27 March 2010 : Its all about Bangalore :) continued....

Continued from previous post....

The Bugle Rock Park was where we went next and it was convienently located next to the Bull Temple. It was a nice park, which was actually really green. So yes, it is quite different from Cubbon park which is not as green (but im still a huge fan of Lalbagh Gardens). Anyways it was nice to take a stroll in the park. We did see many interesting things -- MONKEY --. Well it was sitting on the branch and throwing down little pods with seeds in it. And yes, as usual we saw many couples - one thing you can be absolutely sure to find in any park :)

Bats Bats and 100s of bats all over the trees..Ewwwk!

We drove to another famous temple - The Shiva Temple. Shiva is one of the hindu gods, known as the God of destruction and creation. And if you have seen an elephant god (called Lord Ganesh) - well thats his son. There is a 65feet el. 20meter high statue of Lord Shiva. It actually looked like it was in the middle of a movie shooting with the 'mountains' backdrop. But it was quite impressive. We actually had to pay 200INR to enter which gave us a pot of gold coins to drop into 108 little golden pots. There is a picture with Janus dropping the coins in. We also had a orange band which we had to tie around a tree - apparently it removes our problems in life..... We also got the opportunity to be involved in some hindu ritual - we poured milk on a stone god while the priest chanted some prayers. After which we had to throw a piece of wood into the fire with some oil. The priest brought us to the lucky coin station where we were each given a golden coin to throw into the pond infront of the giant statue, followed by putting a lighted tealight candle into the pond. Lastly we had to walk around a few hindu deities 3 times with a lighted torch (small torch). Overall it was quite interesting i would say :)

Janus throwing the piece of wood and pouring oil into the fire.

Janus with Lazar, his driver :)

Im sure you cant figure out what this is. This is how shops are here, they fully utilize avaliable space and so you can exactly see what is hanging. But there are beeds, chains, keychains and more...

We bought the Kannada, Sanskrit, Hindi and Tamil books.

27 March 2010 : Its all about Bangalore :)

We took the day to go around Bangalore - not to see the parks but to see the more cultural aspect of it. As you would already know India is predominantly a Hindu country. This explains why alot of the sights worth seeing are mainly temples that are 500 or 700 years old or even more! The first place we went to was Tipus Palace, followed by the Bull Temple, Bugle Rock Park and Shiva temple. It was a good way to try to understand the locals better by getting to know more of their traditions :)

Tipus Palace : Its funny how Janus had to pay 100INR while i paid 5INR just cause i was brown :))

 ''The construction of the palace was started by Haider Ali-the father of Tipu Sultan- which Tipu Sultan completed in 1791, which earned the palace the name of Tipu's Palace. Tipu used it as his summer retreat. This beautiful palace has five sculpted arches and the walls are adorned with bright paintings and murals. Though the paintings and murals are a bit faded, but still they manage to cast a spell on the viewers. These murals and paintings take you close to those long-lost times. The palace is a two-storied wooden structure with exquisitely carved pillars, arches and balconies, bordered by gardens on both the sides, which lead to the entrance. The projecting balconies on the east and the west are the places from where Tipu Sultan conducted his affairs of state.

The palace is built entirely in teak wood and an inscription on the wooden screen tells us that it was called the 'Abode of Happiness'. British used this palace as their secretariat after the death of Tipu Sultan. ''

And its from here where the king shouts 'Masala Chai'!... Just kidding ;)

A nice garden in the palace to take a soothing stroll in the late afternoons.

 

For some reason there were many people with freshly shaven heads.. Wonder what the occassion was

 

As said, Janus paid much more than me cause of our skin color differences......

  

As we were going to get into the car i managed to get a sneak into the garden and saw a few policemen having some fun of their own. Who says working has to be boring!?

The next place we visited was the famous Bull Temple (also known as the Dodda Basava Bull Temple). This temple is famous for the 4.5meters high monolithic bull inside the temple. It was built by Kempe Gowda in 1537 AD. This temple is dedicated to the hindu lord Shiva. The reason why the bull temple was built is well summarized below

 

''The legend goes that the Bull Temple was built to appease a bull that used to consume and destroy all the groundnuts and peanuts cultivated in this area. It is also said that after the temple was built, the bull stopped damaging the crop. As a celebration of this incident, the farmers of Basavanagudi organized a Groundnut Fair (Kadalekai Parase), near the temple. This fair continues till date and is attended by the people of Bangalore in large numbers.''

Indsat fra <http://www.bangaloreindia.org.uk/religious-places/bull-temple.html>

Well i think i should stop here and upload more pictures later... Part two comes shortly :) 

Oh and something to enjoy..... Pink buses ;))