June 10 Day 115
We dragged ourselves out of bed and managed to get on the road a little after 6. It was still hot but better than it would be later on.
We headed to the main temple, which does not allow cellphones or plastic bags and charges for the use of a camera. We got our photo permit and dropped off our shoes at the free shoe depot and headed into the temple.
The walkway had green carpets for bare feet which led into the quite large complex. The tower itself was similar to those in Angor Wat but with a very geometric look to it. The only part we could go into had a small area with a 2m Buddha in it. Two blocked off sets of stairs led off to the sides but I can't imagine there were too many rooms in the temple as there were no windows in the entire structure.
As you walked around it, several groups of monks were there and one was using a microphone to talk to a group of others. Around the back is the bodhi tree. The original tree was killed by a jealous wife who used poisoned thorns to do it in. Kind of bizarre, when you think about it. Fortunately, a cutting of the original tree was taken to Sri Lanka and they returned the favour. The tree you can see now is probably the fifth generation and it's big and healthy.
During high season the place is probably packed to the gills but not in June, we were able to move freely wherever we went. Close to the temple were three possible paths to circle it (always clockwise), some with gardens and one area had very high-relief depctions of Buddha's life. All through the grounds were information boards about the different spots that Buddha spent his time before and after enlightenment and another areas had philosophic nuggets to ponder as you did your kora.
We visited a pond with a statue in the middle of it, some houses full of butter lamps (which were lit by the faithful as there was a sign in the window saying who lit how many lamps when) ad a meditation park with two big bells but no meditators.
As we left the park we wished that we knew the layout as you only needed to take off your shoes very close to the main temple and on the way in and out you were in bare feet on a very dirty road.
We went looking for some restaurants recommended in our guidebook for breakfast but found them closed due to low season (so far the only time we had been told that something was closed in India and it was true). We went back to our dinner place of the night before and found the first western tourists we had seen so far also breakfasting there. It was a Spanish couple and an Australian guy so we chatted and had bland pancakes and excellent orange juice.
We had a pit stop back at the room and then headed out to check on some of the temples in town. Pretty much any Buddhist country has there temple there. We were later told that the property belongs to that country, sort of like an embassy. We had a long walk down dusty roads until we got to the tourist office, looking for a town map. The guy in there found a fourth generation photocopy of one and talked with us about our options. As I signed his guestbook I saw that the entries in it were about three days apart, so the office was far from buzzing but a nice cool place for us to take a break from the 45 degree heat.
We headed down another street and found the Mongolian temple closed and so went to look at the giant Buddha. It was big and impressive and we had our picture with an Indian family there before seeking delicious lemon sodas across the street.
We poked into a tiny Japanese temple which was mainly a guesthouse before heading back along another street. There we found a larger Japanese temple but almost burned the skin off our feet climbing the sizzling marble steps into it. The inside was large and woody with pictures on the ceiling and a more spare layout than most Buddhist temples. We warned an approaching Indian family to ignore the shoe shelf and leave them at the top of the stairs. Meg took one for the team and raced down to put her shoes on before walking up with mine to spare me a scorching.
We went into a Bhutanese temple but two unfriendly guys were there and I wasn't taking off my shoes where I was supposed to so I hung out in front of it while Meg walked around it.
We settled at a recommended restaurant for a launch which was slow but tasty and cold drinks. Somewhat replenished we walked back. The Bangladeshi monastery was closed so we headed back to our room to avoid the heat of the day.
The power was on and off all afternoon and after that the wifi signal was weak so Meg went out into the steaming hall to get some banking done. We left a load of laundry to be done and naps were also had because of our early start.
We went back to the main temple at night to see it lit up. It was busier and we knew to keep our shoes on. There was chanting and activity but most of the strings of fine lights remained unlit, with floodlights on the main temple being the source of illumination. Like many places, it was more impressive at night.
We stopped at a bare tourist office on the way back to cool down and chatted with someone affiliated with the office who had good English. We said teh little lights were only lit on special days and there were very few tourists. We had been counting since the morning and had only gotten to 10. We congratulated Rahul on this later as 6 of them were staying at his place.
We walked back to see if the breakfast places that were closed had opened for dinner, but they hadn't. There was a bust place close by, so we tried that. Our guidebook said to trust any place that was busy with families and the air conditioned central room of this place fit that description. The food and cold drinks were all quite good and a big bonus was a crazy Bollywood action movie playing on their tv, which was probably made much better by not understanding the dialogue.
It was a short and uneventful walk back to our guesthouse and had another good night's sleep.
We dragged ourselves out of bed and managed to get on the road a little after 6. It was still hot but better than it would be later on.
We headed to the main temple, which does not allow cellphones or plastic bags and charges for the use of a camera. We got our photo permit and dropped off our shoes at the free shoe depot and headed into the temple.
The walkway had green carpets for bare feet which led into the quite large complex. The tower itself was similar to those in Angor Wat but with a very geometric look to it. The only part we could go into had a small area with a 2m Buddha in it. Two blocked off sets of stairs led off to the sides but I can't imagine there were too many rooms in the temple as there were no windows in the entire structure.
As you walked around it, several groups of monks were there and one was using a microphone to talk to a group of others. Around the back is the bodhi tree. The original tree was killed by a jealous wife who used poisoned thorns to do it in. Kind of bizarre, when you think about it. Fortunately, a cutting of the original tree was taken to Sri Lanka and they returned the favour. The tree you can see now is probably the fifth generation and it's big and healthy.
During high season the place is probably packed to the gills but not in June, we were able to move freely wherever we went. Close to the temple were three possible paths to circle it (always clockwise), some with gardens and one area had very high-relief depctions of Buddha's life. All through the grounds were information boards about the different spots that Buddha spent his time before and after enlightenment and another areas had philosophic nuggets to ponder as you did your kora.
We visited a pond with a statue in the middle of it, some houses full of butter lamps (which were lit by the faithful as there was a sign in the window saying who lit how many lamps when) ad a meditation park with two big bells but no meditators.
As we left the park we wished that we knew the layout as you only needed to take off your shoes very close to the main temple and on the way in and out you were in bare feet on a very dirty road.
We went looking for some restaurants recommended in our guidebook for breakfast but found them closed due to low season (so far the only time we had been told that something was closed in India and it was true). We went back to our dinner place of the night before and found the first western tourists we had seen so far also breakfasting there. It was a Spanish couple and an Australian guy so we chatted and had bland pancakes and excellent orange juice.
We had a pit stop back at the room and then headed out to check on some of the temples in town. Pretty much any Buddhist country has there temple there. We were later told that the property belongs to that country, sort of like an embassy. We had a long walk down dusty roads until we got to the tourist office, looking for a town map. The guy in there found a fourth generation photocopy of one and talked with us about our options. As I signed his guestbook I saw that the entries in it were about three days apart, so the office was far from buzzing but a nice cool place for us to take a break from the 45 degree heat.
We headed down another street and found the Mongolian temple closed and so went to look at the giant Buddha. It was big and impressive and we had our picture with an Indian family there before seeking delicious lemon sodas across the street.
We poked into a tiny Japanese temple which was mainly a guesthouse before heading back along another street. There we found a larger Japanese temple but almost burned the skin off our feet climbing the sizzling marble steps into it. The inside was large and woody with pictures on the ceiling and a more spare layout than most Buddhist temples. We warned an approaching Indian family to ignore the shoe shelf and leave them at the top of the stairs. Meg took one for the team and raced down to put her shoes on before walking up with mine to spare me a scorching.
We went into a Bhutanese temple but two unfriendly guys were there and I wasn't taking off my shoes where I was supposed to so I hung out in front of it while Meg walked around it.
We settled at a recommended restaurant for a launch which was slow but tasty and cold drinks. Somewhat replenished we walked back. The Bangladeshi monastery was closed so we headed back to our room to avoid the heat of the day.
The power was on and off all afternoon and after that the wifi signal was weak so Meg went out into the steaming hall to get some banking done. We left a load of laundry to be done and naps were also had because of our early start.
We went back to the main temple at night to see it lit up. It was busier and we knew to keep our shoes on. There was chanting and activity but most of the strings of fine lights remained unlit, with floodlights on the main temple being the source of illumination. Like many places, it was more impressive at night.
We stopped at a bare tourist office on the way back to cool down and chatted with someone affiliated with the office who had good English. We said teh little lights were only lit on special days and there were very few tourists. We had been counting since the morning and had only gotten to 10. We congratulated Rahul on this later as 6 of them were staying at his place.
We walked back to see if the breakfast places that were closed had opened for dinner, but they hadn't. There was a bust place close by, so we tried that. Our guidebook said to trust any place that was busy with families and the air conditioned central room of this place fit that description. The food and cold drinks were all quite good and a big bonus was a crazy Bollywood action movie playing on their tv, which was probably made much better by not understanding the dialogue.
It was a short and uneventful walk back to our guesthouse and had another good night's sleep.
 |
| The bodhi tree, 5th generation or so. |
 |
| The main temple complex. |
 |
| Big Buddha with Indian family. |
No comments:
Post a Comment