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Post by lugg on May 18, 2013 7:34:24 GMT
Pondicherry does look a good place to spend some time. Why is it that others do not like it?
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Post by anshjain97 on May 18, 2013 10:27:12 GMT
Some people find it an over-touristy city, and maybe even not much to do, which I disagree because roaming around the French Quarter is a great way to spend time, as said Auroville is also closeby. Also some people say that, with less time, there are better places to visit. Which really depends on the person. Although I've only been there twice, I'm sure I can make an interesting visit every year/few months.
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Post by spindrift1 on May 18, 2013 13:45:30 GMT
ansh - I agree with you. I would certainly visit Pondicherry a second time - mainly because I loved being in and around the temple! There are small roads leading to it and it seems to be in an interesting part of town. Here it is: As you see, this is the Sri Manakula Vinayagar Temple dedicated to Ganesh.And although someone at our hotel told us that the temple elephant had died recently - yet as we strolled towards the temple the first thing we saw was The Elephant!She was standing patiently with her keepers sitting next to her, doing her usual job of taking offerings from the faithful and blessing them in return.See - she has an anklets on her feet.Now I will show you some aspects of the gopuram. Bixa - a gopuram is a monumental tower at the entrance/s of a temple in South India. These function as gateways through the walls of the temple. They can be traced back to the earliest temple structures of the Tamil kings, the Pallavas. In Tamil gopuram translates as 'imperishable gateway'. They are exquisitately decorated with sculptures and carvings portraying Hindu mythology particularly those associated with the presiding deity of the temple. So in the case of this Ganesh temple (the elephant deity) the sculptures must portray figures related to Ganesha (the son of Lord Shiva and Parvati his wife).
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Post by spindrift1 on May 18, 2013 14:01:33 GMT
More later because my connection is bad so I keep losing pics!
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Post by bixaorellana on May 18, 2013 14:29:04 GMT
Apologies if I missed where you explained already, but what is a gopuram, please? It's so lifelike -- as though the figures could walk right off if they felt like it. What's it made from, & what's the age on it?
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Post by anshjain97 on May 18, 2013 14:41:18 GMT
Oh- actually I hadn't visited any temple in Pondicherry...but actually I never had any intention to.
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Post by spindrift1 on May 19, 2013 18:57:12 GMT
Bixa - sorry, my reply to you got posted above your questions! The Pallava dynasty ruled in South India from 2nd to 9th century AD. I do not know what the figures are made of... I can ask someone perhaps.
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Post by spindrift1 on May 19, 2013 19:07:05 GMT
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Post by spindrift1 on May 19, 2013 20:56:54 GMT
So, bidding farewell to the Elephant god himself Tomorrow we will leave for the small town of Chidambaram which is 96 kilometers down the coast road knowing that the temple will close at 12 noon so we must leave Pondi early and get going.
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Post by spindrift1 on May 20, 2013 18:39:59 GMT
Early next morning we arrived at the small town of Chidambaram. This town is built around one of the holiest shrines in India to Nataraja, Lord Shiva the Dancer of the Universe. Here fire offerings are made inside the temple several times a day. The Nataraja temple is an ancient one, covers 22 hectares and has four towering gopurams. The main entrance is under the East gopuram and depicts the 108 sacred positions of classical Tamil dance. Cameras were not allowed into the temple, although we could photograph the outside, so all the wonderful sights I saw cannot be portrayed here. The fire ceremony takes place six times a day and is performed as the same ritual unchanged for thousands of year. Just think of it! How privileged I was to be there.This is the East gate entrance to the temple as viewed by me whilst sitting on a stool enjoying yet another milk chai.Unfortunately we were forbidden to take cameras into the temple but we could photograph within the high walls of the compound.This bronze shows Shiva (Lord of the Dance)....The dance as depicted on the gopuram.... In the heat of midday we now head towards the next temple at Darasuram...
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Post by spindrift1 on May 20, 2013 19:58:06 GMT
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Post by spindrift1 on May 20, 2013 21:47:43 GMT
The outer courtyard of the temple
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Post by anshjain97 on May 21, 2013 6:20:27 GMT
Great so far! Liking every bit of it.
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Post by spindrift1 on May 21, 2013 8:04:36 GMT
Thanks, Ansh...but I am now feeling that people might be getting tired of seeing so many temples, for I have many more to show, and perhaps I ought to skip out on some and get to prettier scenes of seaside and backwaters. What do you think? I sure felt very tired when I was running around on my 'yatra' at the hottest time of the year, in fact I have damaged my right foot because my Tevas sandals were stolen along with my baggage and so I had to wear ill-fitting local shoes....
As it is, I still have photos to show of Kumbakonam, Thanjore and Maderai before I get to Chettinadu country and then on to Rameswaram...phew! and from there to Kanyakumari...
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Post by anshjain97 on May 21, 2013 10:06:21 GMT
Oh- I can't speak for others...but as interesting as your report is, temples are really nothing new to me, being an Indian, living here all my life in this culture. I am sure if I had never been to Mahabalipuram and around, or hadn't seen many Hindu temples, I am sure your report will have made me book a flight to India immediately!
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2013 13:49:52 GMT
The shots of the temples are great, spindrift. My only suggestion would be to split some of the temples into individual reports. We've already gone to five pages here with your photos and our chat, so anybody new who might drop in would certainly be overwhelmed by the quantity and feel that it is an overdose.
Another good thing about individual threads is that with the proper title, Google will pick them up and allow all sorts of people around the world to find your excellent pictures of specific temples.
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Post by spindrift1 on May 21, 2013 18:17:21 GMT
Thanks Ansh....
I would very much like Bixa's opinion...Bixa?
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Post by htmb on May 22, 2013 1:20:04 GMT
Spindrift, did you count how many temples you actually visited on this trip? Was your route planned out, or did you do a lot of wandering to find each one? Did you find temples having many similarities as well as differences, or were they totally different from each other?
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Post by bixaorellana on May 22, 2013 4:45:13 GMT
Spindrift, this is all immensely interesting and extremely exotic. I'm really enjoying your text, too, as you convey your sense of wonder, respect, and the natural shyness that goes with being a stranger in a strange land. Thank you for the answer on the gopuram and also for the 2nd photo in #127, which finally gave me an idea of how huge it is. I certainly had not realized before. As for your questions: I am now feeling that people might be getting tired of seeing so many temples, for I have many more to show, and perhaps I ought to skip out on some and get to prettier scenes of seaside and backwaters. and I still have photos to show of Kumbakonam, Thanjore and Maderai before I get to Chettinadu country and then on to Rameswaram...phew! and from there to Kanyakumari.. ~~ I think you're going to have to decide for yourself how you want to present this trip, which after all was a pilgrimage close to your heart. If you feel it needs to be all of one piece, well, that's the way you should do it. On the other hand, if you think some of the places and temples warrant more leisurely, in-depth coverages and you have enough photos to create full threads for them, that's another way that would work also. I had to do that with my 2nd Puebla report, which is full of not temples, but churches. The report had churches interspersed throughout, but I have a backlog of the more elaborate ones awaiting their own threads. (since Christmastime )Remember, if you do decide to make several reports, you'll reap the benefit of having your threads found over time by people searching the subject online, as Kerouac pointed out above. (something for everyone to remember!) Sorry to have gone on at such length. I'll wrap this up by quoting Htmb's excellent questions above, about which I'm sure many of us are curious ~~ Spindrift, did you count how many temples you actually visited on this trip? Was your route planned out, or did you do a lot of wandering to find each one? Did you find temples having many similarities as well as differences, or were they totally different from each other?
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Post by spindrift1 on May 22, 2013 13:00:39 GMT
htmb - We visited at least 15 South Indian Hindu temples on this trip. It took us 20 days to cover this ground (with only a few days off - to rest). We planned our route very carefully. We knew that if we wanted to travel from Chennai to Cochin within our time frame then we could not go up into the hills see tea plantations or game/bird sanctuaries. I was a little wary starting off due to the immensely debilitating heat but somehow I managed. I already had a large scale map of India with all the roads and boundaries marked and so we could plan which temples were, more or less, on our way to Cochin. There are thousands of temples and shrines in Tamil Nadu so we only scratched the surface in 3 weeks. Sometimes we did not want to move on because we would have liked to spend longer in a particular place but we reasoned that we were only on a 'taster' of temples and could return one day. I would have been more than happy to spend a whole day in one temple without rushing off but I was lucky to see as much as I did. I wish I could show more in my photos but, as I said, cameras were forbidden and rightly so. These temples all had many similarities; most of them are dedicated to Lord Shiva (Siva) so one finds Nandi the Bull everywhere for a start. And yet there was a difference in many of the atmospheres I encountered therein. It's impossible to explain in words. Bixa, thanks for your most helpful comments. I did read one of your excellent Puebla reports and thoroughly enjoyed it - and you did visit a lot of churches. I will think carefully how to present the rest of my report. I certainly would like two places in particular to be picked up by Google search engine for others to see - that is Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari. I think I have enough photos to warrant separate threads on these wonderful places. And thank you for being so encouraging.
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Post by fgrsk8r1970 on May 22, 2013 16:25:18 GMT
This is so very interesting and the photos are beautiful. I am not tired of seeing temples and like all the great suggestions above !!!
The intricacy of them is mind boggling !!!
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Post by spindrift1 on May 22, 2013 19:30:40 GMT
^ thanks dear friend!
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2013 20:45:30 GMT
Those are certainly titles that can be picked up by Google and the other search engines without any risk of being confused with another place.
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Post by htmb on May 22, 2013 23:11:35 GMT
Thank you for that update, spindrift. Your trip sounds fascinating and certainly very ambitious. I look forward to reading more of your posts!
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2013 10:08:28 GMT
Just looking at all of these temples and thinking of the ones that are all over Asia as well as other parts of the world with their cathedrals, pyramids, etc., I find it mind boggling that so much time and effort were devoted to such endeavours, at least compared to what is done in modern times. Nowadays, projects are completed in 5-10 years in most cases, so it is really stunning to imagine all of the construction projects that lasted several centuries and also to imagine the lives of the workers. I presume that many projects used slaves or variations thereof, but some of the workers must have been really devoted to these projects and worked on them their entire life (which probably meant about 20-30 years maximum considering the lifespans back then). Several generations of the same family certainly worked hauling and carving stones and yet they never saw the finished perfection of these places.
It seems like it must have been very frustrating, which is probably why most of the religions integrated frustration as a necessary part of life.
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Post by lugg on May 24, 2013 6:23:05 GMT
I am also not tired of temples and always look forward to catching up with your posts.
Airavateshwarar temple has to be my favourite so far, not sure why perhaps itsthe green setting maybe with the lovely aged stone. I can see that there has been quite a lot of restoration , is it on going ? Also what is the significance of the cloth tied around the bull ?
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Post by spindrift1 on May 24, 2013 10:14:32 GMT
K - the temple-building in the time of the Chola and Pallava dynasties was unceasing. I don't know whether it is known whether it was slaves or labourers who built the temples... At Mamallapuram I read that some of these structures were 'megalithic' and some dated back to pre-historic times. I have become so interested that I am seeking knowledge of pre-Hindu beliefs and practices. Perhaps I should go up to the British Library in this quest. I do know that at Mamallapuram there were carved stones representing ancient Egyptian concepts. For me it seems that the fount of knowledge originates in the Sub-Continent.
lugg - I did not enquire about restoration but I do know that from time to time the figures on the gopura are re-painted as well as many temple pillars. You will see in my Rameshwaram thread that renewing the paint does not always look good but I suppose it must be done from time to time.
I do not know why the bull has cloth tied around him. I shall find out!
Actually, I still have a lot of photos to put up of this Airavateshwarar temple so I will continue with this thread at the same time as furthering the Rameshwaram thread. So glad you find it interesting.
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Post by nycgirl on May 24, 2013 12:48:27 GMT
Great photos. Wow, you are quite the temple buff! I really like the staircases with the elephant trunks rolled out like handrails.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2013 7:21:43 GMT
I would imagine that the bull is just wearing a ceremonial cloak.
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Post by spindrift1 on May 26, 2013 10:10:02 GMT
K - maybe it is that. I did enquire about the cloak but I didn't get an answer apart from being told that it must be a local custom not known or practised by Hindus not living in the Tamil Nadu area.
Actually I do know someone who lives in Chennai. I will mail this person and ask again.
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