Cheppad is a scenic village near

Haripad Haripad is a Municipality in '' Onattukara'' region of Alappuzha District, Kerala, India located between Alappuzha and Kollam on the National Highway 66. Haripad is bordered on the east by Pallippad, Veeyapuram and Karuvatta to the n ...

in Alleppy District in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...

State, India. It is about halfway between

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of ...

and

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

on the National Highway 47 (now NH 66).

Etymology

Cheppad was known as "Cheppukadu" in ancient times; "cheppu" indicates a small container and "kadu" indicates a small forest.

Economy

Cheppad is turning into a town of the future with the already existing national thermal power station, modernisation of Cheppad railway station and 5-star hotels in the neighbourhood. Cheppad is covered by the state of the art 3G mobile network and high speed broadband up to 8 Mbit/s and the new National Highway 66 development gives Cheppad access to all major cities. Cheppad has a railway station too. There is a Government Ayurveda Hospital with very well qualified doctors 24 hours a day. CKHS

Demography

Cheppad is inhabited by a predominantly Hindu community. The Christian community is the second largest religious community and many denominations of Christian faith can be found here. There is no documentary evidence to establish the arrival of Christian community to this place. St. George Orthodox Church, Cheppad under the Malankara Orthodox Syrian church is the major attraction of cheppad.

St George Orthodox Church

St. George Orthodox Church in Cheppad is popularly known a
Cheppad Valiya Pally
and is a pilgrim center of the

Malankara Orthodox Church The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in Devalokam, near Kottayam, India. The church serves ...

. The church may date from 1175. St George Orthodox Church is the resting place of Cheppad Philipose Mar Dionysius, Malankara Metropolitan of the

Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) also known as the Indian Orthodox Church (IOC) or simply as the Malankara Church, is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church headquartered in Devalokam, near Kottayam, India. The church serves ...

from 1825 to 1855. The 900-year-old mural paintings in Cheppad St. George Orthodox Church exhibits the Christian traditional paintings. The paintings are on the walls of the Madbaha (altar) of the Church and show events from the life of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

from birth to ascension and few events from the old testament.

References

External links