Thanjore has one of the most beautiful temples I have ever seen. Built in 1010 (1,000 years ago exactly) by RajaRaja the Great, it is one of the best examplse of Cholan architecture....
We arrived at the temple of 6am and the light on the solid granite pyramids was a light orange-red. The priests were very busy doing their ceremonies and we were actually invited in to the sanctum santorum, which is usually forbiden to non Hindus, to receive a blessing. We saw the very large lingum (this is a symbol of Shiva's you-know-what) and the priest put some sacred in our palms and instructed us how to put it on our forehead. He then gave us a little package that contained some sacred ash, herbs and a banana (!?!?!?). We walked around to another temple and again were invited in and this was a temple for Shiva's son. More ash on the forehead another package with a banana and some herbs, and we were on our way.
This afternoon we went to the local museum, where there is an amazing collection of old bronze statues made from the "Lost Wax" process. This is a very unusual way of making very beautiful bronze work. The artists makes a mold in bee's wax, doing the whole carving. Then he applies some kind of wet dirt over it and then wraps that with some linen or other wrapping material. The wet dirt dries, creating the mold from the bee's wax. Then the whole thing is heated and the wax melts out of the mold (lost was). THen, in the holes that the wax came out of, molten bronze is poured in, cooled, then the mold is broken and, voila, you have a beautiful statue. Doing it this way, the artist is able to make very fine detail, since he is working in bee's wax. This is still done nearby in the town of Swamimalai, where we plan on going tomorrow. We actually bought a beautiful example of a lost wax piece, of a dancing Shiva, or Natarasha. It looks something like this...
This afternoon we went to the local museum, where there is an amazing collection of old bronze statues made from the "Lost Wax" process. This is a very unusual way of making very beautiful bronze work. The artists makes a mold in bee's wax, doing the whole carving. Then he applies some kind of wet dirt over it and then wraps that with some linen or other wrapping material. The wet dirt dries, creating the mold from the bee's wax. Then the whole thing is heated and the wax melts out of the mold (lost was). THen, in the holes that the wax came out of, molten bronze is poured in, cooled, then the mold is broken and, voila, you have a beautiful statue. Doing it this way, the artist is able to make very fine detail, since he is working in bee's wax. This is still done nearby in the town of Swamimalai, where we plan on going tomorrow. We actually bought a beautiful example of a lost wax piece, of a dancing Shiva, or Natarasha. It looks something like this...
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