Monday, Feb 10th, Trichy City, India

Greetings!

We had two guides today, Munchi and Sundar, to help us see temples quite distant from each other.  Munchi took us to the Brihadisvara Temple, a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva, on the banks of the Kaveri River near the hotel we stayed at last night.  Built in seven years in the 11th century, its tower is one of the tallest in South India.  At the time of its construction, it had probably the highest structure, longest corridor, and biggest linga in the world.

The world's first complete granite temple, the source of the stone was a mountain 40 miles away.  It took 2,000 elephants, thousands of rolling logs, and 20,000 men to transport the 30,000 tons of rock to the site.  Ramps on all four sides extending out a half-mile in length were used to roll up the stones for the top section.  The very top single piece of granite weighed 60 tons.

On our way back to the hotel, we visited a family who for eleven generations has perfected the bronze lost-wax method to create statues of Hindu figurines.  The album which this post links to contains photos of the complete process, and should not be missed.

We said goodbye to Munchi, and returned to have lunch and relax in our hotel.

Later in the afternoon, we met up with Sundar, who took us to the largest functioning Hindu temple complex in the world.  Only Angkor Wat is larger, but not functioning.  It has twenty-one towers sitting on 155 acres, entered through seven sets of gated concentric enclosures (housing only brahmins in the inside four), built between the 13th and 18th centuries by successive dynasties.  It contains 81 shrines, 39 pavilions, twelve major water tanks (with a capacity of two million liters), and a hall containing 1,000 pillars.  The Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli (Trichy City), India is a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu.  It sits on an island between two rivers, and there is evidence that the site has had a temple in that location since the 6th century BC.

To see all of the many photos taken today, click on Monday, Feb 10th, Trichy City, India.