Temples, Shops, and "Silver Bells"

14 December 2008. 7:30 a.m., Trichy.

The city of Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) is best known for two quite different sites. One is a massive rock fort/temple that overlooks the city. The temple itself is housed inside the rock, carved into columned rooms and little shrines in the walls. The climb up through the temple to the top takes about a half hour, over 500 steps. At the top, a large temple for Ganesha greets pilgrims. I continue to be impressed with the amount of work taken, over years, to build these temples and sculptures out of rock.

The other site, however, is more impressive, and more interesting. The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple complex covers an enormous 60 hectares (98 acres), built with numerous large towers called gopurams that mark entrances to different courts. The temple is built with seven concentric walled sections, all leading to a central gold-topped sanctum. These walls remind visitors of the earlier Hindu traditions that allowed poor people and beggars to enter only the first section, traders the second, higher caste Brahmins the third, and so forth. I could not help but think of the biblical Israelite temple, which had similar levels of accessibility. Even the presence of shops, selling everything including worship offerings, brought to mind the stories of Jesus at the Jewish temple in his day.

This sense of hierarchy in Hinduism is a contrast to the inherent adaptability and tolerance of Hindu theology – there is a god, or a way to attain salvation for just about everyone, no matter the caste state, gender, or even belief. But within this theology, there is clearly a marked valuation of social status, and thereby temple access. My host in Kolkata, Rupa, even noted that in some places there is a caste system approach to the gods. In some villages, for example, “lower” gods are worshipped, while upper class Brahmins look down on such worship. My hunch is that these prejudices are based more in social culture than in Hindu theologies. In fact, as early as the pre-Christian Vedas, the entire caste system was being questioned.

Following an afternoon rest, I followed a general pattern set early in the trip, to take one good meal a day at a hotel restaurant. This evening I chose a the city's largest business hotel, Breeze, and enjoyed a fine dinner of various curries and rice, all for $5.00. There was a strangeness to the place, however, as Christmas songs and Christian hymns played over the sound system. So I ate dinner to the tune of "Silver Bells," "Precious Memories," and "The Christmas Song," among others. An interesting ending to another day of learning.

In closing, I would like to say a word about this blog. There is a kind of "look at what I'm doing, and you're not here" approach that could be interpreted from all of this. I hope the readers know this is not my intention; rather, I'd like to give some sense of what life is like here, how one might work and worship here, and how the rest of us might travel here. The entire experience has taught me about the many assumptions we Westerners make and the overwhelming blessings we take for granted.
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