This trip was absolutely not planned and not organized (what appeared later). Yatan, Colombian 'professionally oldest' trainee in Chennai, came to our barbecue party on Saturday evening and told us that he was going to this richest temple on Sunday, March 8. And we (my Russian flatmates Sasha and Angelina) said: "Whow, we want to join you!" So we had a party, ate, drank and enjoyed ourselves till 2 am. I'm sure you can imagine how hard it was to get up at 4:30 am and how fresh we all were.
We took a normal, not A/C, uncomfortable, cheap bus and got on way at 6:30. Since we boarded it at its point departure we were at least lucky enough to get seats and we could sleep a bit. The temple is quite far from Chennai (it's not in Tamil Nadu but in another state called Andhra Pradesh) so it took us more than 4 hours to get to Tirupati but it was quite a nice way (well, at least it's end after few additional hours of sleep) because the area is hilly which is nice change after completely flat Chennai ;o)
The temple (Sri Venkateswara Temple) is situated on Tirumala hills (so called Seven Hills) which are the world's second oldest rock mountains. It's a very holy place dedicated to Balaji (form of hindu god Vishnu) and visited by thousands of pilgrims every day. Pilgrims on their holy pilgrimage should climb the mountain but we, spoilt western 'kids' took a bus and enjoyed the wonderful view. The whole temple areal is really huge. Unfortunately we didn't have much time (we arrived to Tirumala at 11:30) to look around and went directly to the temple. On our way to the temple we met many bald (or better said shaved) people, all men, women and children. We had an impression we were in a town of aliens, but in fact these people were pilgrims who just went through 'tonsuring' - the act of shaving your head to propriate god which is a long standing ritual associated with Tirumala. Pilgrims offer their hair to the Lord which symbolizes effacing of the ego.
We got to the big square in front of the temple and saw cages (barred corridors) full of jammed people. Those were dedicated pilgrims eager to enter the temple and see the God. Those poor people were waiting there for 8-9 hours, patiently standing in endless line, jammed in this long cell. Well, I'm sure it must have already crossed your mind: when we saw this we just told ourselves: "Whow, we have to do this as well!" When we finally found the entrance to the temple, we realized that it wouldn't be that easy to enter the temple (in India everything is more complicated with white face) and do the tour in 2-3 hours. We tried to discuss about our entrance with guards at the entrance. Well, their English was poor but they were smart enough to understand that we wanted to enter and that we were not Indian citizens ;o) One of them took Yatan and Sasha and told the rest of us to wait. So we were waiting...and waiting...and waiting...I think it took almost one hour until Sasha and Yatan came back with a VIP ticket! As usually, they had to pay, fill in a lot of forms, give our personal data and almost underwrite their souls to devil to get this permission. But they made it! However, before entering the temple we had to put our shoes to a special cloakroom and lugages (they were not allowed and later we understood why) in another one. This took us some more time but finally we were ready to enter the temple.
There were two lines divided by bars. One line was for free entrance (those poor people waiting for 8 hours) and second for paying customers (rich Indians and spoilt western kids ;o)) Ours was moving quite fast and we thought how lucky we were. But then I got just petrified when I saw that the bars dividing the two lines just disappeared!!! That was the beginning of our holy pilgrimage! People of all colors, sizes and smells were coming from all sides, they were pushing each other, steping on each other, climbing each other, sometimes there was a fight and guards had to take somebody out of the crowd, babies in parents arms were crying. And we, poor white western students (by the way, we were the only white people in that crowd counting thousands of people!), were there among them! Sometimes I felt the crowd must squeeze my soul out of my body. But I didn't give up and was fighting to make my way. The crowd provided us with a nice sightseeing: it took us to all holy parts of the temple, we saw golden altars (if they're called altar in hinduism as well), picture of God (everybody has only few seconds to see it!!! and the people were waiting there for such a long time!!!), golden statue of God with people climbing on it (and on other people) trying to place some coins there, big golden container where people were putting money (not just few coins to have luck, but whole big bags of money!!!) etc. One doesn't have much time to look around, study all statues and pictures and enjoy these holy moments. Basically, I was especially trying to survive but I still falt the strong atmosphere and it was such a huge experience! It's just incredible how much these Indian pilgrims are able to undergo to see a picture of God for few seconds and throw their savings to the container. How strong their faith must be! How easy the life of Christians is compared to this! They just sit in their half-empty churches, pray, sing songs...Well, it's really not easy to be a pilgrim in India.
After this exhausting adventure we didn't have much time (neither energy) to wander around. We just went to eat and got back to Tirupati. And down there, another adventure started. Since the trip wasn't organized at all (we thought Yatan had planned it and had had all information but he is a very easygoing person and doesn't care much about these trivial things) we realized that all buses were booked out. People were fighting only to get into the bus (there were no seats available) and willing to spend 4 hours standing or sitting on the floor. We were already half-prepared that we would do the same but divided into two groups we were still trying to find some bus with seats. And suddenly Sasha called me that they had met some more people who wanted to go to Chennai and were willing to hire a van with us. The van was 400 per each but at that moment we would pay almost anything just to get back. However, on our way to place with vans to hire, we met this guy saying: "You going to Chennai? I have a bus. Come, come, in 3 hours in Chennai, only 140 each" And he really had a bus and it was empty! We couldn't believe how lucky we were! Although the bus was overpriced (it was again an ordinary old bus and the price was higher than for A/C bus), it was better than a van and much better than spending night in Tirupati.
The way back home was long and very uncomfortable but one must get used to this because it's the only way of travelling in India. We arrived completely exhausted but full of so strong and unusual feelings as never before.
And that's the end of my first big trip. Unfortunately I can't show you many photos because we spent most of time on bus (I tried to take some pictures from window but you can imagine the quality) and inside the temple where using cameras was strictly prohibited. But still, I have some:
first hilly panorama we saw on our way to Tirupati
shaved pilgrims - don't they look like aliens?
temple
if you zoom this you can see the crowd waiting in line behind the bars
trying to get back from Tirumala Hill to Tirupati - not easy with Indian manners
some pictures caught from bus
The temple (Sri Venkateswara Temple) is situated on Tirumala hills (so called Seven Hills) which are the world's second oldest rock mountains. It's a very holy place dedicated to Balaji (form of hindu god Vishnu) and visited by thousands of pilgrims every day. Pilgrims on their holy pilgrimage should climb the mountain but we, spoilt western 'kids' took a bus and enjoyed the wonderful view. The whole temple areal is really huge. Unfortunately we didn't have much time (we arrived to Tirumala at 11:30) to look around and went directly to the temple. On our way to the temple we met many bald (or better said shaved) people, all men, women and children. We had an impression we were in a town of aliens, but in fact these people were pilgrims who just went through 'tonsuring' - the act of shaving your head to propriate god which is a long standing ritual associated with Tirumala. Pilgrims offer their hair to the Lord which symbolizes effacing of the ego.
We got to the big square in front of the temple and saw cages (barred corridors) full of jammed people. Those were dedicated pilgrims eager to enter the temple and see the God. Those poor people were waiting there for 8-9 hours, patiently standing in endless line, jammed in this long cell. Well, I'm sure it must have already crossed your mind: when we saw this we just told ourselves: "Whow, we have to do this as well!" When we finally found the entrance to the temple, we realized that it wouldn't be that easy to enter the temple (in India everything is more complicated with white face) and do the tour in 2-3 hours. We tried to discuss about our entrance with guards at the entrance. Well, their English was poor but they were smart enough to understand that we wanted to enter and that we were not Indian citizens ;o) One of them took Yatan and Sasha and told the rest of us to wait. So we were waiting...and waiting...and waiting...I think it took almost one hour until Sasha and Yatan came back with a VIP ticket! As usually, they had to pay, fill in a lot of forms, give our personal data and almost underwrite their souls to devil to get this permission. But they made it! However, before entering the temple we had to put our shoes to a special cloakroom and lugages (they were not allowed and later we understood why) in another one. This took us some more time but finally we were ready to enter the temple.
There were two lines divided by bars. One line was for free entrance (those poor people waiting for 8 hours) and second for paying customers (rich Indians and spoilt western kids ;o)) Ours was moving quite fast and we thought how lucky we were. But then I got just petrified when I saw that the bars dividing the two lines just disappeared!!! That was the beginning of our holy pilgrimage! People of all colors, sizes and smells were coming from all sides, they were pushing each other, steping on each other, climbing each other, sometimes there was a fight and guards had to take somebody out of the crowd, babies in parents arms were crying. And we, poor white western students (by the way, we were the only white people in that crowd counting thousands of people!), were there among them! Sometimes I felt the crowd must squeeze my soul out of my body. But I didn't give up and was fighting to make my way. The crowd provided us with a nice sightseeing: it took us to all holy parts of the temple, we saw golden altars (if they're called altar in hinduism as well), picture of God (everybody has only few seconds to see it!!! and the people were waiting there for such a long time!!!), golden statue of God with people climbing on it (and on other people) trying to place some coins there, big golden container where people were putting money (not just few coins to have luck, but whole big bags of money!!!) etc. One doesn't have much time to look around, study all statues and pictures and enjoy these holy moments. Basically, I was especially trying to survive but I still falt the strong atmosphere and it was such a huge experience! It's just incredible how much these Indian pilgrims are able to undergo to see a picture of God for few seconds and throw their savings to the container. How strong their faith must be! How easy the life of Christians is compared to this! They just sit in their half-empty churches, pray, sing songs...Well, it's really not easy to be a pilgrim in India.
After this exhausting adventure we didn't have much time (neither energy) to wander around. We just went to eat and got back to Tirupati. And down there, another adventure started. Since the trip wasn't organized at all (we thought Yatan had planned it and had had all information but he is a very easygoing person and doesn't care much about these trivial things) we realized that all buses were booked out. People were fighting only to get into the bus (there were no seats available) and willing to spend 4 hours standing or sitting on the floor. We were already half-prepared that we would do the same but divided into two groups we were still trying to find some bus with seats. And suddenly Sasha called me that they had met some more people who wanted to go to Chennai and were willing to hire a van with us. The van was 400 per each but at that moment we would pay almost anything just to get back. However, on our way to place with vans to hire, we met this guy saying: "You going to Chennai? I have a bus. Come, come, in 3 hours in Chennai, only 140 each" And he really had a bus and it was empty! We couldn't believe how lucky we were! Although the bus was overpriced (it was again an ordinary old bus and the price was higher than for A/C bus), it was better than a van and much better than spending night in Tirupati.
The way back home was long and very uncomfortable but one must get used to this because it's the only way of travelling in India. We arrived completely exhausted but full of so strong and unusual feelings as never before.
And that's the end of my first big trip. Unfortunately I can't show you many photos because we spent most of time on bus (I tried to take some pictures from window but you can imagine the quality) and inside the temple where using cameras was strictly prohibited. But still, I have some:
first hilly panorama we saw on our way to Tirupati
shaved pilgrims - don't they look like aliens?
temple
if you zoom this you can see the crowd waiting in line behind the bars
trying to get back from Tirumala Hill to Tirupati - not easy with Indian manners
some pictures caught from bus
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