3/12
Today we boarded a bus bright and early to visit Kancheepuram, about two hours west of the city, and one of the most sacred places of pilgrimage for Hindus. There are over 100 living shrines in the area, and we visited a Shiva temple and a Vishnu temple that dated from the 7th century.
The Shiva temple was built of sandstone, so much of the detail and most of the colorful paint has eroded over time, but so much of the intricate detail remains that it is really amazing. At the Vishnu temple we encountered many families on pilgrimage who had shaved their heads (men, women and children) as a token that external beauty was not important. Our guide was excellent, and filled us so full of Hindu facts that I don't know what to include here.
Everywhere we went, children followed us and asked to have their pictures taken - they just loved seeing themselves on the camera screen!
A humorous aside: as our bus lumbered down the highway, a small tricycle truck cut in front of us, causing our driver to slam hard on the brakes. The driver jumped out of the bus and started yelling at the truck driver. Our guide, who was in the middle of explaining about India's history, saw what had happened, and excused herself, saying, "I've got to get into the fight with this guy." So the two of them are yelling in Tamil and gesturing at the busload of us, sitting with our mouths open, and then the busdriver hauled off and slapped the truckdriver full across the face! The guy made no effort to retaliate, and, fully chastened I guess, got back in his little truck and tootled away!
After a super lunch in a fancy resort (which looked so out of place from the rest of the city that I didn't even take a picture of it – manicured lawns and landscaping just isn't India…more like Las Vegas, but the ship spares no expense to assure we won't get sick!) we drove to Mamallapuram, which is right at the seashore, and has temples even older than the ones we saw in the morning. Several years ago a giant tsunami did much damage to southern India, but, as Indians don't build houses at the waterfront (they do not swim) the damage could have been much worse.
We got to see the biggest bas-relief in the world, called "Arjuna's Penance", which has hundreds of animal, human, god and angel images carved into one long piece of granite. The carvings had been covered by the sands of time, and were excavated by the British in the 1700s for all to see. Incredible!
Remember the $4 watch that Jim bought in Mauritius? Well, it stopped working, so when one of the hawkers outside the temple ("postcards, madam?" Elephant carving, sir?") offered to trade a picture of Ganesha (Shiva's son that has the head of an elephant) for the watch, Jim readily agreed – may the gods smile down on that deal!
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