With 600 barbers shaving the heads of over 20,000 thousand people every single day, its no wonder the Venkateswara Temple of Tirumala, India, is sometimes called the largest barbershop in the world. According to ancient lore, Sri Venkateswara is believed to have taken a loan in order to fund his own wedding celebrations. The debt was so huge that he continues to pay it off to this day and requires assistance in doing so. And his devotees are more than happy to help by donating their hair to the cause. Believe or not, the Tirumala temple collects 500 tons of human hair each year, which they auction off to hair extension makers across the world. This has placed the temple at the center of a very lucrative, high-paying market. Last year alone, they raked in an annual revenue of 200 million rupees ($3.6 million). Surprisingly, the pilgrims (most of whom are poor), are unaware that their donated hair is sold at such exorbitant rates. In fact, many of them don’t even know what hair extensions are. But even if they did know, they most likely wouldn’t be fazed. “They don’t mind their hair being sold because the Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam (the temple’s governing body) is doing free tonsuring, free accommodation, free food, free marriages,” said Patheti Srinivasarao, who is in charge of the collection, categorization and sale of the shaved hair. odditycentral/travel/indian-temple-has-600-barbers-shaving-20000-heads-a-day.html
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:41:06 +0000
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