Rewind to November again and our temple-hopping trip to Trichy and Thanjavur! The real purpose of this trip was to see Thanjavur's Brihadeeswarar Temple (and here), henceforth to be referred to as the Big Temple. Nobody calls it by its real name anyway. It's too many syllables, even for the locals.
John has been obsessed with seeing the Big Temple since he heard about it way back in language training. His Tamil teacher insists that RajaRaja the Great and his Chola Empire don't get their historical due. Now that I've lived here, I think I agree. The Chola Empire spread from south India throughout Southeast Asia and into China, and it's responsible for spreading Hinduism and Buddhism to its trading partners. The late Cholas were extremely interested in religious art and built beautiful temples, many of which are still in use, and gorgeous bronze sculptures. The famous image of the Nataraja, or Dancing Shiva, comes from the Chola Dynasty.
The Big Temple is impressive not only because it's beautiful, old (its 1000-year anniversary was in 2010) and ... well ... big, but because no one knows how they got the enormous stone (weighing 70 to 80 tons) to the top of the vimana. The current theory is that they built a 3-mile long ramp and rolled the stone up using elephants and logs. John's personal theory naturally involves aliens.
Of course we had to see this place! It's a UNESCO World Heritage site, so we aren't the only ones who are impressed.
Before we could see this wonder of the world, though, we had to get from Trichy to Thanjavur, which involved traffic like this:
Notice the little Ganesha idol on our car's dashboard. I'm assuming it's there to prevent car/bullock cart collisions and other sorts of rural road disaster. These photos are from the road that branches off the new highway toward the hotel we stayed in, which was right on the river.
Said river ... It's the Vennar, which is a branch of the Cauvery. There's a huge water dispute between our state of Tamil Nadu and neighboring state Karnataka that involves the Cauvery.
Rice paddies along the road.
We saw this peacock checking out the rice paddies as we drove from our hotel into Thanjavur to see the Big Temple.
We also passed this ancient village temple, which we decided to explore further the next day.
The Big Temple certainly did not disappoint. We happened to be there on a festival day, so there was a big, bustling crowd, which in this case really added to the experience. Crowds in India can often be a huge annoyance, but sometimes they add to the mystique of a place. The late afternoon light made the temple look reddish orange.
We met the temple elephant just inside the front gate.
The artistic detail on the gates and on the temple itself is incredible. This sculpture is meant to be a guardian at the gate (I think).
RajaRaja had his government's bureaucracy inscribed on the walls of the temple and throughout the compound. The writing includes everything from tax codes to the names and addresses of temple dancers.
Looking back toward the entry gate. The Big Temple is unusual for South India in that its vimana, or the central tower, is much larger than the gopuram, or the tower over the temple gate.
We lucked out and visited the temple during a Nandi festival, so we got to see Bharatanatyam dancers perform in front of the giant Nandi that faces the Shiva temple. It's India's second-largest statue of Nandi, the sacred bull that is Shiva's vehicle and guardian. Bharatanatyam is Indian classical dance that originated as a form of temple worship. Here's a video of 1000 Bharatanatyam dancers performing on the 1000-year anniversary of the Big Temple. I should warn you that it also includes a lot of VIPs sitting around and looking at their watches.
There were only two dancers performing on the day we went, but that was impressive enough. (I didn't notice any VIPs.)
Some bas relief from inside one of the shrines ...
Looking back at Nandi and another Bharatanatyam performer from the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum ... The temple flag pole is in the center.
We tried and tried to get a decent family picture here, but it just didn't happen. The only one who always looked gorgeous was Evie, which is no surprise to anyone who knows her.
Sculpture on the main temple (notice the ancient script at the bottom of the photo) ...
Here are the kids looking down from steps that lead into the sanctum sanctorum, which is the central shrine that houses the main temple deity. This is a Shiva temple, so the main deity is a Shiva linga, and it's huge, over 8 meters tall. We weren't allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum, but we did get to peek inside when it was opened for worship after the Nandi offerings.
Bas relief sculptures in one of the temple's many nooks and crannies ...
The Big Temple was so impressive that we were compelled to take photos from all angles and with all lighting options. The people in this first photo might give some idea of the scale ...
The evening light was really beautiful ...
This the Ganapathy, or Ganesha, shrine.
When the Bharatanatyam performances were finished, it was time to make the offerings to Nandi. Priests climbed up on scaffolding and poured water, milk and sandalwood (or tamarind?) paste over the statue. The milk had been donated by worshippers.
After the offerings were done, the priests washed Nandi and wrapped him in cloth and flower garlands. We watched the offerings from the steps of the main temple, but as soon as the priests finished with Nandi the doors to the sanctum sanctorum opened and we had to do some quick stepping to avoid the rush of worshippers. This was when our guide, who up until this moment was more annoying than helpful, earned his fee. He led us to a spot where we could see the huge lingam and then out through the crowd -- and no one got lost! It was pretty amazing, actually.
This is one of the smaller Nandi statues at the base of the temple flag pole.
A diya lit at the flag pole ...
In the background you can see the priests wrapping Nandi in cloth.
We ran into the Bharatanatyam dancers on our way out and paused for a photo. Evie's the one who wanted to meet them, but then she got shy and I had to do the talking.
It turned in to quite the photo shoot ...
A last view of the Big Temple (through the front gate).
This might rank as one of my favorite places in India. There was an incredible sense of history here, and I'm constantly amazed at how Tamil culture and religion just keep plugging along in the 21st century. Dancers have been doing Bharatanatyam in front of this very Nandi for over 1000 years. Thank heavens for John's Tamil teacher. If he hadn't been so passionate about RajaRaja, John wouldn't have dragged me to this incredible place!
John has been obsessed with seeing the Big Temple since he heard about it way back in language training. His Tamil teacher insists that RajaRaja the Great and his Chola Empire don't get their historical due. Now that I've lived here, I think I agree. The Chola Empire spread from south India throughout Southeast Asia and into China, and it's responsible for spreading Hinduism and Buddhism to its trading partners. The late Cholas were extremely interested in religious art and built beautiful temples, many of which are still in use, and gorgeous bronze sculptures. The famous image of the Nataraja, or Dancing Shiva, comes from the Chola Dynasty.
The Big Temple is impressive not only because it's beautiful, old (its 1000-year anniversary was in 2010) and ... well ... big, but because no one knows how they got the enormous stone (weighing 70 to 80 tons) to the top of the vimana. The current theory is that they built a 3-mile long ramp and rolled the stone up using elephants and logs. John's personal theory naturally involves aliens.
Of course we had to see this place! It's a UNESCO World Heritage site, so we aren't the only ones who are impressed.
Before we could see this wonder of the world, though, we had to get from Trichy to Thanjavur, which involved traffic like this:
Notice the little Ganesha idol on our car's dashboard. I'm assuming it's there to prevent car/bullock cart collisions and other sorts of rural road disaster. These photos are from the road that branches off the new highway toward the hotel we stayed in, which was right on the river.
Said river ... It's the Vennar, which is a branch of the Cauvery. There's a huge water dispute between our state of Tamil Nadu and neighboring state Karnataka that involves the Cauvery.
Rice paddies along the road.
We saw this peacock checking out the rice paddies as we drove from our hotel into Thanjavur to see the Big Temple.
We also passed this ancient village temple, which we decided to explore further the next day.
The Big Temple certainly did not disappoint. We happened to be there on a festival day, so there was a big, bustling crowd, which in this case really added to the experience. Crowds in India can often be a huge annoyance, but sometimes they add to the mystique of a place. The late afternoon light made the temple look reddish orange.
We met the temple elephant just inside the front gate.
The artistic detail on the gates and on the temple itself is incredible. This sculpture is meant to be a guardian at the gate (I think).
RajaRaja had his government's bureaucracy inscribed on the walls of the temple and throughout the compound. The writing includes everything from tax codes to the names and addresses of temple dancers.
Looking back toward the entry gate. The Big Temple is unusual for South India in that its vimana, or the central tower, is much larger than the gopuram, or the tower over the temple gate.
We lucked out and visited the temple during a Nandi festival, so we got to see Bharatanatyam dancers perform in front of the giant Nandi that faces the Shiva temple. It's India's second-largest statue of Nandi, the sacred bull that is Shiva's vehicle and guardian. Bharatanatyam is Indian classical dance that originated as a form of temple worship. Here's a video of 1000 Bharatanatyam dancers performing on the 1000-year anniversary of the Big Temple. I should warn you that it also includes a lot of VIPs sitting around and looking at their watches.
There were only two dancers performing on the day we went, but that was impressive enough. (I didn't notice any VIPs.)
Some bas relief from inside one of the shrines ...
Looking back at Nandi and another Bharatanatyam performer from the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum ... The temple flag pole is in the center.
We tried and tried to get a decent family picture here, but it just didn't happen. The only one who always looked gorgeous was Evie, which is no surprise to anyone who knows her.
Sculpture on the main temple (notice the ancient script at the bottom of the photo) ...
Here are the kids looking down from steps that lead into the sanctum sanctorum, which is the central shrine that houses the main temple deity. This is a Shiva temple, so the main deity is a Shiva linga, and it's huge, over 8 meters tall. We weren't allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum, but we did get to peek inside when it was opened for worship after the Nandi offerings.
Bas relief sculptures in one of the temple's many nooks and crannies ...
The Big Temple was so impressive that we were compelled to take photos from all angles and with all lighting options. The people in this first photo might give some idea of the scale ...
The evening light was really beautiful ...
This the Ganapathy, or Ganesha, shrine.
When the Bharatanatyam performances were finished, it was time to make the offerings to Nandi. Priests climbed up on scaffolding and poured water, milk and sandalwood (or tamarind?) paste over the statue. The milk had been donated by worshippers.
After the offerings were done, the priests washed Nandi and wrapped him in cloth and flower garlands. We watched the offerings from the steps of the main temple, but as soon as the priests finished with Nandi the doors to the sanctum sanctorum opened and we had to do some quick stepping to avoid the rush of worshippers. This was when our guide, who up until this moment was more annoying than helpful, earned his fee. He led us to a spot where we could see the huge lingam and then out through the crowd -- and no one got lost! It was pretty amazing, actually.
This is one of the smaller Nandi statues at the base of the temple flag pole.
A diya lit at the flag pole ...
In the background you can see the priests wrapping Nandi in cloth.
We ran into the Bharatanatyam dancers on our way out and paused for a photo. Evie's the one who wanted to meet them, but then she got shy and I had to do the talking.
It turned in to quite the photo shoot ...
A last view of the Big Temple (through the front gate).
This might rank as one of my favorite places in India. There was an incredible sense of history here, and I'm constantly amazed at how Tamil culture and religion just keep plugging along in the 21st century. Dancers have been doing Bharatanatyam in front of this very Nandi for over 1000 years. Thank heavens for John's Tamil teacher. If he hadn't been so passionate about RajaRaja, John wouldn't have dragged me to this incredible place!
I'm starting to feel really sympathetic towards your kids for the whole "picture-with- a-white-kid" thing! Can you imagine if we saw someone from another country out skin color or hair or eye color and demanded a picture?? They're gonna be shocked when this quits happening....shocked and relieved!
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