Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Well, What can we say...?
Madurai was on our list of places to visit last time we were in India. Well this particular temple was but we ended up in Mysore trying to find it.
And it has been on Bryan's list of places to visit since he was 10!
He saw it on Blue Peter when they visited here back in the 70's.
So we entered from the East Gate where under the huge gate house were hundreds of little market stalls selling all things colourful, glittery, shiny and sparkly. There are flowers stalls, ribbon stalls, bangle stalls, silk scarf stalls, brass stalls and cheap tacky plastic toy stalls
Sunrise from our bedroom window
We met a lovely lady here who had a friend in Bath and she was just charming so we ended up buying most of our nik nacks and gifts from her (she didn't have anything tacky in case you are wondering!)
The smell of jasmine flowers and incense sticks burning is everywhere and people are wandering about, shopping, praying sitting on the floor with their families - all excited to be here.
As you leave the market area, you enter different areas containing shrines to various Hindu gods.
The stories are that When Shiva met and married his new wife, they came here for their honeymoon. Well something like that and every night Shiva and his wife get taken back inside and put to bed together, so it is now popular with young couples.
There is an inner walkway all the way around which is similar to a cloister and surrounds the inner most sacred temple, which as non-Hindus we can not go in. The central sacred temple is topped by a golden roof and we saw a sign saying 'Golden Temple Viewpoint' but the sign didn't point anywhere. We looked for a stairway or somewhere to go up to see the roof but there was nothing.
Then we noticed a gold flower in the sign and a matching gold flower on the floor.
We have read the Da Vinci Code. We know how this works. So Jody went and stood on the flower.
Meenakshi Amman Temple
Lo and behold, there up in the roof was a small window and through it, perfectly framed was the golden roof of the Golden Temple. Well we both stood there and laughed our heads off as we had been expecting a bit more than that but never mind!
In the evening there was a procession around the inside of the temple led by a cow with a painted face and painted horns. Closely followed by our now 2nd favourite elephant (Moon is still number 1 - from our first OffOnOUrOwn trip in Laos) and a band. You will be able to see the video soon.
All in all this has been a lovely temple to visit. It has lots of hustle and bustle, lots going on and lots to amuse us.
It has been a very long journey to get here, a feat of endurance on the Indian trains and our horrible lodgings in Madurai. But we got here. And Bryan can at last cross it off his list. Phew!
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