21ST JAN. Sun. Chettinad to Trichy

After breakfast in the garden, where we were entertained by the free-range (noisy) rooster and hens, we said goodby the lovely staff at Visalam.

Noisy beggar!  here he is in mid flow!

 the baby chooks were cute, exploring the planters on the patio

I was given a little gift of a basket of the yellow blossoms from their gardens (and a hidden packet of snacks at the bottom for his lordship!  They'd already welcomed us with little gifts on arrival - mine was a pair of glass 'slave' bangles in blue and bright gold.  Nice touch!

A few minutes into our journey we passed several groups of young lads leading bullocks which had been painted/decorated and festooned with flower garlands.    Joshy managed to find a place to pull over and I got photos of a couple - apparently these are all connected with the bull wrestling I mentioned in a previous post, except that these are young/little bulls and the boys just teenagers ...

oh, and this is just because I love characters like this - to be found on almost any Indian road

We were heading for Trichy to visit the Rock Fort (Ucchi Pillayar) temple.  It is dedicated to the elephant god, Ganesh.    However, on learning that we'd need to climb 600+ steps to get to the top for the far-reaching views, we told Joshy to stop somewhere where we could photograph it from afar and we passed on the actual visit/climb

Here it is, viewed from the comfort of an air-conditioned car on the roadside a few miles away!

and we continued our tour with a visit to another temple .....

 Sri Ranganathaswamy temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the deity Vishnu (the 'preserver').   Like the  temple we visited in Madurai, this is ornately decorated. The temple complex is huge and occupies an area of 155 acres with 50 shrines, 21 towers, 39 pavilions and many water tanks integrated into the complex.

It is a Unesco World Heritage site.

but this was far more accessible to non-devotees such as ourselves and was a great place to get photos of some of the thousands of Indians worshiping here.   I'll keep temple photos to a minimum and concentrate on the people instead

We saw several examples of 'Mundan' being carried out - this is the shaving of the head of infants/young children  and covering with sandalwood.    All Hindus apparently have to undergo head shaving at some time in their life as a cleansing for the Gods but its easier to do it whilst young.    However, its wasn't going down well with the ones we witnessed.  This poor lad was distraught despite the encouragement of the extended family group supporting him.

I could see that somebody was spreading cream onto his ears so I'm not sure if his ears were also being pierced ... perhaps that's more likely to have caused the tears

But he managed a weak smile when his father asked me to take a 'proper' photo

This is the symbol of Vishnu

 This photo was taken 'secretely' over the heads of devotees queueing to pay homage to Vishnu whose statue was in a separate room.   Although we would have been allowed in, photography wasn't permitted inside the room but I think I got away with this one taken from outside

and the Vishnu symbol is worn on the forehead of male devotees

Modern world meets tradition!

Lots of ladies visited the temple to worship also ... dressed in the scarlet/red colours we saw at other temples

This little girl has the most amazing face doesn't she?

Oh ... go on then, just a couple more pics of the building/decoration as its so lovely

and this enormous chariot is used in religious festivals - it is pulled by via ropes by teams of devotees.   So beautifully carved ...

Drive another 1 hour to Tanjore and stay overnight at Paradise Resorts (Kumbakonam)