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Freeland Tribune
Freeland, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
What is this article about?
A traveler in India witnesses a Hindu man weighed against gold pieces in a scale during a religious ceremony called Tulabhara. The gold, equaling his weight, is distributed to the poor in the town's destitute quarters. This rite, performed at age 47 when men are fattest, is practiced by a certain sect.
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A Hindoo stood in a scale, and his weight was measured in gold pieces.
"That," said a traveler, "was the strange spectacle that I once beheld in India.
There was a great crowd looking on, and it took a great many gold pieces to equal the Hindoo's weight, for he was fat. Finally, though, the big scale balanced, and then everybody began to shout: "Tulabhara! Tulabhara! Tulabhara!" The fat man got out of the scale. He and his friends took the gold, and, going through all the poorer quarters of the town, they distributed it among the destitute. This, I was informed, was a kind of religious ceremony among a certain sect. Every male at the time in his life when it was thought his weight would be greatest was put in a scale, and gold to equal him in bulk was measured out and distributed in alms. As a rule, each man was forty-seven when his weight was taken. They hold in India that at forty-seven a man is at his fattest."
—Philadelphia Record.
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India
Story Details
A fat Hindu man is weighed against gold pieces in a public scale, balancing after many coins are added. The crowd shouts 'Tulabhara!' and the gold is distributed as alms to the poor by the man and his friends. This is a religious ceremony of a sect where men at age 47, considered their heaviest, perform this act of charity.