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Asia » India » Tamil Nadu » Madurai
February 15th 2016

Published: June 21st 2017

Geo: 9.91399, 78.1217So Thursday afternoon we arrived back in Chennai with 2 nights in the splendid Raintree St Mary's Hotel to visit the sights of the city and prepare ourselves for the dash through Mahaballipurum, Pondicherry, Chidambaram, Gangaikondacholapuram, Kumbakonam, Tanjore (Thanjavur), Tiruchirapalli (Trichy) and Madurai - some of these names take some complicated getting your tongu... Read Full Entry

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at a village temple a girls hair is shaved

Her sister has already had it done - the hair is presented to the temple as an offering and it is bought by commercial companies

This is a Chola temple

This coloured liquid is the ceremony run-off

The text talks about the huge Shiva lingam that had liquids pouted all over it - this is where it drains out of the temple

The Brahmin priest gives Liz a red shiva dot

In the temple grounds - a lion

A school party visits the temple

A Chola bronze

In the nearby palace museum a collection of lovely Chola bronzes of Hindu deities from 10th to 12th centuries. Kept in appalling conditions. You will recognise Shiva te Master Dancer.

Also in the palace - the lotus ceiling

Liz likes to record favourite pools

Seen from our Madurai hotel

While we were having breakfast these ox carts came gto collect river sand for building

as we saw later - decorated horns

The other kind of temples again

gopura fairly close up

Peter with Mr Murali - our tour organiser

He took us to a festival

People visited, bathed in the nearby river - not as important as the Ganges but still important, and asked the waiting Brahmin priests to help them with issues, for a donation - of course

At the festival - the temple elephant

If you wanted to give money you gave it to the elephant, who took it in his trunk and passed it to his handler then to say 'thanks' bashed you on the head with his trunkQ

Inside a main temple - brahmins take a break

Visiting worshipper

A soldier

As Liz says we chanced on the funeral of a soldier who died in an avalanche while on duty on the India-Pakistan border. There were many soldiers, police and villagers (plus media) in attendance - this is one of the soldiers.

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