Don't know why my mind is full of India images tonight - maybe I feel like I'm cheating on India by spending so much time in the Middle East. Plus, as I was working up a presentation today I went through hundreds of pictures from the summer of 2004 that I spent teaching at Champlain's campus in Mumbai. That was before I started this blog, and, for that matter, before I started writing in my regular travel journal - so maybe I should make an effort to get some of this down before it all fades away. It really was the most amazing educational experience of my life, and India remains my favorite place in the whole world. I could fill up dozens of blog posting with my remembrances of India.
That said, let me, quickly, say a few words about the trip I made to Aurangabad shortly before I left India. I had been planning to make a weekend trip for a while and finally figured out where I wanted to go (my father and I made a wild trip down to Vellore and then up to Agra, but that's another posting). From Mumbai you can take a sleeper bus - sort of like in Harry Potter - up to Aurangabad, to the northeast. I saw several things that weekend, but what amazed me were the sacred caves of Ellora and Ajanta - I saw Ellora on Saturday and Ajanta on Sunday. Both are natural cave formations that were added on over the centuries - there were efforts to dig deeper into the side of the cliff and also innumerable statues were carved. Ellora is a combination of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain statues, carved depending upon what religion was popular with what leader at the time. Ajanta is all Buddhist, and also has paintings, which Ellora does not feature. I have a bizarre story about the most famous cave painting at Ajanta, but I've save that for later. The carving at Ellora which, to this day, I can't quite believe I saw - it ranks up there with the pyramids and the Taj Mahal and Petra and Notre Dame in the category of most amazing things I've ever seen - is what is sometimes referred to as cave 16, or the Kailasa temple. It is one massive temple, but it is even more astonishing that at first glance. It is carved out of one piece of stone - and is twice as big as the Parthenon. It is believed the 7000 craftsmen worked for a century and a half carving it out of the cliff. They just started at the top of the cliff and began to work their way down. It is almost beyond comprehension.
1 comment:
I love this idea of "cheating" on India by spending so much time in the rest of the world. I feel much that way about Italy: how dare I love anywhere else? But as you point out, it is the little adventures, the little memories we capture (not to mention the pictures you snap!) that keep us loyal.
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