Central Tamil Nadu: Madurai, the city that never sleeps (Lorie in India, Blog #9)

After a long bumpy trip, we arrived at Madurai, an ancient trade and religious center which “never sleeps” because there is activity all night long.  This city is the site of an extraordinary Hindu temple from the 16^th century, which seems to me equivalent to the Renaissance in Europe in terms of its beauty and intricacy.  Unfortunately, no photos are allowed in this temple, but imagine a tall room with 1000 intricately carved granite pillars, all lit with twinkly candles, and extremely fine brass statuary as part of a complex a kilometer square.  Below is a glimpse, from the outside, of one of the four towers which bound this temple, which has a huge rectangular park inside with huge halls such as the one with 1000 pillars.  It is great that we saw the 8-10 century work (at the Shore Temple), then the 10-12 century work (at Tanjore), and now are seeing this temple architecture at its peak (16^th century).   Amazing.

Madurai is the second biggest city in the state of Tamil Nadu, in the middle of a giant farm valley, so it is a big market center.  It is also very old, so narrow streets with endless market stands, of food and many other things, twist and turn through the town.  We were lucky enough to see these streets on a bicycle rickshaw, which can get through the smallest street.  









Here I am ready for the ride.

Here are some of our drivers, sharing a snack with us at a wonderful street stand.  We each got one sweet and one savory friend dough ball, highly spiced.  We also got milky chai tea or special milky coffee, if we so chose.

As is common in South India, our snacks are served on banana leaves.  Makes doing the dishes easier!  One full lunch was served that way, with ten little piles of things to taste.  Bananas are served at every meal, and there are 165 varieties- large, small, sweet, less sweet, etc. 

One of the funny sights we see daily are cows and bulls, as well as goats, walking around on crowded streets, eating organic garbage.  This one seems to want to go into the house to avoid the crazy cars, bikes, rickshaws, trucks and more that weave through the streets, honking.

People are incredibly friendly. As we go through the streets by bicycle rickshaw, everyone waves to us as if we are movie stars.  There are not many tourists in this part of India- most go to the north and the coasts.