Khajuraho- Living History and Mythology

Sunday, March 3, 2013 10:42am

Right now I am sitting in the hotel lobby in Khajuraho, the location of the spring break trip sponsored by the program, and I have been having the most wonderful time.

We left Varanasi Wednesday night, to take the twelve hour train ride to Khajuraho. The Indian train system is really good, but it is still Indian, so it is tightly packed and a little dirty. We were in the third highest class, so we have little booths of six, which convert into six benches that are to be used as beds. In this class you get two sheets and a pillow, and there is a curtain to close your compartment off. Because there are six girls in my program we were all together, and it was like one big sleepover, where no one slept well at all. We did watch The Aristicats though. That was great.

We got to Khajuraho at 6 in the morning, only 1 hour late, and walked out of the charming train station to the beautiful fields that surrounded it. Everywhere we looked was green, the dogs looked healthy, and there was relatively little trash. I was in heaven. We went to our hotel, slept until nine, had breakfast and went out to for the first sights.

Yeah. There are way more like this one.

Khajuraho is a small village, but a very popular tourist site because of the temples that are all around the city. These temples are from about 900 AD to 1100 AD, but are in very good shape, and have needed relatively little restoration. The real reason people come though, is because the temples have the most beautiful carvings and stone statues, including VERY erotic ones. On these temples you see everything from simple intercourse, to interesting sex positions, to threesomes, to homosexuality, to bestiality. Yes, bestiality. Men having sex with horses and elephants. In Stone. On temples. Right next to these are sculptures of war, society, and gods.

We went to the first group of temples, the Jain group, and had an interesting lecture from Professor Ojha, who we brought along for the ride. We had a great time looking at the temples, wandering around, sitting in the sun, taking pictures, and sketching what we saw.  Because we were all exhausted from not sleeping on the train, we decided to take the afternoon easy, so after lunch we went back to the hotel, napped, and then had a class about Tantric ritual.

Then it was off to the Sound and Light Show at the western group of temples. Right as the sun was going down we sat in plastic chairs in the middle of a field, and a booming voice came out of a speaker. It was a silly, but well-done, show about the history of Khajuraho, done through sound recordings and lighting the temples and the surrounding trees. It was so weird, but I did learn a lot.

Statue of a boar, with the 10 forms of Vishnu,
on of the three major Hindu gods, carved in

The next morning we were off to the southern and eastern group of temples, a lecture on Hindu religion at the time of the temple building and more beauty and laughter then I have had in a while. Also more photos.

After lunch we went to by far the most impressive set of temples, the western group, where the light show had been the night before. Walking in took my breath away, for in one compound was beautiful gardens and trees and six absolutely stunning temples, each one of which would have been an amazing tourist site by themselves. They were huge and beautiful, and very, very erotic.

The weird thing was, when walking into this compound I felt more at home than I have since I got to India, for it had the same feeling as a sunny day on the quad at Rochester. While the temples were more beautiful than anything you will ever find in America, they were all made of the same material as each other, like Rochester’s red brick, and the greens between them were the perfect mix of trees and grass, with people strolling down the sidewalks that criss-crossed them. It was so nice, to just sit on the step of a temple and breathe in the history and skill that filled the place.

Outside of one of the Western Temples

That night we went to an AWFUL, but hilarious, folk dance show. The dancers were like fifteen, and the all looked like they wanted to kill themselves more than they wanted to be performing. It was sloppy and not very interesting, and but funny in its awfulness all the same.

Monday March 4, 2:15pm

HAPPPY BIRTHDAY SAMMY!!!!

Well, now that I got that out of the way, back to the trip.

Saturday was the best day of the trip by far, because we spent the whole time in some of the most beautiful nature that I have experienced. The paths of Wisconsin or the mountains of Pennsylvania have nothing on India.

First it was off to the Pandav falls, where the Pandava brothers spent their 14 years of exile in The Mahabharata (You go Professor Brooks!). The waterfall was breathtaking, and it fell into a heart shaped lake surrounded by trees, trickles of fresh mineral water clean enough for an American to drink.

I was so excited to be in nature I spent the whole time climbing on the rocks and boulders that surrounding the lakes, scaring the crap out of the program staff, who though I was dumb enough to do that without checking the stability of the rocks, knowing how to swim, and knowing that Alex was a lifeguard. I climbed trees and got a little wet, and napped in the sun on a boulder. It was just like the hikes we used to do at camp, but 1000 times better.

Tania and I at the temples

Then it was off to the Panna Tiger preserve, where even though we did not see any tigers we did see all sorts of birds, trees, deer, and monkeys. We got to ride in a jeep like they do on safaris in the movies, and looked through binoculars in order to find the animals the guides had spotted. It was so much fun. We saw the sun set over the mountains, and took a nighttime joy ride back down it.

Amazing Italian food finished off the night, and we gathered together to watch a chick flick before bed.  That is what we call quality life.

Sunday was a relaxed day, for we had the morning off, and a folk dance workshop from the same people who were in the awful show. All the students and all of the staff participated, including Professor Ojha, which was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen. Everyone was a good sport, so it was just two hours of constant laughter. We were not very good, or very serious, but we all enjoyed ourselves.

After lunch it was back to the western temples for another look, then back on the train to go back to Varanasi.

Mission Khajuraho: Completed

Things learned at the Panna Tiger Reserve:

• Ladu, my favorite snack, is made out the ghost tree, a white tree that looks like a mosaic painting.
• Deer and monkeys tend to be friends.
• There are three types of deer of in India, and some lose their horns every year.
• The Ken River is the cleanest river in India, because no waste or garbage is poured into it.
• There are only 16 tigers in the whole reserve, but they mostly came from other places. 5 years ago there were no tigers left in the park, so they had to bring in more.
• The tigers are micro chipped for tracking purposes. There are elephants in the park, but they are domesticated, and used by the forest preserve people.
• Poachers are a really big problem, even in the reserve, especially in the villages that are in the reserve.