Tamil Nadu Monster Temple Tour, 2008: Madurai

I finally bid goodbye to Kerela after almost a month there. Much as I liked it, I was ready for some new scenary and eager to check out neighboring Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu is the other state at the south tip of India, on the east side. A much more traditional Indian state, it is full of many deeply important temples and pilgrimage sites for Hindus. The signature sight in Tamil Nadu are the enormous, brightly painted temple towers, or gopurams, which mark the walls of the equally huge temple complexes. I visited three cities with major Hindu temples, Madurai, Rameswaram, and Srirangam (Trichy).

Madurai was a shock after Kochi - a typically noisy, busy Indian city. Very crowded and full of pigrims en route to the Meenakshi Amman Temple in the center of the city. I "splurged" and got a rooftop hotel room with a view of the temple complex, in place recommended by the Rough Guide. I don't think they'd been there in a few years, because it was pretty dilapidated and gross (they described is as perfect place for a romantic getaway - yuck). It looked like a wild animal had tried to escape my bathroom - the door was all shredded up. I stayed a couple of nights out of laziness and due to the convenience of being right next to the temple. But when I developed a stomach issue, the bathroom scene did not cut it and I really splurged, moving to a nicer "business class" hotel for $20. Wow - I was in heaven! Super clean sheets, a nice bathroom, good looking wood furniture, and cable tv including HBO. I spent a fairly blissful sick day napping and watching the Da Vinci Code (hey I was happy for any English language tv but, really, I wish Ron Howard had stuck to acting!).





The temple itself is a bit of a sad sight from the outside right now. The huge gopurams are all covered with bamboo as they are being re-painted in preparation for a big festival in January. Now they look like that mountain from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" - vaguely Aztec or something. Inside the temple, however, it's business as usual and the place buzzes like a small city. I was amazed at how much is going on at any one time and how many beautiful, ancient shrines it contains. The central temple area is off-limits to non-Hindus, so I wasn't able to view it. I was able to see quite a bit outside of that area, including being blessed by the temple elephant (you stick a rupee in its nostril and then it touches your forehead). The hallways are truly huge, and there is a large water tank that people hang out around. And the variety of shrines and statues to worship is beyond anything I've seen.



Other than the temple, I took an afternoon and had a rickshaw drive me around to some other sights in town. Saw the Gandhi Museum, with a good history of his works and a gruesome finale of the blood-stained clothes he was shot in. A large flower market serves the temples in town, a huge operation to keep up with the needs for ceremonial flowers. I also visited a 17th century palace of the king of Madurai, Thirumalai Naik.