elephants, temples and awesome celebrations

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WOW! That's the only word I can use to describe the awsome experience we had last night. The owner of our guest house told us of this temple celebration and arranged for an auto-rickshaw to take us there. At the temple we saw this huge ornate structure (see picture) resting on poles on the ground. As the celebrations got going, a lot of men lined up along the poles then hoisted the whole structure onto their shoulders and walked around the temple three times carrying this huge structure, losing the balance of it and almost toppling it. There was also a smaller structure very similar to the first, this one carried by teens and young men. This procession was followed closely by a parade of all sorts of bizzare characters and drummers. The very last and most exciting part for me was the parade of elephants, all decorated in their finery and boasting the largest elephant in south India. What a wonderful experience that was, and how fortunate we are to have had someone tell us about it.

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Photos

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little girls carrying plates of flowers and candles walked around the temple accompanied by their mothers.

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The large temple like structure that the men carried around

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Elephants on parade

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young boy perfoming classical song and dance

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boat in the procession

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part of the parade

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goat

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boat in parade

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structure that was carried

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parade

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more elephants all dressed up

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how many men does it take to carry this temple like structure?

Comments

[Lori]

Love seeing all the beautiful pictures. Especially the ones with elephants. You sound like you are having a fabulous, eye opening time.