Two Temples

This is a video of a puja ceremony at a Hindu temple called Hoysaleshvara, about two hours outside of Mysore. The ceremony is a devotional exercise, conducted for the resident god (in this case, I believe it is Krishna). What you see is the bathing of the statue, by Brahmin priests, in milk. The statue is also provided fruit, rosewater, and other delicacies. The music in the background was performed by two men, one playing a saxophone. This ceremony was conducted on Diwali, an important Indian holiday known sometimes as the festival of lights.

More information is available here on Hoysaleshvara, describing its history and architecture.

We also visited a Jain temple (the first temple, Hoysaleshvara, is Hindu). To reach it, one has to walk up 650 stone steps, barefoot. This is not a small task in the heat of the southern Indian afternoon sun. At the top is a Jain temple with a sixty foot high statue of a naked saint, Gomateshwara (complete with what must be one of the world's larger, anatomically correct, granite depictions of human genitalia). You can read more online about Gomateshara.

This was a long day, and I was glad to get home. Even though the noisy Diwali fireworks and firecrackers were going off, I fell asleep immediately.

Cheers.