Trip to Tanjavoor

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Here comes another blog.. rapid fire action. This last week our group went on a 4 day trip to Tanjavoor, a district of Tamil Nadu about 5 hours to the northeast. It was a truly fantastic trip for a number of reasons, though mostly for unexpected ones.

Firstly, an old art historian named Dr. V went with us on the trip as he had on all our previous 1 day outings to temples. "Ugh", I thought. Every time in the past he gave long lectures on iconography which has little interest for me. However, throughout the course of the trip I have come to the conclusion that he is the most evolved, happiest, closest to enlightenment of anyone I have ever met. Whenever he talked about anything, literally anything other than iconography I listened in rapture; to his stories, his experiences, what he thinks about human progression, spirituality. Part of me wanted to take notes about things he said, but I felt it would be rude. However, I did remember this story which he told at this sacred grove where agriculture was reputed to have started on the Indian subcontinent:

"About 5 years ago when I came here there was a big controversy. The 16 villages surrounding the pond/sacred grove rarely have disputes, but on this occasion all 20 of a shepherd's goats were stolen. He came crying to the holy pond prayied to God that he could get them back. Without these goats, so he cried, he was doomed. Standing nearby, overhearing this, the temple priest made rounds of the villages. 'Someone has stolen a good man's goats", he declared. 'I have talked with God. If that person does not return them in 3 days they will be struck down by God' Needless to say, the villages were in an uproar. Who did it? Would they confess? As the second night crawled towards the third day a solitary man approached the priest at the pond confessing his act and vowing to return the goats."

"So basically the priest 'controlls' the surrounding villages" said one student.
""Control' is a dangerous word my son" responded Dr. V. "For you see, the priest only has power as long as he doesn't know he has it. The second he realizes his influence, he is succeptible to bribe and is no longer infallible."

I think its an interesting story. Oh, also... Dr. V was the archaeologist who first discovered the pond 35 years ago and has been going back since. When he first wanted to bring a class of westerners the locals refused saying they would pollute the water. "No, they are actually reincarnatins of Indra, (one of the most revered gods)" he said. Since then they allow foreigners.

Oh, i forgot to mention the most important thing... "Dr. V looks EXACTLY like the mix of Yoda and an Ewok from Star Wars.

So in Tanjavoor we saw a couple temples and an old palace, all of which I really enjoyed for a funny reason... they had grass. It was perhaps the second time in the entire year that I had seen it. I was like a city dwelling dog taken to a park. As soon as I saw the grass I took off running, leash draggin behind me. Ok, no leash, but i use the metaphor simply so you can understand how AMAZING grass is. Even after about 15 minutes of running around in circles and rolling aorund i still could not get over how perfect it is. Never will I take it for granted again.

Oh, another tyhing that stood out. Archeologists! Two of the temples we saw had as recently as 5 years ago been huge piles of rubble. Just mounds upon mounds of stone. However, over the last 5 years they have been rebuilt to absolutely humungous structures. One temple was halfway done being fixed so we saw the process being done. They numbered every single stone and, after i can only imagine thousand of hours of discerning their origin, pieced them back together the way they were originally. It really is impressive to see one half of this place rubble... the other... 200 feet tall walls with ornate statues. I mean.. if i hadnt seen the process with my own eyes i probably would have said that they must built it all from scratch discarding the old.

As always.. i had other things to say.. but theyll come later... im gonna write a short story for the next post so... if i dont within the next week.. hold me to it!

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Comments

[Priscilla]

interesting trip
One can't help but wonder how the people would trust Dr. V if he is telling them the student visitors are incarnations of their gods. Do you feel especially god-like? While I guess one can assume that visiting students could avoid polluting the pond should he lie to them to gain access? PBB

[mom]

goat/priest
Hi Nate, I probably don't get it but Can any priest be close to infallible? Isn't there the greatest power in someone who doesn't even know that he/she is powerful? Or maybe it is important to be aware of one's own abilities/ power. What do you think? I love your grass experience. Abby and I just had tea and a game at Karin's. Like grass, I had forgotten how great it is to spend time with tea and a best friend like that since I don't have a lot of free time. I was going with it...... Love, Mom