India has always been a country that many people will criticize, because India’s economy has clearly entered the ranks of the top five in the world, but India this country gives people the feeling is very backward, Indians do not love clean or India’s environment is very dirty, including India’s security is also very worrying. But in India beyond that, there are a lot of places that have all kinds of customs, but you’ve heard of a “no shoes” village, where everyone has to take off their shoes except for one kind of person, and that rule is really bizarre, and we’re going to look at this particular village in India today.
“No shoes” village
Just heard “no shoes” village, thought this rule is made by Africans, after all, Africa is still very backward, there are a lot of children and adults are bare feet, but this thing happened in India, still makes people feel very incredible. This is the Andaman village in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India, where people are forbidden to wear shoes in the village. At the end of the village, they have to take off their shoes and enter the village with bare feet, and there is only one type of people who can not take off their shoes.
Tamil Nadu is located in the south of the Indian Ocean and connected to the Gulf of Bengal in the east. It covers an area of more than 130,000 square kilometers and is home to more than 60 million people. It is one of the wealthier states in India. “Tamil” not only has a prosperous economy, but also has more than 30,000 temples and ruins, so it is called the “temple country”. Andaman village is part of Sri Lanka, but it is mostly populated by people who live here and their living conditions are not very good.
It is said that during the civil war in Sri Lanka, people were deported here and settled there. But the Indians refused to accept them, and often destroyed their farms and houses, so they lived in very bad conditions, were very poorly equipped, and had no ability to fight. Sri Lanka broke out a war in 1983, Sri Lankans have lived here for a long time, maybe because of the climate, there are often some strange diseases, but there is a penniless man, even don’t have shoes but countless people, so people spread the rumor that “no shoes” can cure the disease.
As a result, people believe that if you wear shoes in the village, you will get sick. Some people even throw away their shoes. In Andaman village, whether it is to pick herbs or to work in the fields, it is a habit to go shoeless. As time went on, the legend grew in popularity.
Now, as in Sri Lanka, women’s social status is confined to the home, taking care of children and managing household affairs, and few adults work in Andaman villages. But until now they have kept the custom of taking off their shoes when they return to the village.
In Andaman, women fight for the family. Perhaps because local customs remain primitive, women have a relatively low social status. Their daily tasks are washing and cooking, farming and chopping wood, and taking care of children and the elderly. Men, on the other hand, are happier, either waiting at home or sleeping. So in Andaman you can see women working in the fields, keeping everything in order at home and on the farm.
But word of the village’s “bare feet” is spreading, and tourism is a source of income for tourists, who don’t have to take off their shoes to entertain them. So far, more than 140 families and 900 villagers in Andaman village still maintain the tradition of “no shoes”. Anyone who works in the village must take off their shoes. Even children follow the tradition of “barefoot will not get sick”.
Andaman is now flooded with tourists who want to see its strange customs. However, Tamil Nadu is a good tourist destination with many famous sites such as the Shiva Shrine in Tirudri, the Minakoshi Temple in Madurai, and the Mahabori Brahma Caves, which are the most popular tourist destinations. Although we are puzzled by this odd custom of not wearing shoes into the village, we still respect the local customs.
We can only say that there are many things in the world. We have only seen one corner of the world, and if we can go to more places, we can see the richness of the world. So it’s a lot of time to go around the world.