Source: Global Times
A statue of a ganti made of bananas.
Banana tree at the entrance to the wedding celebration
Fried bananas
The bride tears the banana bark with her teeth
During the COVID-19 epidemic, many people on Indian social media shared how to make banana bread, banana fish and other delicacies. The warm and humid tropical climate and the fertile soils of the adjacent Western Ghats provide India with excellent nourishment for growing bananas. As the world's largest banana producer, India produces nearly 30 million tons of bananas per year, more than 1/4 of the world's total production, but the share used for exports is less than 0.1%, and most of the bananas are consumed by Indians themselves. In India, bananas are not just a fruit, they are even closely related to God.
Banana peels can also be made into a rice dish
There are many kinds of bananas in India, and the color is not only yellow and green, but also red, purple and so on. In 2018, a banana festival was held in Kerala, and more than 150 varieties of bananas were exhibited.
In the Indian diet, bananas are almost "all-powerful". Lunch is the simplest meal for Indians, and some people eat only a few bananas at noon to save time or money. In the afternoon tea, fried bananas are a perfect refreshment, and the Global Times reporter has enjoyed bananas fried in coconut oil on a cruise ship in Kerala, and the sweetness of the crispy outside and tender on the inside is still evocative. Fried banana flowers are also a common delicacy in southern India.
Banana peels, which have been thrown away in other countries, are also a delicacy in India, and the famous dish banana fish is made from banana peels. People grind the half-cooked banana peel into a sauce, mix it with minced fish, add a variety of curry ingredients, and cook it into a paste with chili peppers and onions, which is the banana fish that southern Indians love with rice.
According to Indian tradition, bananas can be medicated from head to toe. For example, banana meat can treat children's constipation, diarrhea and dysentery, which is beneficial to blood pressure and heart health; the stem of the banana tree can treat stomach pain, diabetes and kidney disease; banana flower can cure ulcers; banana root can treat indigestion; banana leaves can make ointments that have a miraculous effect on burns; banana peels have medicinal value and can be used for antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, and raw banana peels can be burned to ashes and can also treat ulcers.
In southern India, banana leaves are also used as dinner plates. Studies have suggested that banana leaves can be stimulated by hot rice and vegetable paste placed on them to produce polyphenols, which can prolong life.
Bollywood actress married banana tree
Bananas play an important role in weddings in southern India. People like to place banana trees full of bananas with branches on both sides of the entrance to the wedding celebration, and use the fruits to symbolize the blessings of the newlyweds. During the wedding, the bride must eat bananas, which is also the blessing of her procreation. At traditional weddings in Assam, there is also an ancient tradition that requires the bride to sit in a sitting position and tear off as long a piece of bark as possible from a banana tree with her teeth, and the longer the bark, the longer the groom will live.
During many traditional Indian festivals such as Vesak, Jug and Diwali, Indians will find banana trees with flowers and fruits, and the whole family will pray together to pray for prosperity and prosperity.
There is a banana tree that fulfills the dream of many Indian men - to marry Bollywood actress Aisevaya Ray, known as "India's first beauty". According to the ancient and mysterious astrology of India, the birth time of this actress is unlucky, and the locals call it Mungrick, corresponding to the Chinese folk saying that there is "the fate of Kefu". Before Esivaya Ray married the son of the "Bollywood Evergreen" Amitba Baguin, the crack given by several famous Hindu monks was to marry a banana tree first. To this end, the Ba Qiang family specially took the bride to the holy city of Varanasi by plane to carry out this "banana and beauty" wedding.
Closely related to God
Indians worship the gods are also inseparable from bananas, and the tributes offered to the gods are generally placed on banana leaves, which people firmly believe can make the gods happy. This makes sense, as several of the major Hindu deities are closely related to bananas. According to the Book of Vishnu' Past Lives, the banana trees contain incarnations of the snow-capped goddess Parvati and the god of wealth, Lakshmi, the two goddesses, the wives of the destruction god Shiva and the protector deity Vishnu, respectively. In Indian religious texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedas, bananas are also mentioned, and Vishnu, one of the three supreme gods of Hinduism, even called bananas "the root of the universe, in which everything in the world can be seen."
Two other widely worshipped Hindu gods, Ganesha the ganesha and hanuman the monkey god, are naturally fond of bananas. Have you ever seen an elephant or a monkey who doesn't like bananas? Therefore, bananas and banana leaves in various Indian worship gods are almost a must-have item.
In India, where there are many myths and legends, eating banana peels also has its mythological origins. In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, the great god Krishna goes to mediate the war between the Bandu and The Khulus. The wife of a Bandu general, admiring Krishna's unique style, mistakenly threw away the banana meat when offering him fruit and only offered it to the banana peel, and the god ate the banana peel with a smile.
Because of the close relationship with the gods, many festivals in India cost a lot of bananas, such as the Festival of the Elephant Head, and some cities in southern India will use 5 tons of bananas to make 7.5 meters high gods. During Durga Festival, people in West Bengal dress up as a banana "bride" with banana trees and then have "she" marry Gannesha, the ganesha. On Shiva Festival, people simply throw bananas at the crowd from high floats, and some participants described the scene as "bananas falling like rain".
The southern Indian state of Terengana also features the children's cartoon "The Magic Banana" in Telugu and the children's song featuring bananas. It can be said that local children grew up listening to stories of various bananas and gods.
In recent years, various industrial values related to bananas have also been gradually developed in India. There is a pioneering team in Tamil Nadu that has successfully produced fibers that can be woven from banana stalks that people throw away. Later, someone made a traditional costume sari from banana fiber, which is said to have been inspired by the legend of the monkey god Hanuman in the Ramayana who used bananas to help Siddha make a sarees. Others have developed biodegradable plastic bags from banana fiber. There's even a team that won the Entrepreneurship Competition Award to make cheap sanitary napkins out of banana fiber. According to reports, the market outlook for this product is good.