A week of rain, a temple of gold and a night of light

I have officially been living in India for 1 month.  It seems like a long time until I consider how long I have yet to go.  In that time, I’ve had an adventure or two, but mostly I’ve been grooving in the daily grind.

About two weeks ago, Erin, Matt, Chitra and I went to the Golden Temple in Kushal Nagar.  A portion of this area was ceded by the Indian government to Tibetan refugees as a number of “camps.”  Some of these camps are off-limits to anyone without a pass, but there are monasteries there which are a big tourist attraction.  The Golden Temple is a huge, ornate temple that can only be accurately described pictorially:

Inside the temple are huge statues of Buddha and other Tibetan deities.  The halls in which these treasures were located were totally silent… almost.  There were more tourists there than monks.  Even though a sign in the doorway to the temple reads “please be silent, this is a place of worship” the room was brimming with hushed whispers and obnoxious camera clicks.  Despite the number of tourists, we were still the only non-Indians on the grounds.  Because of this, I was unable to meditate in front of the stolid, 50-some-foot gold Buddha statue without a group of young Indian men snapping unwanted pictures of each other next to me (freaky giant pale girl) as a sat on the floor with my eyes closed. 

Despite this, the site was formidable and demanded respect.  Our best idea of the day was to follow the advice of a shop-keeper next to the Golden Temple and hike about 2 kilometers down the road to another (much larger) monastery called “Sera.”  The walk itself was lovely, past rolling farmland and we even snuck a peak at some traditional Tibetan artwork in-progress.

The monastery itself was more of a town, and devoid of tourists.  Even the monastic university was deserted, since we’d come on the last day of summer break.

The week after we visited the monastery it started raining.  It didn’t stop (not even for one hour) for about five days.  Karnataka was in the international news with reports of flooding in the north.  While we were in the midst of this unwelcome downpour, it felt as though we’d never be dry again.  The volume was such that our raincoats ended up making us even more wet, because they were soaked completely through.  I gave up on jeans, which take forever to dry, and wore only my lighter, more fast-drying pants for the whole week.  Then one day… SUN!  And for the last week or so, we’ve been enjoying very pleasant, sunny weather.

The last event of note was Dasara.  The Dasara festival celebrate the god Ram’s triumph over an evil demon.  In North India, Diwali is the most celebrated festival on the Hindu calendar, but in the South it’s Dasara.  We went with some of the staff into town at around 10 PM and got back around 1AM.  The town was completely shut off to automobile traffic and giant, bright, lit-up floats depicting this scene of triumph rolled through the streets followed by giant arrays of speakers blasting pop music.  In front of the slowly progressing float was a throng of people dancing wildly to the music.  All the buildings were lit up like Christmas on steroids.  It was a huge party.  Matt, Erin and I were tired before we even left.  By the time we got back we were totally exhausted!  But it was worth the trip to see another side of Madikeri.  Once again, only pictures could do it justice:

My coworkers! From left: Erin, Matt, Lakshman, Leela, Kumar, Muthupandi

Tomorrow I am taking a much needed day off.  I will spend the day trekking around the property and properly exploring as much of the farm and surrounding trails as possible.  I think a long, solitary trek is going to be very therapeutic.  I enjoy having the guests around and meeting new people, but I am missing all the alone time I usually have at home.  I will bring my camera so all my friends and family can see my home… finally!

 

Lauren