Saturday, October 22, 2005

Sayoni

No, it is not a Japanese delicacy. Neither it is a Malay endearment.
It is in fact, a mythological concept in Indian mythology. "Yoni" is sanskrit for vagina [though it has a much deeper meaning] and "sa", I would guess, is the prefix to indicate the joining, or the parallel existence of two yonis. It is pronounced not with a "nni" sound, but a light "ni", much like how you would say "ni" in chinese.

Of course, anyone can guess the meaning of this imagery - two women having sexual intercourse. In fact, in the ancient times, lesbianism WAS accepted in India, and many temples were carved with erotic images of lesbians. That was of course, before Mahatma Gandhi led his people to destroy most of those carvings and paintings.


















As I explored the Yoniversum, it became increasingly clear how much the ancient Indians respected and revered the female organ. Yoni Tantra, in essence ritualised cunninglitus, takes this worship to another level. What's amazing is that there is no restriction on who can perform this, ie, same-sex intercourse is permitted.

So we have to ask, for a civilisation that once had a rich homoerotic culture, why are lesbians prosecuted by cutting off fingers and with public humiliation? The answer can be found in one word: colonisation. The British who occupied India brought with them prudish, Victorian values inculcated by the Church, and spread the homophobia to the local population. The same goes for all the Asian countries, except Thailand, which was never colonised. These countries are now protesting homosexuality over "Asian" values, and adopting decadent "Western culture", while UK itself is one of the more gay-friendly countries now. Ah, precious irony.

Upon further reading, the site tells me that worshipping a woman's yoni is the ultimate worship. Okay. Uhum. Sure. No problem at all, with that. Nope. I shall be a most devout worshipper. For once, my former religion has said something completely sensible. If anyone asks, I am just being a faithful follower, oh-kay? Okay.

All images and animations are copyright of Yoniversum, I just borrowed it for demonstration purposes.

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