india pics from the Ellora caves
After I left Bombay I took a night train out of Victoria Terminus station across Maharashtra to Aurangabad. Staging from that city I made excursions to the caves of Ellora and Ajanta, two sites I have had on my list of "places to see" for over a decade.
This is when I went to Ellora. I got an early morning start after having hired and haggled for a cycle rickshaw the night before. It was a 40 minute ride out of the city and into the countryside to the cave site.
Ellora has what is called "the world's largest monumental structure" called the Kailash Temple. It was a conceptual temple meant to symbolize Shiva's home at the sacred mountain of Kailasa in the Himalaya and is said to have built around 750 AD. Nothing prepares you for the actual place. Even after you have heard the stories of how 7000 workers were employed for over 100 years digging out a whole rock hillside, removing over 200,000 tons of black lava rock and then carving and "revealing" the temple that lay within. 1,300 years ago people made this thing. Its totally boggling. Then the Kailash complex is just one of the caves, there are 31 others at the site.
The carved elephants that "support" the temple are life size. This thing is a "carving"!!!
the whole set of photos I uploaded on Ellora are here:
http://flickr.com/photos/byronic501/sets/72057594066629481/
This place is HUGE
I yelled, "PHOTO!!!" and everyone froze for this shot ;-)
These little dudes had style...
Take my picture, I'll take yours back dude. This is my ongoing project ;p
Kids from the Sai Baba school on a fieldtrip to the Ellora caves.
So while exploring the other caves I came to this place. In past times it was a dormitory for the monks of Ellora. (well actually it was the next cave, that looked kinda exactly like this cave. Strangely my photos of the other cave didn't come out for *spooky strange* reasons)...
Now there were 100s of Tibetan monks at Ellora this day. The Dalai Lama was giving a teaching a couple hundred miles away in Andhra Pradesh and 1000s of monks had converged there for the event. Now the majority of the monks were taking pilgimage to all the holy Buddhist sites across India, with Ellora high on the A-List. Actually there were 100s of monks everywhere I went in India on my trip.
So as I entered this cave area I heard the sounds of Tibetan monks chanting, in that way only Tibetan monks can chant. It was coming from the top floor of the cave. For the next half hour I tried in vain to find the way up to the top level of the cave, but as much as I looked there was no staircase! Finally I decided to just let it go and wandered around on the second floor and just listen. Then I saw a pair of monks go into an alcove and dissapear. I followed, and I swear there was a staircase going up in the corner, where I know I had looked more than once and only saw a rock wall. So I walked up the staircase to the top floor of the cave. Just at that moment the chanting ended, the service was over and I entered the top floor to see all the monks dispersing and taking photos of each other. ;p
There were ONLY monks up there. So I figured I hadn't been able to find my way up for a reason. (and the photos and two AVI movies I took during that period they were chanting all mysteriously deleted themselves from my camera.) One of the monks offered to take my photo. Here I am looking humbled...
Later the monks got together for a group photoin front of the 1200 year old cave dorm. Talk about a reincarnation moment!
OMFG I ended up taking like 250 photos at Ellora and posted 70+ on my flickr set.
At another cave, was this famous carving of Indrani on her lion. Her breasts are especally popular and have been rubbed for good luck over the past 1100 years. You don't have to ask, yes I did!
Dudes, I took this photo!!!
Inside cave "10" (carved from the living cliff) recreation of wooden chaitya-hall carved from stone with an awesome 4 meter high Buddha stupa at center.
My driver and his beautiful rickshaw.
so that's it for this post, go check out the rest on my flickr set.
http://flickr.com/photos/byronic501/sets/72057594066629481/
This is when I went to Ellora. I got an early morning start after having hired and haggled for a cycle rickshaw the night before. It was a 40 minute ride out of the city and into the countryside to the cave site.
Ellora has what is called "the world's largest monumental structure" called the Kailash Temple. It was a conceptual temple meant to symbolize Shiva's home at the sacred mountain of Kailasa in the Himalaya and is said to have built around 750 AD. Nothing prepares you for the actual place. Even after you have heard the stories of how 7000 workers were employed for over 100 years digging out a whole rock hillside, removing over 200,000 tons of black lava rock and then carving and "revealing" the temple that lay within. 1,300 years ago people made this thing. Its totally boggling. Then the Kailash complex is just one of the caves, there are 31 others at the site.
The carved elephants that "support" the temple are life size. This thing is a "carving"!!!
the whole set of photos I uploaded on Ellora are here:
http://flickr.com/photos/byronic501/sets/72057594066629481/
This place is HUGE
I yelled, "PHOTO!!!" and everyone froze for this shot ;-)
These little dudes had style...
Take my picture, I'll take yours back dude. This is my ongoing project ;p
Kids from the Sai Baba school on a fieldtrip to the Ellora caves.
So while exploring the other caves I came to this place. In past times it was a dormitory for the monks of Ellora. (well actually it was the next cave, that looked kinda exactly like this cave. Strangely my photos of the other cave didn't come out for *spooky strange* reasons)...
Now there were 100s of Tibetan monks at Ellora this day. The Dalai Lama was giving a teaching a couple hundred miles away in Andhra Pradesh and 1000s of monks had converged there for the event. Now the majority of the monks were taking pilgimage to all the holy Buddhist sites across India, with Ellora high on the A-List. Actually there were 100s of monks everywhere I went in India on my trip.
So as I entered this cave area I heard the sounds of Tibetan monks chanting, in that way only Tibetan monks can chant. It was coming from the top floor of the cave. For the next half hour I tried in vain to find the way up to the top level of the cave, but as much as I looked there was no staircase! Finally I decided to just let it go and wandered around on the second floor and just listen. Then I saw a pair of monks go into an alcove and dissapear. I followed, and I swear there was a staircase going up in the corner, where I know I had looked more than once and only saw a rock wall. So I walked up the staircase to the top floor of the cave. Just at that moment the chanting ended, the service was over and I entered the top floor to see all the monks dispersing and taking photos of each other. ;p
There were ONLY monks up there. So I figured I hadn't been able to find my way up for a reason. (and the photos and two AVI movies I took during that period they were chanting all mysteriously deleted themselves from my camera.) One of the monks offered to take my photo. Here I am looking humbled...
Later the monks got together for a group photoin front of the 1200 year old cave dorm. Talk about a reincarnation moment!
OMFG I ended up taking like 250 photos at Ellora and posted 70+ on my flickr set.
At another cave, was this famous carving of Indrani on her lion. Her breasts are especally popular and have been rubbed for good luck over the past 1100 years. You don't have to ask, yes I did!
Dudes, I took this photo!!!
Inside cave "10" (carved from the living cliff) recreation of wooden chaitya-hall carved from stone with an awesome 4 meter high Buddha stupa at center.
My driver and his beautiful rickshaw.
so that's it for this post, go check out the rest on my flickr set.
http://flickr.com/photos/byronic501/sets/72057594066629481/