My Indian travels finally began some weeks back when I and a group of interns decided that it would be worth a 12 hour bus ride to spend 3 hours viewing temples in Shravanabelagola and Halebidu (try saying that five times fast - or better yet, spelling it)
- Shravanabelagola, India -
We began to question our decision about halfway up the side of a steep cliff as we courageously took on several hundred stairs and cursed our daily
gulab jamun for weighing us down.
(for some reason, this picture refuses to load with the correct orientation)
As we climbed higher, we were shocked to see an old man happily trotting down the side of the cliff carrying a bucket and adjusting his turban every few steps. We were surprised, you see, because the turban was the
only thing he was wearing.
Maybe he was trying to prepare us for what we would see if we ever reached the temple?
At least when you weren't faced with damaging sights burned into your retinas, the view was quite nice:
And I have to admit, what we saw when we finally reached the top was even better.
With the same pride (but less sag) than the old man enjoying his morning hike
au natural, this Indian god built hundreds of years ago and is still a towering sight to behold. Attended to by temple priests offering blessings to passing tourists and the faithful gathered in the courtyard to sing praises, he looks out upon his domain with a cool, unfeeling gaze.
- Halebidu, India -
In my opinion, this is the hidden gem of India. This temple was nearly as breathtaking as the Taj Mahal, and it's a shame that it doesn't get the attention it deserves. Imagine the detail of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, multiply it, and apply it to the interior and exterior of a great Indian temple tucked away in a (relatively) small town.
What's even more incredible is that every single statue in the entire building is unique, and there are thousands of them throughout (this picture above is only one small portion of the entire temple, pictured below). My favorites were, of course, the elephants marching along the bottom column with each one striking a different pose (though the kama sutra carvings also proved interesting).
They say this temple is incomplete, which explains the lack of an ornate roof and why some portions of the decoration are left untouched. But archeologists have offered a different explanation as to why there are spaces of stone without statues: it's a challenge to the next generation, to see if they can match the talent of the craftsmen who built this temple.
It raises an interesting question: If we were compared to our ancestors, all things held equal, how would we compare?
