I organized a day trip to Mamallapuram on Sunday. Initially, I planned on going alone, but I managed to talk the other volunteers (minus Bing and Tony, the “Honeymooners”) into joining me. This is a seaside town halfway between Chennai and Pondicherry (recognize that name from Life of Pi?) – my future Indian Art professor recommended the site and I did read an entire chapter about it in Intro to Asian Art. Though much history is housed in museums throughout America and Europe, it’s a different feeling altogether to see it in situ.
I hired a van to take the eight volunteers, Thanraj, and his cousin (who ends up being his ex’s little brother) down to Mamallapuram. It cost R3000 to hire the van and driver for the day – about $60! Day trips here are so doable that I may do another one.
Halfway between here and Mamallapuram, the driver stopped at Madras Crocodile Park. I saw more white-skinned people there than I have in the entire two weeks in the city, so it was an odd reverse culture shock that I had to quickly get over. The Crocodile Park is supported by big-name conservation foundations and zoos all over the world, yet it is still run-down. We walked in and almost ran into a pen of 356 endangered Indian crocodiles housed in a space no larger than an elephant pen at a Western zoo. They were lounging on top of each other because there wasn’t enough room. No wonder that the pond was so murky and overgrown with algae – no zookeeper in their right mind would walk into such a trap just to clean some water.
There were several dozen species of crocodiles, turtles, and snakes in this small preserve. One was so large that I was afraid it would hop the fence and snatch the little kid throwing popcorn at its head – the walls were dangerously low and no security guards were present to tell oblivious families to keep their kids from reaching their tiny hands over the enclosures. We paid R100 to take photographs with a baby crocodile and a snake (which I was only brave enough to touch). Just being touristy.
Continuing on to Mamallapuram, the van dropped us off in front of a field of ginormous granite stones. We spent hours climbing (I was in a salwar kameez – it was difficult) over the stones and hiking to the top from where we could see both the Bay of Bengal and the hills in inner Tamil Nadu. In these granite fields we came across several rock-cut temples and murals in relief (meaning that images were carved out of the wall). The site is so significant because rock-carving is not an art of ancient southern India – it is almost exclusively an art of the north. Then why are these temples (or workshops?) here? We don’t know. Granite is the hardest stone to carve, so the workers at this location had to have much skill with the medium in order to create such wonderful pieces.
It was so amazing to stand amongst such great history. The significance of Mamallapuram was lost on the other volunteers, but they still had a great time exploring with me. After the granite fields, we visited the Five Rathas (a World Heritage Site) and the Shore Temple – all monoliths that have somehow persisted by the seaside for millenia. I saw my first linga, a stone of worship, and carvings of Vishnu in various reincarnations. It was soooo cool.
The difference between Indian and Western tourist attractions with cultural significance is the boundaries kept between visitors and artifacts. Here, we were free to climb over the temples, sit on their roofs, pose with the rock elephants, and run our hands over every sculpture. That would not fly at home. The locations were overcrowded, trash was everywhere, and elderly women sat in the temples themselves selling cucumbers and unripened mangoes (they’re crunchy).
So I saw nearly every photograph in chapter 8 of my Indian Art book. Of course, everything was even better in person.
I hired a van to take the eight volunteers, Thanraj, and his cousin (who ends up being his ex’s little brother) down to Mamallapuram. It cost R3000 to hire the van and driver for the day – about $60! Day trips here are so doable that I may do another one.
Halfway between here and Mamallapuram, the driver stopped at Madras Crocodile Park. I saw more white-skinned people there than I have in the entire two weeks in the city, so it was an odd reverse culture shock that I had to quickly get over. The Crocodile Park is supported by big-name conservation foundations and zoos all over the world, yet it is still run-down. We walked in and almost ran into a pen of 356 endangered Indian crocodiles housed in a space no larger than an elephant pen at a Western zoo. They were lounging on top of each other because there wasn’t enough room. No wonder that the pond was so murky and overgrown with algae – no zookeeper in their right mind would walk into such a trap just to clean some water.
There were several dozen species of crocodiles, turtles, and snakes in this small preserve. One was so large that I was afraid it would hop the fence and snatch the little kid throwing popcorn at its head – the walls were dangerously low and no security guards were present to tell oblivious families to keep their kids from reaching their tiny hands over the enclosures. We paid R100 to take photographs with a baby crocodile and a snake (which I was only brave enough to touch). Just being touristy.
Continuing on to Mamallapuram, the van dropped us off in front of a field of ginormous granite stones. We spent hours climbing (I was in a salwar kameez – it was difficult) over the stones and hiking to the top from where we could see both the Bay of Bengal and the hills in inner Tamil Nadu. In these granite fields we came across several rock-cut temples and murals in relief (meaning that images were carved out of the wall). The site is so significant because rock-carving is not an art of ancient southern India – it is almost exclusively an art of the north. Then why are these temples (or workshops?) here? We don’t know. Granite is the hardest stone to carve, so the workers at this location had to have much skill with the medium in order to create such wonderful pieces.
It was so amazing to stand amongst such great history. The significance of Mamallapuram was lost on the other volunteers, but they still had a great time exploring with me. After the granite fields, we visited the Five Rathas (a World Heritage Site) and the Shore Temple – all monoliths that have somehow persisted by the seaside for millenia. I saw my first linga, a stone of worship, and carvings of Vishnu in various reincarnations. It was soooo cool.
The difference between Indian and Western tourist attractions with cultural significance is the boundaries kept between visitors and artifacts. Here, we were free to climb over the temples, sit on their roofs, pose with the rock elephants, and run our hands over every sculpture. That would not fly at home. The locations were overcrowded, trash was everywhere, and elderly women sat in the temples themselves selling cucumbers and unripened mangoes (they’re crunchy).
So I saw nearly every photograph in chapter 8 of my Indian Art book. Of course, everything was even better in person.
