Andalurkavu

Andalurkavu is an ancient temple of the Thiyyar community at Andalur in Dharmadam village, Kannur district, dedicated to Rama. It was long governed by six Thiyyar ancestral houses under the 'Four Thara Achans' as an autonomous centre. When a Thiyyar boy is born in its four areas, a small bow and arrow is made in his name and offered here, dedicating him to the shrine's service, and so many collect each year that the shrine is known as 'Andalure Aayiram Ville', Andalur's thousand bows.

The temple has two sacred sites, the Mele Kavu and the Thazhe Kavu; the latter is a sacred grove with rare plants of the Myristica swamps, including the endangered Syzygium travancoricum, though much of its flora has been lost. Andalurkavu is one of the rare places where the Yuddha Kanda of the Ramayana is enacted, during a seven-day festival from the second week of February with more than ten theyyams; Rama appears as Daivathaar, the most important, with Lakshmana as Angakkaran and Hanuman as Bappuran.