Exploring India: Thanjavur, Brihadishvara Chola temple, Tamil Nadu

Hi dear Hive community,

In our previous post we showed you our best selection of street photographs and everyday life in Madurai. There we couldn't take any photos inside the temple area, but this time we were able to take some beautiful pictures of one of the biggest temples in India, in Thanjavur. Which is built purely from granite stone. The top stone waits 81 ton's.

Big and crowded city was really interesting to see. You can find people everywhere - either selling things, eating meals, offering food refreshments, resting or just enjoying the day. City was otherwise quite polluted due to many inhabitants and mass production which leaves lots of trash behind it. Altogether it's a very unique place with many different faces.

Indian culture includes many gods, which also means that they have all the time festivals. Isn't that great? Always something is going on, entertaining the people. On the big parking area we could see countless buses and groups from all around of India coming to visit the temple. Everywhere there were mostly ladies of all ages wearing red and yellow saris and were decorated with a lot of jewellery. Another essential thing is flowers in the hair, mainly you could catch very strong smell of Jasmin flower.

The line for entering the main temple was huge and we were able to enter only the next day when we went to visit again in the early morning. The second reason for that was due too many requests from ladies and other Indian visitors to take a selfie of the foreigners. For some reason they are all very excited and want to give you a handshake and inquire about where we come from and what is our name.

The temple itself is made of pure granit rock and the carvings are marvellous! As in other historical places, we enjoyed a lot watching the pillars, very detailed and precise carvings and decorated walls, doors and ceiling.

We spent there two days and after that decided to board a train to Kochin or how Indians call it Ernaculam. The train was a sleeper and we spent whole night driving. In our view it's very necessary to taste the public transport and also local one. It's the best way to meet new people, make a friend and integrate into another's culture life. At our destination old friends were already expected us to show us around.

Thank you for reading. Wish you a nice day!