March 17, 2010

3/17/2010
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
Yersterday we visited the Yogini Temple in Bhubaneshwar. The temple itself was in the shape of an open courtyard in circle form with little yoginis (goddesses) carved into the walls (no ceiling) and a small dance pavilion in the middle. It was so cool to see a temple entirely dedicated to goddesses see the female essence being worshiped. Apparently it used to be mainly a tantric practice to worship these temples thus the temples being in really remote places.
After the Yogini Temple we went to Dhauli to see the Ashoka edicts where Emperor Ashoka declared he was going to rule his kingdom with morality. The inscriptions themselves were from 2nd century BC- SO OLD!! All the architecture in India is so old and so beautiful. It is kind of sad that there is no patronage anymore because all the architecture commissioned by royalty is so incredible and exquisitely detailed. But I guess democracy has its pros as well…
At night Kat, Amber, Darren, and I went to the beach and stood in the water. The water was so warm I just wanted to swim in it all night. It kind of made me homesick to be by the ocean and smell the salty air. (side note: power just went out. Pretty sure this occurs about three times a day no matter if you are in a youth hostel or a 5-star hotel. The other night the power went out while I was eating with my home stay family and we just continued eating…in the dark… like nothing happened. Just a great example of how India teaches you to be patient and flexible. I’d rather have this happen than an electrical fire… also a common occurrence.) Anyway, you could definitely tell the ocean was an Indian ocean because all along the shore was piles and piles of trash. It is so sad how this country could be so beautiful but there is so much trash everywhere that it just distracts the eye from her natural beauty.
Today we went back to Bubaneshwar to see a handful of Hindu Temples. Don’t get me wrong, I love learning about the architecture but once you have seen ten Hindu Temples, they all start blending together. I think I am just on temple overload right now. When we were driving back from temple hopping, the main road was closed so we were forced to take the back roads through the villages. It was so interesting to see actually village life- such a different way of living. Although their way of life was much simpler than ours, they definitely have a good business head- They were charging every car that came through ten rupees about every kilometer, making hundreds of dollars off of us. We had no choice but to pay because they would just stand in front of the car until you did. I’ve realized that this country runs off of bribes alone.