Sunday, Feb 23rd, Madurai, India

Greetings!

Even though we weren't traveling to a new hotel today (this is our last of three nights here), it seemed like another traveling day.  That's because we drove about three and a half hours each way to Rameswaram Island, and spent an hour inside the Ramanathaswamy Temple.  The island is in the Gulf of Mannar, off the coast of the tip of southeast India.  There's a bridge (Pambam Bridge) connecting the island to the mainland, completed in 1988, which parallels a railroad bridge built by the British in 1914.

The 12th century temple is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, and is one of twelve jyotirlinga temples in India (one of two in South India).  A high wall surrounds the temple premises with huge towers at all four corners.  The outside corridors are thought to be the longest in the world, containing 1,212 pillars for a total length of 3,850 feet.  The volume of story carvings created over six hundred years, is astounding.

But what really is overwhelming are the pilgrims and worshippers (almost ten thousand today) who join in the festival twice a year to pray to Shiva and the other deities around him.  Touching statues, fanning flames, calling out songs, wearing ashes and drops of water, all in service of obtaining good luck, good family fortune, and warding off feared outcomes.

I'm stealing shots other photographers have taken inside the temple, because they don't allow cameras.  These columns and temple reliefs/carvings should not be missed.

To see other stolen photos, and a few shots of mine on the way there and back, click on Sunday, Feb 23rd, Madurai, India.