clothes back. Thanks for stopping by.
    Natti, yes, it is called Nungu in Kannada too. It is delicious.
    Coffeeveggieaddict, thanks for stopping by and your comment.
    Kanak, we sort of staggered home to our hotel:)
    Yogi, thanks for your comment.
    Carol, great to hear from you. Thank you.
    Ruma, the waterfalls were rather overwhelming, but enjoyable!

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  12. Lotusleaf I am jealous of the wonderful holiday you are having. It takes a brave one to bathe in those cascades. Wasn't the water a bit too cool? Good thing you got your clothes back LOL.

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