Temple Time

This morning was the first time I was able to sleep in for over a week, which was greatly needed!  Jess had gone to an animal nutrition conference, and everyone else here was so tired from helping out at the wedding yesterday that I was left to my own devices.  It was nice to go back to sleep, read, and walk around the peaceful BHC campus.  I also got to meet the previous Bishop, James, and his wife, Grace.  They were super nice.  They have travelled the world together and lived in many places, including the US.  Both their children live in the US and have had children of their own, so they fly back frequently.  One cool thing is that they were able to lift themselves up in life.  They started in a poor village in which James was the only person with a scooter.  Because of this, he was the unofficial ambulance whenever anyone was hurt.  He is a very interesting and hospitable man. 

The first thing you see as you drive toward the temple.  

If you look closely, you can see a neon sign of a white, green, red, and yellow symbol that is painted throughout the temple (see one of the pics below).  I have no clue what it means.

This is the underbelly of the first building seen above.    

Later on, Jess and I went for tea and dessert at Arasan Sweets and Bakery.  This is a nice little shop that Solomon showed us on our first day.  We bought three cups of tea and three desserts for 68 rupees, which was only $1!!  I still cannot get over how wonderful the tea is here; I am going to ask Madhan (the chef) to teach me how to make it before we leave.  The desserts are also much different (if you hadn’t gathered that from my previous blog pictures).  Today I got mango cake and pista barfi, a pistachio and milk based dessert.  After this, Jess, Solomon, Dinesh, and I scooted to Srirangam Temple, which is what I understand to be the largest functioning temple in the world.  It is also super old at around 2,000 years.  This temple is on a small island surrounded by the Cauvery River.  The bridge across the river was huge, but Trichy is just now leaving behind its dry season, and there was a drought this year.  Because of this, the incredibly wide river bed was mostly empty with people walking out over what must usually be many feet of gushing water.  Huge plants were growing in many locations, showing that water has not really flowed here in a while.  Once we arrived, we saw that this temple is huge, spread out over many acres.  There were several buildings that reached up into the sky completely covered in tiny, intricate statues and paintings that were all elaborately painted and decorated.  Nearly every brick was carved with ancient Tamil, and there were 400 stone pillars each carved out of a single stone.  One of the centerpieces was an open room that looked into a shrine that housed a ten foot tall, local goddess with a haunting, searching gaze.  We were not allowed into the innermost rooms since we are not Hindus.  Also, we got yelled at by an intense priest in Tamil when Madhan took some pictures of the goddess; they made us delete the pictures!  This is understandable, though, as this is a very holy place for local Hindus.  We saw some things resembling grain silos where offerings to the gods were stored, and a huge hole in the ground that contained holy water.  This water is holy because it slowly collects here throughout the day as it runs down through the temple after the statues of the gods are washed with it.  They require washing because many rituals involve covering them with and offering them ghee, milk, or turmeric water.  One interesting thing about turmeric is that it repels insects, which I learned after watching a shop owner spreading turmeric water all over the ground around his food stand.  I have noticed that my sweat smells different here, most likely due to all of the South Indian food and spices I have been eating.  I wonder if this is why it seems as though the people here do not get bitten as frequently as Jess or me, because of their “spicier” blood.  This might be nonsense, but I think there is something to these spices.  One thing that surprised me about this temple was that along the long stretches between the outer buildings and inner buildings, the streets were lined with markets, bustling people, and scooters/taxis.  While the innermost part was clanging with ritual music and prayer, this outer part seemed like just another part of the city.  Considering this is a holy place, this was out-of-place to me.

 

This is an elephant who gives blessings in return for money you give to his keeper who may be a priest (I am not sure).  It is sad that this great creature must stand here all day without any elephant companions in the heat of the sun.  

This is Solomon and his cousin Dinesh.  It was so nice of them to spend their day coming to this site with us.  

Grain silos for offerings being restored. 

Ancient Tamil (unreadable to our guides). 

Here is a symbol painted all over the complex and lit up in neon on the first building.  No one could decipher its meaning for me.  

Artwork on the ceiling. 

One interesting thing I observed was our guides’ reactions to the place.  Solomon had no interest in looking into the eyes of the goddess because he is Christian and has different principles, he explained, and he had never been to this huge Hindu pilgrimage site.  This makes sense since he is a Christian, but he lives only ten minutes away from this famous temple.  He explained to me, after the priest finished yelling at us for taking pictures, that some of the Hindus consider meat-eaters and non-Hindus to be untouchable and that he does not feel accepted in locations such as this, which is why he had never been.  Another topic of tension was the 10 crore (100 million rupees/$1.5 million) that the government of Tamil Nadu is spending on restoring this site.  One of the huge buildings was completely white because it had been sprayed with a mix of sodium and potassium permanganate, which is preserving the colors from all of the air pollution here.  The original colors will be retrieved, and the statues will be repainted.  The artwork here was absolutely gorgeous, and one could tell which pieces had been restored versus not.  It makes sense that Tamil Nadu wants to preserve this beautiful, astounding religious site and tourist attraction.  On the other hand, they mentioned that many people here struggle everyday to afford basic necessities and that the infrastructure needs some work, so it would be better for the citizens to received upgrades like plumbing, healthy food, and clean water.  Nonetheless, if you are ever in India, head to Srirangam; you are in for a treat. 

Part of one of the huge doors leading into the holier parts of the temple.

This is the midpoint of the temple between the first building and the most holy place.  

A crazy awesome mango stand where around 20 varieties of local mangoes are sold.  You can tell which ones are sweeter with a better texture because they are farther from the road (in the back of the store) and cost 150 rupees per kilogram versus 70 rupees for the cheaper ones.  

Here is a cool lizard I saw today.  Despite their cocky appearance, they are quite skittish. 

Some tea from Arasan.  You pour it back and forth between the cups to mix up all the ingredients.  Luckily, one cup is only ten rupees because one is never enough!

This temple was gorgeous in every detail.  We could not capture pictures of the goddess or a few other parts of the temple where pictures were not allowed, especially the locations we were not allowed to enter.  For this experience, you will have to come visit yourself! This weekend was so fun and full of new experiences; and, tomorrow, I will get to learn about nutrition practices at the huge corporate hospital that is KMC! I am stressed and excited, so wish me luck!