This weekend, profiting from the gap between Immersion classes, I managed another quick road trip. Alas without my young friend but with 4 colleagues so I wasn't completely Norman Nomates.

Our first port of call was the sacred Jain pilgrimage site at Sravanabelgola, about 3 hours from Bangalore. It's a small town perched between two of the granite hills that rise abruptly from the Karnatakan plains. On top of each hill there is a Jain temple and the biggest hosts the remarkable Gomteshvara. 18 metres high (!), hewn from solid rock in the 10th century, Gomteshvara depicts a Jain tirthankara (are you keeping up?) who achieved moksha (i.e. liberation attachment and rebirth) by meditating, bolt upright, in a forest so that vines grew around his body and snakes coiled around his feet. It's an extraordinary sight:


I was initially disappointed that the scaffolding from the Diwali celebrations was still up. But actually it's kind of cool because it shows that this place is still an important place of worship and veneration. The real time to come will be in 12 years time for the next Mahamastakabhisheka ceremony. Over a period of several days the statue is bathed in holy water and then anointed with "auspicious unguents" - sandalwood paste, saffron, milk, flowers and jewels. According to the Rough Guide, in 1993 the ceremony climaxed with a helicopter dropping 20kg of gold leaf, 200 litres of milk, marigolds, gem stones and multi-hued powders! Must have been amazing. The link above shows pictures from this years event.

We stayed for an hour or so checking out the statue (and the excellent view) before climbing back down to the town and up the hill on the other side. There's a smaller Jain site there and the light was wonderful - I really love this picture:


Coming down again we found that the smooth rock was popular with the locals who used it as a slide. Young and not so young they came hurtling down either on their own or in great convoys.


We spent the night in the hectic confines of Hassan, a town for which none of the guidebooks we consulted could raise much enthusiasm. But our hotel was clean and England won a cricket match so I at least had a good night.

On day 2 our destinations were the Hoysala dynasty temples at Belur and Halebid (which lets be honest we ALL want to call Halibut but still). At Belur we got a guide who, armed only with a tiny pocket mirror which he pointed expertly at the relevant sculpture, gave us the lowdown on the extraordinary decorations that adorn the temple. The sophistication of the carving is amazing - fashioning that kind of filigree in wood seems arduous enough but in stone it really was amazing.



So a great trip - plenty more photos here.