Temple City
Today we headed to Kanchipuram, which is known for its ancient temples. Kanchipuram is a small, crowded city about 80 kilometers from Chennai. We drove through some agricultural areas where they were growing rice, as well as some pretty poor village areas. I took about 100 snaps today, as they are known in India (or at least by Sathya), and whittled down the list (not by much) - click here to see the snaps.
We visited 3 separate temples. I took pictures all along the way. The drive itself was on a highway which had a median so was much less nerve-racking than yesterday's drive. Before we got out of the city though we also stopped at a petrol station and I took a bunch of snaps there, as well as a 2 videos. But, I decided not to upload the videos because - get this - since the month of February began I have already exceeded my monthly transfer limit on my hosting plan. I usually only have 50GB of transfer and I am already at 100GB. The culprit? That 150MB video. I was shocked when I saw how many times it has been downloaded - about 791. So unless someone has downloaded it a lot of times (my parents admitted to about 5 times themselves), there are a lot of people looking at this thing. I'll need to get these things somewhere else. Anyway, what I wanted to point out is all the horn beeping! It is a constant thing here. In the US we don't use our horn much and it's usually to "yell" at people that are doing the wrong thing. Over here they use them constantly to communicate to others to get out of the way.
Kanchipuram itself contains many temples, some of which are more than 1000 years old. The ones we visited were dedicated to various Hindu gods. Going inside these was an awesome experience. The stonework is extremely detailed, and depicts all sorts of Hindu gods and many tell a story. Every temple also has a large pool of water (one of which that has a 35ft high statue submerged beneath the surface - the tank is drained once every 40 years and only then can one see the statue).
There are Hindu priests at every temple. At one temple a priest guided us around and stuck to us like glue...until I finally made a donation. But, I also made sure to get a picture with him! Another one of them placed a bindi on my forehead (for a donation as well). This was at a temple in which we could not enter the inner sanctum - only Hindus were allowed to enter . There were people there that were there to worship, and I felt somewhat like I was intruding on their privacy (not to mention the bindi on my forehead which I really wanted to get rid of). But, there were many other tourists so I guess there's no harm. And I made a donation:).
I also got to see a group of American Hare Krishnas who looked like they were on a pilgrimage.
One can only enter the temple grounds barefoot, so we had to take off our shoes in order to walk around. Because of the various items animals as well as people leave around, I had to really watch my step to make sure I didn't step in anything unpleasant or dangerous.
We visited 3 separate temples. I took pictures all along the way. The drive itself was on a highway which had a median so was much less nerve-racking than yesterday's drive. Before we got out of the city though we also stopped at a petrol station and I took a bunch of snaps there, as well as a 2 videos. But, I decided not to upload the videos because - get this - since the month of February began I have already exceeded my monthly transfer limit on my hosting plan. I usually only have 50GB of transfer and I am already at 100GB. The culprit? That 150MB video. I was shocked when I saw how many times it has been downloaded - about 791. So unless someone has downloaded it a lot of times (my parents admitted to about 5 times themselves), there are a lot of people looking at this thing. I'll need to get these things somewhere else. Anyway, what I wanted to point out is all the horn beeping! It is a constant thing here. In the US we don't use our horn much and it's usually to "yell" at people that are doing the wrong thing. Over here they use them constantly to communicate to others to get out of the way.
Kanchipuram itself contains many temples, some of which are more than 1000 years old. The ones we visited were dedicated to various Hindu gods. Going inside these was an awesome experience. The stonework is extremely detailed, and depicts all sorts of Hindu gods and many tell a story. Every temple also has a large pool of water (one of which that has a 35ft high statue submerged beneath the surface - the tank is drained once every 40 years and only then can one see the statue).
There are Hindu priests at every temple. At one temple a priest guided us around and stuck to us like glue...until I finally made a donation. But, I also made sure to get a picture with him! Another one of them placed a bindi on my forehead (for a donation as well). This was at a temple in which we could not enter the inner sanctum - only Hindus were allowed to enter . There were people there that were there to worship, and I felt somewhat like I was intruding on their privacy (not to mention the bindi on my forehead which I really wanted to get rid of). But, there were many other tourists so I guess there's no harm. And I made a donation:).
I also got to see a group of American Hare Krishnas who looked like they were on a pilgrimage.
One can only enter the temple grounds barefoot, so we had to take off our shoes in order to walk around. Because of the various items animals as well as people leave around, I had to really watch my step to make sure I didn't step in anything unpleasant or dangerous.
4 Comments:
Seems like you had a fun tour d' temples Eric. We have a Temple City here in San Gabriel Valley too, right next to Arcadia but not many Temples. Regarding your hosting plan, I use Picasa web albums and there is no bandwidth limit AFAIK. Also, its $20 for 10 gigs (space) plan if you want to go beyond your free 1 GB space, well worth it as it integrates directly with picasa, provides you facility to upload vids et al.
On a cryptic note I think dscf0((Answer_To_Life/2)+NumberOfCMFolks)(OurFavSourceControl-P+1) may get you in touch with the bureau. Just kidding :) You'd laugh once you decrypt it.
Oh, its already Monday over there. Can't wait for the next episode of Eric Chronicles!
If I'm decrypting correctly than http://picasaweb.google.com/els721/Dscf0115 should get me in touch with the bureau. Sweet!
nah, try again :)
Did anyone make a comment about your sunglasses? :) Very nice blog. I feel like I am right there with you :)
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