The Temple of Doom

Archaeology professor and treasure hunter Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones is in Shanghai in 1935 to exchange a large diamond for a rare artifact. However, the deal with the dubious nightclub owner Lao Che goes awry, resulting in utter chaos: Indiana Jones manages to escape with singer Wilhelmina "Willie" Scott and his friend, the young Chinese boy Shorty, on a plane, unaware that the two pilots also work for Lao Che. As Indy and his friends take a nap, the villains bring the plane down and jump out with the last parachutes just before it crashes. The three friends barely survive and land in a remote village in the Indian jungle. It soon becomes clear that the villagers are in great trouble: their well has dried up, and all their children have disappeared. To make matters worse, the holy Shankara stone has been stolen, without which the community is lost. In their desperation, the villagers ask Indiana Jones for help, who, together with his friends, heads to the palace of Pankot to seek answers. After meeting the very young Maharaja and his prime minister, they begin their investigations and discover a mysterious religious cult that worships a bloodthirsty deity and uses the village children as slaves. Indiana Jones, Willie, and Shorty must stop them, as the evil death cult aims to conquer the world.

The Nurachi

In the opening scenes of the film, we find Dr. Jones in a nightclub called "Club Obi Wan" in Shanghai. Here, he negotiates with the Chinese gangster Lao Che over the remains of Nurhaci, the "first emperor of the Manchu Dynasty." His remains are said to be cremated and kept in a valuable jade urn. But who was this Nurhaci and why did Lao Che want his remains?

Nurhaci was a tribal chieftain of the Jurchen and the founder of the Qing Dynasty. Under his rule, most of the Jurchen tribes were united into one people in 1635 (under the rule of his eighth son), called the Manchus, who overthrew the Ming Dynasty in 1644 and thus took control of the Chinese Empire. Nurhaci organized his army into four, later eight, banners, integrating Manchu, Mongol, and Han Chinese soldiers. In Qing Dynasty China, the Eight Banners were administrative units in which all Manchu families were categorized. The prince's success was based not only on his military organization but also on the prosperity of the Jianzhou Jurchens. In addition to normal farming and horse breeding, they traded in pearls, furs, and mining products, and cultivated and sold ginseng. Thanks to the Eight Banners, Nurhaci and his successors remained in power until the mid-19th century. He died on September 30, 1626, in the newly built Imperial Palace from the effects of a cannon shot during a lost battle at Ningyuan. Archaeological evidence shows the use of urns in the Near East and Europe as early as the Neolithic period (10,000 BC - 2,000 BC). Cremation is still a form of burial found around the world today. An urn is typically made of ceramic or stone material and decorated according to a person's status, lifestyle, and wealth. The urn of Nurhaci was made of jade, which was more valuable than gold or silver during the Qing Dynasty.

The reasons why Lao Che wants Nurhaci's urn can only be speculated. There are no official records. One important question about the ashes in the urn remains unanswered: Is the ash in the urn really Nurhaci's? Why would Indiana Jones hand over Nurhaci's real ashes to gangsters? How can the gangsters distinguish the real ashes from fake ones? And while we're on the subject, how did Lao Che know that the jade urn is the true urn of Nurhaci? It wouldn't have been difficult for Indiana Jones to replace the real urn with another one.

The Shankara Stone

After Indiana Jones and his friends escape from Lao Che, they fly over Chongqing in a plane full of live poultry. Unbeknownst to them, the pilots dump the fuel and parachute out of the doomed plane. Just before the plane crashes, Indy, Willie, and Shorty jump out in an inflatable raft, which then falls from the sky into a desolate Indian village called Mayapore. The unusual travelers are seen by the locals as a gift from Shiva and are invited into the village, where they are told that their children have been kidnapped and their sacred Shankara stone has been stolen by men from the nearby Pankot Palace. Realizing the importance of the stone to the village, Indiana Jones agrees to help them rescue the children and retrieve the stone.

Shankara was a religious teacher and philosopher of Hinduism and the founder of a very important school, who lived between the 7th and 8th centuries. He systematized the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta and succeeded in renewing Hinduism based on the philosophy of the Upanishads. According to Sivananda (a well-known yoga master and teacher of Vedanta), his success was also due to his vivid, illustrative language, which enabled him to make complex matters accessible not only to intellectuals but also to laypeople.

In the film, there is a scene where on a piece of cloth called "Sanskrit," Shiva hands the Lingams to Shankara. The Lingams are phallic-shaped stones that are worshipped in India and associated with the god Shiva. Each stone has three lines engraved on it, representing the three levels of the Hindu universe: Heaven, Earth, and Underworld. The Lingams are usually associated with a Yoni, which is a symbol for Shakti (female creative energy). Together, they represent the union of man and woman and their inseparability in creation for many people. Back to the stones from the film, as seen, the stones would start to glow when placed next to each other. This is purely a Hollywood effect. There is no archaeological evidence that such a phenomenon exists. Real Sankara stones or Shiva Lingams can be seen in the archaeological museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Kali and the Thuggee

Among the countries of the East, India undoubtedly holds a prominent place at the forefront of mysteries. Fakirs, gurus, and demonic cults. In the 18th century, when it was colonized by the British, mysterious India ignited the imagination of writers and explorers who brought myths and legends to life. In short, the ideal place for an archaeologist like Indiana Jones. Hinduism is one of the main themes of the second film in the Indiana Jones saga. The movie Temple of Doom is dedicated to one of the most fascinating and terrifying deities of the Indian pantheon, the goddess Kali. But what is the historical truth about the goddess Kali? Is she really as dreadful and bloodthirsty as depicted in the film? It depends.

In fact, Kali is born as a protective goddess whose task is to fight demons. The most recognized version of her story is told in the "Devi Mahatmyam," a sacred Hindu book from the 6th century. Kali emerges from the forehead of another female deity named "Durga" with the mission to kill the terrible demon "Raktabija." No one could defeat him because each time a drop of his blood touched the ground, a new copy of the demon was born from it. To defeat him, Kali drank all the demon's blood and devoured all his clones, eventually killing him.

This act caused her to become so furious and out of control that she risked destroying the entire universe. To calm her down, her husband Shiva lay down so that Kali could step on him. This gesture soothed her and brought her back to her senses.

In modern Hinduism, Kali is therefore worshipped as a protective goddess, but there is an aspect of her from her ancient cult that we find in the Indiana Jones film: human sacrifice. The reports of human sacrifices committed in the name of this deity are numerous. In the city of "Koknur" in India, for example, it is believed that there is an underground temple dedicated to Kali. This could even be the same temple that appears in the Indiana Jones film. Archaeological excavations to bring it to light were halted after protests from the local residents, who feared that the evil spirits in the temple might be released.

According to legend, among the worshipers of the goddess Kali was the dreadful sect of Thuggee. The Thuggee considered themselves children of the goddess Kali, and their origin was traced back to the bloody battle with the demon "Raktabija." Beyond the religious aspect, the Thuggee were bandits scattered across the Indian subcontinent. They joined the caravans of travelers to gain their trust and then killed them in their sleep to rob them. Their preferred method of killing was strangulation, using a long piece of cloth worn as a belt around their waists. As reported in the film, the Thuggee were eradicated by the British army between 1830 and 1840 under the leadership of General William Sleeman. The killings by the Thuggee had objectives other than religious sacrifices, and it is likely that their connection to the cult of the goddess is partly the result of folklore generated by the fears of travelers of the time.