December 2012 

Trichy (Tiruchirappalli) and Thanjavur, SW India

India has a lot of names for the same place. This is one example.   Trichy is a central southern city that most trains go through.  The real name is too long to pronounce so everyone calls it Trichy.  

When the English controlled India as their 'Jewel in the Crown', they had names for India that were changed after India gained independence in 1947.  28 states and 7 territories were carved out which were divided according to the language they spoke.  At this time, many name changes took place.  In English, Calcutta became Kolkata.  Bombay became Mombai.  It can be confusing. 

Trichy, apart for being a hub for trains, is known for severl important Hindu temples.  Pictured is the Ranganathasamy Temple.  

It was a very colorful temple with many temples in the complex.

There are some gods with blue faces. Blue is the color of a heroe.

I hired a guide because he talked me into it and he was nice.

He told me that this would make a great photo.  He was right.

I liked this avatar god having body parts of a human and animal mixed.

Hindu men who wear orange clothes like this are sannysasins.  They renounce worldly and materialistic pursuits and dedicate their lives to spiritual pursuits. There are women as well but I saw mostly men and there are many.   To me it seemed that many were in pursuit of spirituality but there were many who sat around on the streets all day laying around not working.  I can imagine this sannysasin explaining something to this temple goer. He seemed earnest and kind.

It was a nice visit but the temple was heavily used for pilgrims making their group trips to the temples.  There wasn't much peace and quiet or green space.  It was also a very busy, loud city.   So I decided to go and try another temple that was a little more out of the way. It was a 1 1/2 hour train ride to Thanvajur.

Thanjavur

Thanjavur was a much more manageable town.  The temples were peaceful and wonderful places to wander through.

I love all the ceiling fans in the trains.  
Somehow it feels cooler just looking at them all.

I took this picture because I couldn't believe there was open space with few people.

This looks like so many road sides all over.  And mopeds and more mopeds.

This was a very nice, peaceful, green temple to visit.  
And a great big sacred cow statue in the middle.

The entrance.

A Canadian friend at the entrance.

Flower sellers just inside the entrance to give to the gods.

I carried an umbrella protecting myself  from the heat and sun.  
This is their cold winter months of January and February.
To me it was hot with low 90's.
We were also barefoot on the hot stones.  
It's disrespectful to wear shoes in temples.  Or carry them in your bag.
They all wanted their picture taken with us.

I went inside one of the temples and got 'ashed'.  
See the dark red line on my forehead?  
At first it was very nice but then when red dyed ashes 
got on my clothes it wasn't so nice.  
I started avoiding away any ash giving ceremonies.

The BIG sacred cow with a scarf and flowers.  It was a beautiful inlaid ceiling.

Every picture here was from the same temple.  Some sandstone some colored. 
 It seems like it was from different locations but all the same temple.

Elephant decorated stair ways.

Hiding in the shade.

Women with their colorful saris and a ribboned tree behind.

It was strange how things were not protected.  
You could just walk up to anything.

This looks to me like it is from a children's book.  It was all in the same temple.

Leading to another section.

Cleaning, dressing and taking care of a god.
 I like the large relief to the right and the large size compared to the man.

Dressing Ganesh, the elephant god.

The beautiful perimeter that went around the inner buildings.

This group is making a pilgrimage to the temple.

A snack to make it until we found something to eat.
I'm really enjoying the vegetarian food.  And plenty of vegetables.