After lunch and a rest, we continued our marathon tour of Cochin with a visit to the Kerala Folklore Museum, a tall, narrow building jam-packed with artifacts related to art and culture in Kerala. The building itself is pretty magnificent, with ornate wood carving throughout.
And just to prove how cool the place is, it was graced by royalty in November! Here's evidence in video form. If you keep watching past the boring royal entrance and can endure lengthy shots of Prince Charles just sitting there, you'll see some Bharatnatyam dancing, kathakali, and a little kalarippayat.
Here's the building's entrance, which includes pieces from ancient temples ...
The ground floor was full of musical instruments and artifacts from temples. Johnny is constantly on the lookout for treasure ...
Samuel liked the violins (that's my boy!) ...
Close-up of a demon ...
The interior doors were almost as amazing as the front door ...
Johnny was excited to find a huge display of costumes and accessories used in theyyam dancing. (More on theyyam in a future post, but it was one of Johnny's must-see three for Kerala. The three were kathakali, kalarippayat, and theyyam.)
Evie inspecting ancient stone carvings, which ranged from depictions of gods, heroes, and animals to ... well ... certain body parts ... ahem ...
The kids loved this display of costumes used in kathakali and theyyam ...
Making our way to the top floor ...
... which was the theater space surrounded by paintings of dancers and displays of cool masks ...
Evie gave us her best Bharatnatyam pose (I'll bet Prince Charles didn't do this) ...
The museum was a really fun stop, because almost no one else was there. The kids got to do some running around and exploring (with the staff egging them on), and there were beautiful and interesting things to see everywhere we turned. Believe it or not, we're not even close to being finished with our day in Cochin. Our driver, Kareem, who was in awe of our sightseeing prowess, told us we just had to see the Hill Palace and then go to his home for dinner before seeing kalarippayat that evening. Sounded great to us! Onward!
And just to prove how cool the place is, it was graced by royalty in November! Here's evidence in video form. If you keep watching past the boring royal entrance and can endure lengthy shots of Prince Charles just sitting there, you'll see some Bharatnatyam dancing, kathakali, and a little kalarippayat.
Here's the building's entrance, which includes pieces from ancient temples ...
Here are my fabulously nerdy kids getting all excited about the art in the entry while we waited for Dad to pay the admission fee. (I'll bet Prince Charles got in free ... gah!)
Chandelier in the entry ...
The front door ...
The ground floor was full of musical instruments and artifacts from temples. Johnny is constantly on the lookout for treasure ...
Samuel liked the violins (that's my boy!) ...
Close-up of a demon ...
The interior doors were almost as amazing as the front door ...
Johnny was excited to find a huge display of costumes and accessories used in theyyam dancing. (More on theyyam in a future post, but it was one of Johnny's must-see three for Kerala. The three were kathakali, kalarippayat, and theyyam.)
Evie inspecting ancient stone carvings, which ranged from depictions of gods, heroes, and animals to ... well ... certain body parts ... ahem ...
The kids loved this display of costumes used in kathakali and theyyam ...
Making our way to the top floor ...
... which was the theater space surrounded by paintings of dancers and displays of cool masks ...
Evie gave us her best Bharatnatyam pose (I'll bet Prince Charles didn't do this) ...
The museum was a really fun stop, because almost no one else was there. The kids got to do some running around and exploring (with the staff egging them on), and there were beautiful and interesting things to see everywhere we turned. Believe it or not, we're not even close to being finished with our day in Cochin. Our driver, Kareem, who was in awe of our sightseeing prowess, told us we just had to see the Hill Palace and then go to his home for dinner before seeing kalarippayat that evening. Sounded great to us! Onward!
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