It's Temple City here...

I hate to start out another blog like this, but today started off bright and early at 6:00 am. We got picked up to go on a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to a temple that was situated on the top of a very high hill. The temple and the various statues at the top are all built on a massive rock. Once, I got to the top of the hill, the view made up for the long walk and bus ride very quickly. It was absolutely beautiful. After the walk back down, our SDM IDM representative Mr. Dwarakanath gave us each a coconut with coconut water in it which I thought was very good. It was very refreshing. Attached are some pictures of the site below.

Following the temple visit, we ate lunch at a wonderful hotel/restaurant. Then we took another bus ride to another temple. The architecture at the temple was absolutely amazing. The detail that went into each piece must have taken hours. It was sad to hear that they had a lot of theft going on in the 14th century, which is why there were so many missing pieces. I think the reason there was so much theft and other illegal activities that occurred at this temple was the reason that Varma describes in Being Indian which is "Corruption is as much about the allure of power as it is about money, and the intensity of competitive frenzy for power in this society is largely due to the fact that without power, you moral worth will not be affirmed. Corruption is a form of exercising that power" (22). When these people in the 14th century stole these parts of this sacred temple, only part of it was for money, most of it was to increase their power. In addition, there was a piece in the temple that was missing not caused by theft. Instead, the designers did this on purpose because there is no definite figure for god, so they left it blank. I thought this was a very interesting addition to the temple. Attached are some pictures of the site below.

Our third and final stop of the evening was to a temple 15 k away from the one we were at. It was again a very beautiful and well-designed temple. We didn't have a tour guide like the previous one, but I think the site spoke for itself. Also, as we were walking outside we met some really cute kids who we talked to for a while. It was very fascinating to see how different there are from American kids around the same age. They were with no adults and seemed very independent. All in all, it was a great day and completely worth the early wake up call. Attached are some pictures below of this site.