Today Chandra, Sri, and Sak and I went to see Temples in Mamallapuram, which is a town near Chennai where Chandra lives. The first temple we went to see was Five Rathas. It is a temple of five structures sculpted from a single stone starting at the top and working their way to the bottom. Each structure has multiple styles of architecture merged together. The temples were not finished due to war. The temples are 1,400 years old and were buried under sand in 1927 the British found and excavated them. Imagine finding that? WOAH!!
When we arrived at the temples we looked around at some shops that had sculptures, jewelry, and hats. We then saw a bus of children that were really excited to talk to me and shake my hand until they realized I was covered in sunscreen haha. The sunscreen really grossed them out, I don’t think they had any idea why my hand was so greasy. It was my second random person to talk to me in India haha. People usually only look at me but do not talk to me L it is not common for people to talk to strangers here.
When we got outside of the entrance to the temple a tour guide approached us and asked if we would like him to give us a tour of the temple. We decided it would be nice to have someone tell us about the temples and not google it. Our tour guide was AMAZING he even had an American accent. He also went to art school so I really enjoyed hearing about why the sculptures were made they way they were. For example he talked about how women were represented differently then men and why which I enjoyed. After the tour he also showed us his coworkers who were sculptors working on sculptures for the tourists shops. We got to see their process and ask them questions. After seeing their sculptures we went an bought a little elephant that they were making.
At the end of the tour I wanted to take a photo with the tour guide because I enjoyed the tour so much! However he was engaged so he felt uncomfortable taking a photo with me, but let me take a photo of just him. It was funny to me but cute and I decided not to ask our next tour guide to take a photo with me.
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| I'm an other... which I guess is nicer then an alien |
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| The temple |
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| Another view of the temple and our tour guide! |
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| Lion with Chinese influence.. it resembles the Chinese dragon |
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| Cow with a hump.. I wanted to take a photo on top but didn't want to be disrespectful |
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| Close up of parts of the temple |
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| Side view |
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| Close up of gods |
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| incomplete sculpture of the reclining Vishnu god |
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| The boys and Chandra is trying to fly |
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| This is how they would break the stone. Thy would put these holes in the stone fill them with water and then place wood in the hole. The wood absorbs the water, expands, and breaks the stone. |
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| Cashew tree. The tour guide also told me the story of the Cashew tree. |
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| That guy made all of those shoes!! |
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| Me with a goat who was eating garbage.. It looks like we are talking haha |
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| Me in Chandra's glasses :) |
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| These are the sculptors working on different pieces for the shop |
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| He is working on the elephant Chandra bought for me! |
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| He is working on a larger sculpture of Pillayar (Ganesha) |
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| A sculpture store |
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| A close up of different sculptures |
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| The elephant we ended up buying |
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| Our tour guide |
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| Drink Break! Minute Maid in a glass bottle |
I thought it was a real elephant. Well just for a minute.
ReplyDeletewow, that's so cool! it looks like you're having a lot of fun! :)
ReplyDeleteHey Hanna it was amazing!! it was so much fun I felt like it was art history class but real life!! haha I hope you are enjoying your summer!!
ReplyDeleteMom when Chandra and I got to his place his aunt told us that when he was five they visited and they took a photo of him on top of the elephant!