The Nilgiris: The Ooty Railway Station has an all-new local look with its walls splashed with paintings depicting the culture of the Toda tribe.
The Nilgiris: The Ooty Railway Station has an all-new local look with its walls splashed with paintings depicting the culture of the Toda tribe.
Tourists constantly throng the Nilgiris Mountain Railway train services for a ride through the Blue Mountains' serene landscape complete with tunnels, waterfalls, valley views and tea gardens. The quaint tiny railway stations along the mountain trail have delighted tourists, especially from the city.
To create awareness among the tourists about local traditions and culture of the Nilgiris tribes, the Ooty Railway Station has gone a step further in having the culture of the Toda tribe painted across its walls. Both locals and tourists have welcomed and appreciated the paintings of the old Toda huts and their farming methods as depicted on the walls of the Ooty Railway Station.
The Todas are a Dravidian ethnic group who live in the Nilgiri Mountains. Before the 18th century and British colonisation, the Todas co-existed locally with other ethnic communities, including the Kotas, Badagas and Kurumbas, in a loose caste-like society, in which the Todas were the top ranking. The Todas traditionally live in settlements called 'mund,' consisting of three to seven small thatched houses, constructed in the shape of half-barrels and located across the slopes of the pasture, on which they keep the domestic buffalo. Their economy was pastoral, based on the buffalo and the dairy products were traded with neighbouring people of the Nilgiri Hills. The Toda religion features the sacred buffalo and hence rituals are performed for all dairy activities as well as for the ordination of dairymen-priests.
Tourists constantly throng the Nilgiris Mountain Railway train services for a ride through the Blue Mountains' serene landscape complete with tunnels, waterfalls, valley views and tea gardens. The quaint tiny railway stations along the mountain trail have delighted tourists, especially from the city.
To create awareness among the tourists about local traditions and culture of the Nilgiris tribes, the Ooty Railway Station has gone a step further in having the culture of the Toda tribe painted across its walls. Both locals and tourists have welcomed and appreciated the paintings of the old Toda huts and their farming methods as depicted on the walls of the Ooty Railway Station.
The Todas are a Dravidian ethnic group who live in the Nilgiri Mountains. Before the 18th century and British colonisation, the Todas co-existed locally with other ethnic communities, including the Kotas, Badagas and Kurumbas, in a loose caste-like society, in which the Todas were the top ranking. The Todas traditionally live in settlements called 'mund,' consisting of three to seven small thatched houses, constructed in the shape of half-barrels and located across the slopes of the pasture, on which they keep the domestic buffalo. Their economy was pastoral, based on the buffalo and the dairy products were traded with neighbouring people of the Nilgiri Hills. The Toda religion features the sacred buffalo and hence rituals are performed for all dairy activities as well as for the ordination of dairymen-priests.