Darasuram is a small town about 40 kms outside of Thanjore with a beautiful Cholan temple that was built in the 11th century. We got there at sunrise, as the light early in the morning and at sunset is the best. The temple is situated in a lovely park and local folks were taking their morning strolls around the temple (always clockwise!!). We were the only foreigners here (we're getting used to that) and had the temple complex all to ourselves. This temple looks like a smaller version of the Thanjore temple with a large (55 meter high) pyramid.
As we were walking around the temple (clockwise!!) a man came up to us wearing a dhoti (sarong) and a shirt that said "Orange County Choppers" with a motorcycle on it and asked if we wanted to see the inside of the temple. I asked if he was the temple guardian (I had read about temple guardians in our guidebook) and he said, "NO, NO, NO!!! I am Brahmin priest!!!", which he then repeated about 10 times so I would be sure not to make that mistake again (a really big faux-pas I'm sure to mistake the highest ranking type Indian Brahmin for a temple guardian). He took us into the sanctum sanctorum where he lit candles and put ash on our foreheads. Very cool to be in the inner part of the temple with just candles lighting it up. You feel so much history there.
From here we went to the nearby town of Kombakanam, where there are four temples. These are the more modern ones with the colored gopuras. We arrived as some men were carrying this large palenquin with what looked like a chicken on top. I didn't think the Hindus had sacred chickens and when I asked a man what it was he said it was Garuda (mythical bird in Hindu-lore), but the ones we've seen in Bali look more like majestic eagles then the chicken like Garudas they have here.
So after 3 hours of temple exploring it was time for something, in the words of Monte Python, completely different. We went to the town of Swamimalai, where they carry on the ancient craft of 'Lost Wax' bronze casting. I"ve talked a bit about this in a prior post, but we went to a factory called Rajan and were given a nice tour by a guy named Suresh, who is a student bronze caster. Rajan is a bronze casting school where they teach this 4,000 year old craft. Suresh explained the whole process (see our previous post) and then took us in the backyard where some students had this huge model, several hundred pounds, wrapped in it's clay mold and getting ready to put near the fire where the wax would melt out through two holes (lost wax) and later would have the molten bronze poured in. This particular statue was going to the USA. Once the statue is taken out of the mold, then the artist cleans in up and puts lots of finishing details on it...
About 60% of the work is done after the statue is taken out of the mold. Things like hair, eyes, fingernails, etc are done at the end. We were taken to a little showroom and found a gorgeous statue of Saraswati, goddess of learning and Amy's favorite. The thing to look for first to see how good of a carving it is is the face. If the face is beautiful then the rest is bound to be beautiful.
When we got back to Thanjore we went down to the temple to catch the sunset. What we didn't expect was a major Nandi fest going on. Nandi is the bull that hangs out with Shiva and there is a HUGE statue of him here carved out of a single rock. It's about 35 feet high and there was a scaffold up the side which the priests climb and then they pour all this stuff over his head. It's a yellow-green liquid and I think it may be ghee (clarified butter), poured over him from these large, 5 gallon containers. So you are sitting there, among a crowd of hundreds of very well dressed Indians, looking at ol' Nandi with yellow ghee being poured over him, followed by water to clean the ghee off. During all this is a little three piece band of drums and trumpets, a sound coming out of them like you've never heard as the sun is going down and the gorupas of the temple are glowing red. An amazing site to behold.
Yesterday we came to our last stop, Mamallapuram, an ancient seaport town about 50 kms south of Chennai. Tonight we leave for home at 1:45 am, but we've had a couple of days to look at the amazing stone carvings here.
The carvings here are carved out of solid granite, which is all over the place Most of it is from the 7th century! These temple, shown above, were carved out of very large boulders and they are incredible. A couple aren't quite finished and it is curious why they worked so long and so hard and just didn't quite finish the job. Plus, these were never consicrated, according to historians. The stone carving tradition continues here as there are stone carvers and stone carving shops everywhere. They all make statues of different kinds from tiny ones, 1/2 inch high, to 10 food high Shivas. The large ones are carved with electric tools, but the small ones are carved by hand.
Our little hotel has been a great oasis. The second floor restaurant serves great fresh seafood and there is always a light breeze blowing, which is welcome in this hot, humid place. Our hotel is non A/C, and the room was about 90 degrees all night, but thanks to some great sleeping drugs we slept through the night just fine.
Walking in this village and all over South India is a challenge. The don't have many sidewalks here and the sidewalks they have are usually filled with vendors, motorcycles, or sleeping humans. So you have to walk in the street and then deal with the traffic and thousands of other people walking in the street. And then there is the poop. Cow poop, goat poop, dog poop, and with all the humans sleeping outside...well, you just have to be carefull where you walk. India has this little problem with filth. It's pretty darn dirty in the towns and cities, not so bad in the countryside. They just don't get the whole 'don't be a litterbug' thing here. People just throw their trash anywhere. I think this comes from the mentality that someone else will clean it up, as the lower castes job is to clean up the trash and filth. But there aren't enough of these folks, apparently, because India is certainly the dirtiest country I have ever been to.
But you have to take the bad with the good and all in all there is much more good in this counrty then bad. The amazing history, the exotic culture, the colorful, spicey and yummy food, the smiling and helpful people (at least those who aren't trying to sell you somethng), the easy and on time train system, the green, lush countryside...I could go on and on. This has been one of the most amazing places I have ever been.
Would I come back? In a heart beat.
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