Photos!

Hi all. Scroll down to the bottom of the posted photos and work back up if you want to follow the trip chronologically; we're both still learning this blog thing. Cheers.

Chidambaram. The Empire of the Chollas sculpted huge entrance gates (gopurams) at the cardinal points of their temples. They display various scenes from Hindu mythology; and with a pantheon of over 30 million dieties, there's plenty to choose from.

The portly elephant-dude is Ganesh, god of prosperity.

For the climbers: nothing like bouldering out the first ascent of a laser-cut 20 footer, on holds carved eight hundred years ago...in sandals. Yo.

Mamallapuram, on the East Coast and the Indian Ocean. A beach town with a disappointing beach: blowing filth, raw sewage, and a conservative (patriarchal) culture that inhibits women sunbathing in beachwear.

All was not lost. A very (by Indian standards) relaxed scene, a spotless hotel with a breezy balcony, and (for the history buff) a collection of superb 12th Century relief sculptures and temples carved from granite bluffs and boulders.

The sculptural tradition continues today, with the benefit of power saws and pneumatics.

Schoolkids love having their photo taken. I oblige.

Ahhh Auroville. Started by a convicted terrorist-turned-guru, it was concieved as a place beyond national authority, a place for personal and communal betterment. Sound new age and hippy? It is: the gold-plated golf-ball in the photo (the Matrimandir) was designed for solo meditation. Centered within its all-white room is the world's largest single intact crystal. Rays of the sun beam down upon the crystal and the seeker, concentrating energy, and...i have no clue. It's also strangley high-tech: computerized panels follow the sun to provide maximum brain-wave saturation.
Day and I have decided a year or so in Auro is mandatory before we die: free room and board, and nothing but sunshine and free time.

The climax, literally, of Karthikai is the lighting of a giant torch on the summit of a nearby peak. What you can't see in the photo is that the peak is coated in an inch or so of black, gooey, sticky, highly flammable ghee (clarified butter). Only a matter of time before the whole thing lights up and immolates everyone...which, come to think of it, is likely a sure way to achieve moksha (release from the cyle of reincarnation).

And why light a giant torch on a hill? Shivaites worship lingams, or phallic symbols of Shiva. In the sanctum sanctorum of every Shiva temple lies a giant phallus coated in milk, flowers and other less identifiable offerings. The mountain is itself believed to be a giant lingam, and the torch a representation of its...power.

Quite the sausage party, hmm?