When an Indian Necklace Ignites My Longing for Culture Venture

On a Saturday evening, I decided to head down to a South Indian restaurant with a friend after our gem-faceting class. As usual, we enjoyed our food while we chatted about jewellery and exchanged new ideas.

Towards the end of our meal, I looked around the restaurant with curiosity. My attention was suddenly caught by a garland-like decoration hanging on the restaurant wall. I shouted to my friend with excitement: “Look! What is that?” We got up from our seats and walked towards this mysterious object, eager to uncover its identity.

Santhana Malai is hung on one side of the wall in the restaurant

Upon a closer, we saw two huge round-shaped discs of pink flower petals. Below each disc extends six strings of beads, flanked by two decorative strings woven with coloured sequins. At the bottom of this hanging object is a triangular plaque, also decorated with floral designs formed out of metal wires.

The object looked more like a necklace than a wall decoration to me, but its gigantic size gave me a second thought. It obviously had a function, perhaps even an important one. However, its unfamiliar-looking design combined with this unusual material mix puzzled me.

I looked around for the waiter and enquired about this hanging object. The waiter, without answering our question, told us to wait and went into the back kitchen. A few minutes later, the same waiter came to us with his phone in hand, showing to me what he found on the internet. It turns out that this mysterious object is a type of necklace called Santhana Malai, usually given to honoured guest and VIPs.

“What are these beads found on the necklace? Are they made of seeds?” I asked further. “No,” replied the kind-hearted waiter. “It’s sandalwood. We call them Santhanam in South India”. “It’s also applied to the forehead, with the red dot.”

Bottle of sandalwood powder (left) and kumkum powder (right)

After the mystery was resolved, my friend and I went back to our seats. While we were still caught up in the excitement of this new discovery, the same waiter came over to our table with two bottles in his hand. He opened up those two bottles, one with vivid red powder inside and the other already empty.

The red powder, also known as kumkum powder, is more common. “This other one is empty but you can still smell it,” said the waiter. I put the bottle close to my nose and, to my surprise, a soothing fragrance made me feel at home. “I know this scent. I’ve smelled it in many places before,” I said with excitement, as if I were in some kind of blind test. “Yes, it’s sandalwood powder. In south India, we also apply them to the face to get rid of pimples and blemishes,” replied the waiter while showing me this video he found online of a man’s face covered in sandalwood paste.

A little bronze shrine is found in front of Ganesha

The waiter then led us to a Ganesha shrine located near the restaurant’s entrance. He took a metal plate that holds three little cups (one of them containing kumkum powder and another santhanam) originally placed in front of the shrine. He took a pinch of the santhanam powder and placed them carefully in my hand so that I could feel and touch. Though it was literally just a slump of powder, it felt really special for me.

“It’s travelling to explore the diversity of cultures and being able to learn from people’s different ways of seeing that fuel my happiness.”

Having examined the powder up close, I put the powder back to the cup after asking for permission. The waiter then pointed towards the corner of the shrine where there’s a mini statue of a Hindu deity made out of bronze. The deity’s halo, which radiates outward like the sun’s ray, is clearly covered in kumkum and santhanam powder. Then I realised that a pinch of the earthy brown powder is also offered to the centre of Ganesha’s palm.

Thinking back, that Saturday evening spent at Amma’s Kitchen’s made that day a very special one. It reminded me once again of my passion in exploring different cultures, meeting and sharing beliefs and views with people from different backgrounds — something I haven’t been able to do for the past year due to the global pandemic.

A close friend of mine recently asked me what is it that makes me happy. I went silent for a few seconds, then said: It’s travelling, but not just traveling to different places. It’s travelling to explore the diversity of cultures and being able to learn from people’s different ways of seeing that fuel my happiness.

Amma’s Kitchen is a south indian restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan.