Temples week

After a week's yoga we were judged good enough to demonstrate to a group of students from Sweden - on the beach, with an audience..... not to be repeated, but an 'interesting' experience all the same..... as was seeing pictures of ourselves yog-ing!

We're now back in 'India proper' and have been marvelling at temples. Absolutely amazing temples - here's a quick guide so that the names might mean something and you get a taste for them.. if there's too much to ready just look at the pictures and imagine lots more!

Trichy has 2 temples together, perched on the top of a tall tall rock... with spectacular views and underneath, in the rock, a massive temple carved into the rock that took tens of years to complete. You can see a replica of Lourdes cathedral from the top, which is rather odd.

Next to Trichy is a place called Sriranganam where the temple is more like a town and goes on and on with gate after gate leading to ring after ring of shops before getting to the temple proper. The size of the temple is quite someting, the height of the first gateway is too.. and we were there on a Sunday so there were hundreds of people visiting and picnicing inside which made it very busy, bustling and lively. We managed to find the 'horses courtyard' where we found stunning chola pillars (with horses on them) and a real horse too..

From Trichy we moved to Tanjavur - a very special town, busy, friendly, with a special buzz... the temple there is different from anything we'd seen so far. Lots of temples are very dark, closed spaces that can feel claustrophobic, full and are lit by the lamps at the shrines, there's a smell of burning coconut oil or coconut oil turning sour... and not much outside space, while everything inside goes very quickly.

The gates at Tanjavur lead to an enormous open courtyard with colonnades around the sides, the main temple and little ones around it and space to sit, walk and picnic around them. The main temple was finished around 1010 and is a beautiful example of Chola work, beautifully carved stones. We went back at sunset and it really was a lovely place to be...

(also while inTanjavur, we had a completely random and very nice encounter with a fellow traveller called Jake - Jake turns out to be the producer of a play about RJ that I exchanged emails with about a year ago... strange coincidences and a very agreeable few days discovering Tanjavur temple and restaurants! Can't meet in the UK? try a chance encounter in India.. the stars and planets managed to arrange this one!)

(we've even managed dinner in Pondicherry too!)

From Tanjavur we moved on to Kumbakonam - town of temples, flowers, 'welcome to India' smiling children and not many tourists at all...and therefore a number of almost traffic accidents as we surprised people on their bikes. We went out of town to the Chola temple at Darasuram - a UNESCO site, now surrounded by a fence and lush green grass, the temple is a smaller and more intimate version of Tanjavur (or maybe that was because so few people were there), 200 years younger and covered in detailled carvings of life, dancers, gods, of course and tons of animals. We had a lovely picnic on the 'nice bit of grass' outside and enjoyed the peace and quiet, if a bit perturbed by being fenced in.... with others fenced out..

Before getting 'Chola-ed out' we pressed on to Gangaikondacholapuram (quite a mouthful when asking bus conductors whether they're going there...) which is really in the middle of no-where (though there was a tea stall and friendly people) and is much more of a ruin than the others, though still surrounded by very nice grass and a nice place for a peaceful sit (note: Indian towns never stop moving, everyone's busy going somewhere, or doing something or sitting in their shop/stand... which means our habit of sitting in cafes, sipping a drink, hanging about over a meal etc are rather frustrated, and we only get to stop in the hotel really - which is why a sit in a quiet open-air temple in the shade is soooo appreciable!), anyway, more stunning stone work and amazement at how anyone did any of this 1000 years ago (building a skyscraper with a crane and other machines seems such a cop-out!)

Our final halt on the temple path before heading for croissants in Pondicherry was at Chidambaram - after almost getting straight back on the bus as every hotel told us there wasn't a free room in town, we settled in a 'lodge' (read simple room, not expensive, small many-legged visitors at night) and set off for the ENORMOUS temple in the middle of town. This really was the best yet! All the space and open areas we've apreciated in the other Chola temples but this time full of life and busy from 4am to 10pm every day (yes, we heard the drums and music this morning!) - having wandered the courtyards, marvelled at the beautiful tank and spotted Chola everywhere, we made it through an engagement 'blessing' (more music, amazing saris, friendly people and so many brahmins!), past running children and munching cows and tumbled into the inner sanctuary just before the evening pooja - through a hall filled with pillars, all covered in Chola carving, filled also with brahmin priests, sitting around chatting and the whole looking like a scene from 1000 years ago - and we got to see Shiva in his special dancing pose (you've all seen it, the one where he's on one leg in a ring of fire).

Chola meets neon lights at Chidambaram!

The 'secret' of Chidambaram was well hidden behind this shrine though - the famous (invisible) Shiva lingham (or phallus) made of ether - the top of the top of the Shiva linghams we've seen this week, luckily there are plenty of visible versions in case you weren't sure what it was (here's a few of the 108 at Tanjavur):

And here we are on the temple trail.... and noticing some lovely posters ;-)

We're off for a croissant now, then more curry! H and S x