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Sacred site, India

Tirumala

The hill temple of Venkateswara, where pilgrims offer their hair at the Kalyanakatta tonsure halls.

Tirumala, in the Seshachalam hills above Tirupati, is home to the Venkateswara Temple, one of the most visited shrines in the world. Many pilgrims come to offer their hair to the deity as a vow fulfilled or a sign of surrender. Men, women and children have their heads shaved by temple barbers at the Kalyanakatta halls before going up for darshan, the sight of the deity.

The offering

Giving hair, called mokku in Telugu, is among the oldest vows made at Tirumala. A devotee who prays for a child, a cure or a safe journey promises the hair in return, and comes back to give it once the prayer is answered. Men usually have the head fully shaved. Many women offer a full shave too, while others give a few locks cut from the end of the plait. Children often have their first tonsure here. After the shave, many apply sandalwood paste to the scalp.

The Kalyanakatta

The temple trust, Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams, runs the Kalyanakatta tonsure halls, where several hundred barbers work in shifts around the clock and the service is free. On busy days tens of thousands of heads are shaved. The hair is collected, sorted by length and sold by e-auction, much of it exported to make wigs and extensions, and press reports put the trust's income from it at more than 100 crore rupees a year. Pilgrims are often unaware that their offering travels so far.

Hairstyles of Tirumala

TonsurePilgrims shave their heads as an offering to VenkateswaraHead shaving in HinduismThe vow of hair offered at the Kalyanakatta

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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