Jakarta Tamil Community Celebrates New Year
Jakarta. The Tamil community of Jakarta celebrated its new year by hosting the Sangamam carnival on Saturday at Kemayoran fairground.
Sangamam 2015 featured booths selling Tamil dishes, accessories, clothing, traditional folk music and dance programs as part of the festivities to highlight the rich traditions and heritage of Tamils.
“We had Tamil dance performances like the Karagattam, a traditional folk dance performed by children and adults,” Indonesia Tamil Sangam treasurer Ramesh said.
Indonesia Tamil Sangam is a non-profit, social and cultural organization dedicated to the welfare of the Tamil-speaking community in the country.
In addition, there were other lively games for the members such as Uri Adithal and top-spinning competitions.
Uri Adithal, a pot-breaking competition, challenges players to break a pot tied to the top of a tree. The blindfolded contestant must hit and break the pot with the help of a long bamboo stick. Whoever breaks the pot is considered a hero.
“Top-spinning is a typical game in the villages. We who are now living in the cities forgot about it, so now we want to revive the game,” Ramesh said.
Indonesia Tamil Sangam organized the festival in collaboration with the Indian Embassy's "Sahabat India: A Festival of India in Indonesia" program.
The carnival, organized for the second time, was inaugurated by first secretary of the Indian Embassy, Anand Prakash.
Tamil is one of the oldest regional languages spoken by the natives of the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India. The government of India has granted a classical language status to Tamil as it is one of India’s oldest languages.
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