Ellora-Ajanta-Aurangabad, India
Anna's entry:A World Heritage site, the Buddhist caves of Ajanta are the Louvre of Central India. The caves date from around 200 BC to AD 650. The 30 caves are cut into the steep face of a horseshoe-shaped rock gorge. The caves are magnificent example of hand-carved rock architecture. I mean these are the real huge rocks of the gorge that are made into temples with columns, balconies, staircases, numerous statues of Buddha, etc. - all done by hand! Talk about patience! Some caves have gorgeous ancient painting all over the ceiling, walls, and columns. When you are standing inside the caves, you feel as if you went into a completely different ancient world, it is a very interesting perspective that a person gains walking in almost complete darkness among all the grandeur of the Buddhist Gods. But, presence of local monkeys, who are begging for food and water, quickly remind you that you are indeed in the contemporary India.
Ellora cave temples is another World Heritage listing. Compared to Ajanta, they are different in the rock design and architecture. Still all hand carved and magnificent, they represent five centuries of work by monks (Buddhist, Hindu and Jain). The masterpieces is the breathtaking Kailasa temple - dedicated to Shiva, it is the world's largest monolithic sculpture, carved from the rock by 7000 laborers over a 150-year period. The images are absolutely striking!
We stayed in a town of Aurangabad as our base for Ajanta and Ellora cave exploration.
Aurangabad turned out to be a nice surprise for us in one way. We discovered that this is here that the 2nd Taj Mahal. Do you remember that love story about the original Taj Mahal in Agra? If not, I entered a quick description on our blog under Agra entry if you care to refresh the love story details. Anyway, the original creator of Taj Mahal was imprisoned by his own son; well the son decided to create his own version of Taj Mahal, to honor the love of his life, and built it right here - in Aurangabad. He called Bibi-Qa-Maqbara. Apparently, a lot of tourists are unaware of its presence here, so we had a great pleasure of having the "baby" Taj Mahal all to ourselves - no crowds, no hustle, no outrageous cost to enter. And, I must tell you this version of Taj Mahal is equally stunning and significant. As a matter of fact if you put side by side the photos of both Taj Mahals, I doubt you would be able to tell the difference. We stayed at Bibi-Qa-Maqbara until the sunset, the views were beautiful and peaceful, and we were reminded yet again how fortunate we are to experience the world...
Indian Traditional Thali Meal:
Mumbai Version of Meal (Chinese influence):
posted by Rob and Anna @ 1:03 AM
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