Terry Redding
HOME   Travel   Anthropology   Web Projects  Videos  Personal  Contact Me		TRAVEL Photos Sri Meenakshi Temple, Madurai,Tamil Nadu February 2009 (Click on an image to enlarge it. Use your "back" button to return to your place on the page.) The Sri Meenakshi Temple is one of the most popular in India and draws pilgrims from all over. It is said that there are up to 10,000 visitors a day. Naturally the temple was undergoing renovation while I visited, and most of the spectacular gopurams or decorative towers were covered in bamboo and palm leaves for cleaning. Covered gopurams seem from an adjacent building roof. One or two smaller towers were left uncovered, providing a sense of their color and vibrancy. A decorated overhang above a doorway. Although covered the colors still manage to shine through. Temple workers construct doors in the back of the vast temple. Note the carved pillars. Resting pilgrims. Ceilings throughout the temple are painted in amazing detail. A closer view of a painted ceiling medallion. Celestial creatures of all shapes inhabit the temple interior. Not sure if candle lighting is a gender-specific task, but only women seem to do it... A kodimaram, or brass temple flagpole. These often project out of the roof of regional temples. Scenes from the Ramayana, one of two classic Hindu epics, are often found on temple walls. One of the thousands of Hindu gods. This goddess seems like the benevalent sort. A visiting couple at a temple shrine. A shrine for Ganesh, which visitors douse with holy ash. Smaller gods throughout the temple are covered with powders and oils. Another temple shrine. Temple workmen clean the nooks in an old shrine. The souvenir arcade inside the temple. Morning prayers at a shrine near the temple. Hindu symbols such as the lotus flower are often chalked onto the sidewalks in front of devout homes.