Belur and Halebidu

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Aha...I'm a bit delayed in writing these next couple of posts. As the program progresses I'm getting less and less motivation, as it often goes with experiencing new things. At first it's really exciting and everything you do is new! and wonderful! and you want to use exclamation points to end all your sentences! But eventually you start to get used to things and don't try to learn as much. I think part of it, too, is that I haven't been able to get much exercise here so I'm losing my eternal endorphine high. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Anyway, back to actually reporting on the fun stuff. On Sunday we got the day off from hours and hours of lectures and got to go visit some sweet temples in Belur and Halebidu, Karnataka. Just as in our trip to Mysore, the bus rid was gruelingly long--a whopping 5 hours to get from our hotel to Belur. What changed, however was the space. Since a lot of people heard of the length of the bus ride and remembered the underwhelming trip that was Mysore (too much shuffling, not enough sights) a lot of them skipped out rather than get onto a bus at 4:30am. What this translated to was the entire back row of one of the buses--all 5 seats--reserved just for yours truly. So, of course, I went ahead and flopped my pillow down, plugged into my ipod and got ready for a few more hours of REM. Such a better ride than that to Mysore.

Not only was it a better ride because it was more comfortable, but the countryside was gorgeous. I slept for a couple hours then woke up to peer out the bus window. That part of India is mostly rolling hills, with coconut palm trees everywhere. I think most of the world's coconut product must come from there, because there were obscene amounts of palm trees. Sometimes off in the distance I'd see a rise of rock that could be considered an aspiring mountain, but mostly you could see to the horizon (over the palm trees, of course). I liked seeing this part of India much more than the cities, probably because I'm more of a country girl than a city girl. The towns were smaller, much more farms right up next to the road, and the occassional roadside food- or drink-stand. I really liked some of the houses we saw on the trip; the roof is usable as a patio and they have plaster outside that's been brightly painted so it looks wonderfully cheerful and nicely put together. Looked like a great place to come home to. Occasionally we'd pass through larger towns, that might be considered really small cities, but for a lot of the ride we were basically out in the country. I loved it, and really wanted to just get off the bus and go trekking (what they call backpacking) through the woods.

The main attraction in Belur was the Chennakesava temple. Because it is a hindu temple, you must take off your shoes before entering. Some leave them at the door, but rather than risk ours getting stolen we left them on the bus and walked barefoot from the bus to the temple. (Some of the other kids not used to walking barefoot had some trouble.) To be fully polite, you should also cover your knees and shoulders when entering the temple, but they seem to be a little more lax about letting foreigners in with shorts or tanks. The layout of the temple was similar to the one I saw at the Mysore palace, but on a much grander scale. Once you pass through the main tower-gate-thing you are confronted with an obelisk and a small statue that rest about 100 feet in front of you. I'm not sure what it signifies, but it must mean something because it's placed directly in your way in what otherwise would be a gigantic courtyard floored in stone blocks. In fact, pretty much everything except the doors are made of stone. That's what has made these temples so famous and attractive to tourists, is their stone carvings. And, honestly, I think they deserve the fame.

So, let me try and draw a map of this temple for you. The whole area it covers is roughly rectangular, surrounded by a stone wall about 10 feet high, sometimes higher in places. Let's say that the main gate is in the southern side of the wall. Then the obelisk and small statue are about 100 feet north of the gate. In the southeast corner there sits a "tank," a 100ft-by-40ft green pool of water sunk about 40 feet down into the ground, with fish occasionally breaking the surface to grab a bug. Not sure what it was for, either, since the text on the sign had worn off to indecipherability. But there was a short wall around it and the entrance had a locked door so I figured I wasn't supposed to go closer. In the southwest corner there was an overhang that covered what looking like the makings of a parade in storage, wooden horses on wheeled platforms and suchlike, all painted gold, probably for some festival or another.

If you continue north past the obelisk you get to the main temple, a star-shaped stone-carved building that is elevated onto a star-shaped platform about 4-5 feet off the ground. As you climb the stairs to the temple you are supposed to touch them, to petition the gods to allow you to enter the sacred domain. The outside of the temple is covered, I mean literally covered, in stone carvings of the gods. There are thousands of hindu gods, if I remember correctly, and each one has bunches of incarnations as well. Some I remember, like Ganesh with the elephant head, and Shiva and Vishnu, but it would take a lifetime to remember them all. Our tourguide was very knowledgable, using a small hand-mirror to reflect the sunlight at a particular carving he was focusing on as he told us of the god-story that led to the carving. "And here you see an incarnation of Shiva destroying a demon with just the fingernails of one hand, see how the carver made her fingertips pass through the demon's body and back out," or "and here you see Ganesh lifting an entire mountain over his head, and you can see the hunter on the mountain and the farmer," and so on. An entire anthology of lore is contained on those wall, and it would be easy to miss without a guide.

There are three doors to the main temple building, two on the east and west sides (as I have designated, not sure of the true directions) and the main one on the south. The hallways from the doors converge on a round dais that is raised about 4" off the ground. In the ceiling above the dais is a circular carved dome with more ornate carvings of the gods, and to the north of the dais is a small room where the priests keep care of the deities. People can leave offerings and take blessings there. The door was guarded by two incredible god statues that were carved from single pieces of stone, but carved so that the sprays of stone above her head almost look like lace, and it's raised up enough from the back wall that you can slip your hand beneath the stone and see your fingers through the many delicate holes. It's pretty nuts, the level of detail present in these temples.

I didn't stick with the guide for much of the Belur temple, because I hadn't found much use for our guide at Mysore and I wanted to try and interact with the local people at the temple and I figured that wouldn't happen surrounded by a group of foreigners. So, I wandered off and snapped photos of cool statues that I liked. My idea turned out to be successful, a couple times people (mostly children) would say "hello" to me and giggle when I smiled and said "hello" back. A duo of girls came up again after going through the hello-giggle performance and shook my hand, asking me something that I eventually construed to be asking my name, then where I was from, then my mother and father's name. After deciphering their accented english and answering their questions, they then asked for 100 Rupees, which set me laughing as I told them no. The way they asked it was really funny, because it felt like they'd been told stories about how foreigners were free with their money and wanted to see if it was true. They didn't badger at all like some beggars or vendors may do. They just asked, and then left when I laughed and said no. Another lady asked me where I was from, then wished me a good stay. And once you start taking pictures with people, man, there is no stopping. I saw a couple of boys trying to take surreptitious photos of Fae and I from around a corner, so I leaned over and mimicked a camera and asked if they wanted a photo. Of course they said yes, but what I didn't realize was that there were about eight more of them around the other side of the corner, so then I had about four rounds of pictures with two or three boys on each side. It's wicked fun, to have a lot of people asking for their picture with you. ;D

The other notable thing we saw at Belur was an engagement party! In the northwest corner of the temple there was a sort of elevated patio that was crowded with men and women, just sitting. I avoided it myself, not wanting to intrude on whatever was happening over there. Eventually I met up with Naveet, Sumedha, and Fae, and the two Indian girls explained that it was a wedding (we later learned it was just an engagement) and Fae wanted to go and see. Apparently it was okay, so we wandered up the steps and crowded near the back of people. The bride and groom were sitting on the floor in an open space, next to each other and both facing the crowd. They both had red dots on their forehead and there was some sort of ceremony going on as a women holding a plate with cups and a candle on it was passing in front of them, but I couldn't see what she did. Fae wanted to give her blessings to the bride and groom, so she got some advice from Naveet and permission from someone from the wedding party and went up to the front of the crowd. I stayed in the back, not wanting to draw more attention away from the bride and groom then I already had. Apparently, to give blessings at an engagement you sprinkle rice on the head of the bride and the groom, dip a finger in tumeric and press it to the center of their foreheads, then dip your finger in red and mark the same spots on their foreheads. I heard people laugh while Fae was up there, apparently she dipped her thumb in the red and pressed firmly to the groom's head, who leaned back in surprise, making it look like she had poked him very hard. I asked Naveet afterwards, and the proper way to do it seems to be to stick out your ring finger, using your thumb to keep your other fingers back, and dip the finger into the dye lightly and mark lightly. So if I ever make it to an Indian engagement, I'll be prepared. ;D

After the temple at Belur we hopped back on the bus and traveled a short distance to the Halebid temple. The temple was different from the Mysore and Chennakesava temple in that it was not surrounded by a gigantic wall, and there were grassy areas surrounding the temple that made it seem very peaceful. The carvings there were just as impressive as those at Chennakesava, if not more so. This time I stuck closer to the tour guide and got to hear more stories about the carvings of the gods. But, there's not much more to say that I didn't say above, so I can't embellish any more...

After seeing that temple we went to lunch at a local resort, where we got to have a tasty buffet lunch. I got to have my favorite dessert of all time, gulab jamoon. I can't remember if I've written about it before, but it is so glorious that it deserves some more words. Perhaps a poem. An ode. A sonnet. A thorough and solid declaration of my love for the deliciousness that is gulab jamoon (with ice cream) and for the man who first made it. Gulab jamoon is some sort of dough that has been rolled into a ball and then cooked in a sugar syrup until it has reached a level of tastiness that places it upon deity-status. It is usually served with ice cream, and if you are blind and get two scoop of ice cream with two gulab jamoon and a little extra syrup sprinkled on top you will see once again. If you are lame, you will walk. If you are deaf you will hear. It is that freaking good. They also had fruit trifle and stuff, but I don't really care about that. After that, we piled back into the bus to come back to Bangalore, with a stop for snacks and tea along the way. So, would I recommend Belur and Halebidu to others visiting India? In a heartbeat!

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