Few hours in Kanchipuram

Well, I'm already quite delayed with describing my trips (and other are just ahead of me!!!) so this post will be very brief (which will be really challenging, given my volubility ;o)) Here we go!

On Sunday March 28, I finally realized my dream and went to Kanchipuram with Abdul. It's quite a small city situated 65 km south-west from Chennai and it's supposed to be a main temple city in Tamil Nadu. It's also well-known for its silk sarees fabrication which is the main profession of the people living in and around. We arrived at about 9:30 and it was already quite hot so we decided to make it fast. We took an autorickshaw and went directly to the first temple. Since it was Sunday and some hindu festival, we met a little parade on our way.

Our first temple was the biggest and most important one (at least I think so ;o)): Ekambareswarar Temple. It is one of the five major Shiva temples or Pancha Bootha Sthalams (each representing a natural element) representing the element - Earth. As usually, there is a story behind this temple but I'm not going to share it with you because firstly I want to make this post short and secondly I don't remember it anymore (this religion is just too complicated for my little head ;o)) However, for a European atheist it's quite hard to understand the importance of this holy place (and of all others) so you just admire the architecture. Temples are really nice, peaceful places but still after having seen few of them you realize that they are all pretty much the same ;o)

One of temple's gopurams (towers)















A must of every temple: temple tank with sacred water is thought to cure disease and maladies.

A 3500 years old mango tree. Name of the deity is derived from the Mango tree from the words Eka-Amra-Natha, meaning the Lord of the Mango tree.

Then we went to another temple, this time a very old one: Kailasanadhar Temple. But on our way we met a little one which must be even older!!!

We spent almost 30 minutes walking and frying under open sun when we finally got there. This temple was built by the Pallavas in the early 8th century and only thanks to Archaeological Survey of India that is maintaining the temple, most of the carvings (especially of Lord Shiva) are still recognizable.

Kailasanadhar Temple

Lord Shiva

Holy cow...the left one ;o)















Abdul and elephant...holy as well for sure ;o)

We visited two more temples, but as I've already mentioned, they look pretty much the same. So no need for detailed verbal description, just some pictures.

Snake-stones in Kacchabesvara temple. Snake worship is an ancient and widespread religious practice in Indian customs. The cobra is associated with the lingam the emblem of lord Shiva.


































Kanchipuram public transport ;o)

So when we saw four temples and were already kind of overwhelmed by all these holiness, the last item on our must-see-list was a silk factory. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, the big factory was closed (I can't believe that Indians don't work on Sunday!!! ;o)) and we only visited a shop with its own weaving loom. It's just amazing how complicated it is to make this golden pattern!!!




















So, that was my trip to Kanchipuram. We only spent there few hours but it was nice.