An Elephant Ride

After Joe & Hannah left to go back to Bombay, I went to Jaipur, which is a city of about 2 million people in Rajasthan. Jaipur means 'City of Kings' and it was the place where the maharajas of Rajasthan lived in days of yore and still live to this day. One of the coolest sites to check out in Jaipur is the Amber Palace which is on a hilltop looking over the Rajasthani desert. The palace itself is beautiful and I'll do another post on that by itself. But the sweet section of this excursion is the ELEPHANT RIDE that you get to the top.

Now, riding an elephant is not like riding a bicycle...mostly because elephants are alive while bicycles are not. So you have to be prepared for the elephant to do things like shift randomly from side to side or blow a shower of watery snot all over you, etc. I don't really understand how the elephant driver maintained control over this incredible beast, but it involved a stick and some funny words that I didn't really understand...but it was kind of like eskimos saying 'mush!'

Anyway, the elephant ride is super fun and I highly recommend if you ever get to Jaipur you go to the Amber palace and pay your INR 500 to get to it on elephant-back. Awesome. And the elephants are treated very well...they only work till 10 AM and spend the rest of the day resting.

Here's an elephant's eye view of the road.

Stoked on the back of an elephant!Um yeah...this is what we call a snot shower. And that's an 'uncomfortable' smile. Good times!

Humayun's Tomb

This is the tomb of Humayun who was one of the Mughal rulers of India. This tomb was built by Shah Jahan and is known as the 'graveyard of the mughals'. Many mughal rulers (not just Humayun) are buried here. The tomb is pretty much regarded as the precursor to the Taj Mahal. It shares the double-dome structure which is supported by a cylindar which you can kind of see in the picture under the main dome. This is a lotus flower relief carving on the ceiling which is a pretty common theme in the mughal architecture. The lotus was a sacred flower to them.

This is a small mosque which is part of the same complex. What was neat about this one was that we could climb to the top.

Our guide Sushil wonders what we're doing at the top of the mosque...

The Big Iron Post

At the Qutub Minar complex, there is an iron pillar which has been there since the 12th century. this pillar was actually cast sometime earlier than that (I can't remember how early, but I think it's 600-900 AD). This iron pillar has been standing there for over 1000 years, but there is no rust on it. It is a fact which defies modern understanding of metallurgy. Very interesting. The legend is that if you stand with your back to it and your hands encircling it, any wish you make will be granted. Unfortunately, they put up a fence so you can't do this anymore...

Oetzi says...what's iron? We didn't have that in the bronze age... Must be pretty good stuff!

Unfinished Projects

One of the great stories of Qutub Minar is that there was another emperor who came along after the one who built Qutub Minar and he wanted to double the size of the Mosque and build a new tower twice as big. However, as our guide Sushil pointed out, this was not in his destiny. Above you can see the finished Qutub Minar and below you can see the one that was started by the next emperor, but he only got about 25m worth of it built. The classic unfinished project.
As I'm the king of the unfinished project, Joe & Hannah got these pix of me with the half-done tower. The flock of birds in take-off are parrots, not pigeons. There were parrots everywhere...very cool, also very loud...

Oetzi says...you'll be measured not by what you don't finish, but by what you do finish...

Qutub Minar

Qutub Minar is on the edge of Delhi and was probably the most interesting site we visited yesterday. It's alos the oldest. It is a complex made up of a victory tower (the Qutub Minar), as well as a mosque. This is the oldest mosque in Delhi, and I think maybe the oldest one in India. The tower is the tallest brick minaret in the world (72.5m), and was built in the late 12th century. It was constructed by Qutb-ud-din Aibak who was the first muslim ruler of Delhi, and was meant as a 'victory tower' to symbolize the new Muslim dominance of the local Hindu population. It's huge. Some say that it was actually built to be used as a minaret, but the problem is that it's so tall, there is some doubt whether the muezzin would even be audible from the top... There are 379 stairs to climb it, which I wanted to do but sadly it is no longer open for climbing. Oetzi says...probably best that way...climbing towers like this is a good way to hurt yourself... One interesting thing about the mosque complex at Qutub Minar is that it was built on ground that was previously occupied by 27 Hindu temples. However, the incoming muslim ruler wanted these temples destroyed and had a mosque and victory tower built on top of them to symbolize islamic dominance over the indigenous hindu peolpe. The mosque was built from the pieces of the destroyed hindu temples. However, one interesting feature is that, although islam forbids the use of animal or human sculpture in holy architecture, hinduism sees animals as sacred and so includes many kinds of human and animal sculpture in its temples. The hindu builders of the new mosque were aware of this and featured bits of human and animal sculpture prominently in the new mosque's construction, thereby thwarting the invader's wishes and preserving their impact on the mosque. By the time the overseers of the work realized the faux pas that was being committed, it was too late and the pieces were already in place. Therefore, they decided to cover up the ornamental sculpture with plaster so that it would be plain. This worked fine when the mosque was new. However, after 9 centuries of wear, most of the plaster is gone and now the original sculpture shows through. I think it's a beautiful and poetically just thing to see the original hindu craftsmanship show through after all this time.

Here is a column showcasing the original hindu sculpture work:

In the photo below you can see some places where the plaster is still in place on top of the original sculpture.

Neat. Oetzi says he knows what it's like to stand the test of time. That's a page out of his book. Word.

The Lotus Temple

The last thing we checked out in Delhi before heading home for the day was the lotus temple. This is a temple of the Bhai religion which is basically open to all. It's a phenomenal building.

The Boats at Elephanta Island

Probably the coolest thing I did in Mumbai was making the trip to Elephanta Island. It's an island about an hour's boat ride from the city where there are some very old hindu temples. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pix of the temples (not sure what I was thinking), but they are very old (like 1500 years or so), and hewn from the rock on the island. The boat leaves from the Gateway to India, so I got some pix of that, and the tide was way out so I got some cool shots of fishing boats on the flat ground where the tide had left them. Go figure, I take pix of the boats, not the caves...

The Mehndi

The Mehndi is one of the traditions of an indian wedding. At this ceremony, the women get together and have their hands painted with Henna in traditional designs. I am not sure what all the symbolism of this means, but the result is pretty cool:

The Wedding Garland

In india when you get married, they give the bride & groom an apparatus (called a garland) made of flowers to wear around their necks. I am not sure what this is called, but I am sure it has a name. Joe got some great shots of Matt & Karishma with the wedding apparatus on.

Hey be careful putting your hands on the garland!

The Monkeys

I couldn't go to india without including a couple shots of the monkeys.

Elephant shot

This picture says it all. Joe and the elephant.

Arts & Crafts

After visiting the Taj & Agra Fort, we visited some local artisans who made inlaid marble crafts and oriental rugs. Because of the persian culture of the mughals, there is a lot of persian and islamic art going on in Agra still today. Here are some pix of the marble inlay work that people are doing there:

Yeah, I spent some money, and it was more than I probably should have...but it was fun. Oetzi says...stone age, baby, yeah!

The Ox-Driven Lawnmower

All I can say is that when they were done, they fed the clippings to the oxen. Priceless. Oetzi says he likes it. Very similar to what they did back in days of yore.

Agra Fort

In Agra we also visited the Agra fort which was the stronghold of the Mughal emperors and their main state building. The emperor lived here with his harem, and the court ministers, army, and other officials lived inside the fort's walls. In some ways, the fort was very similar to european forts, but in some ways it was also very different. Its size was incredible. Surrounded by two moats (one for water, another for wild animals), and encompassing some ridiculous amount of acreage (over 100 I think), the fort is built of red sandstone. It was attacked many times but never taken. The entry to the fort is planned like a snake to prevent the use of battering ram's. The ramp leading up to the level of the ground inside is sloped upwards so it is always an uphill climb to get there, and the rain spouts have channels in the walls of the approach which did double-duty as channels for hot oil when the fort was attacked. This is like stuff out of a fairy tale. Way cool...

This is me, Joe, and Hannah on the path leading into the fort. You can see the drawbridge & gate behind us. The bridge goes over the moat.
This is a view of the water moat.
Ramp leading into the fort proper. You can see the drains/hot oil channels on the sides of the ramparts.
Our guide Ranna explains about the hollow walls replacing microphones in the audience hall.

This is a picture of the audience hall where the emperor would address visitors and audiences. The walls of this building were made hollow so that they amplified sound. In the days before microphones, this was a great way to ensure that you got heard (Oetzi says...J you would have had no problem being heard even with solid walls...)

The Harem. Fountain in the foreground.

In the Harem, 300 women lived with the emperor. Only the emperor, eunuchs, and the women were allowed in this area of the fort. There were fountains, gardens, and beautiful buildings there, where they would relax and be comfortable. Interestingly, when Shah Jahan's son imprisoned him, this is where he was kept. I can imagine much worse places to be in prison... Here is a picture of Shah Jahan's prison cell balcony:

From this balcony, he could view the Taj Mahal. In fact, he was imprisoned before it was complete, so he spent the last years of his life observing its progress from this balcony...

After visiting the Harem, we saw the old part of the fort which has hindu sculpture and imagery, which includes likenesses of animals and people. This is where Hindu ladies lived.

Taj Part 2

Okay, so there are a few more things I want to say about the Taj before I move on to Agra fort. First, the minarets are really cool. They are built with a 2 degree angle outward away from the main building so that if they ever fell, they would fall away and not damage the Taj. They have similar carvings and craftsmanship and are also a wonder to behold.

Another neat architectural feature is that the whole building is built on a platform above the ground so that when you view it from ground level, even at a great distance, it is higher than its background and you will only see the blue sky behind it. This is a neat visual trick, but it gives the building the appearance of floating on a cloud in the middle of the sky.

Here is a great shot of the tombs. You can see Mumtaz's cenotaph is in the middle of the building with symmetry and Shah Jahan's tomb is on the left as the asymmetric cenotaph. If you look close you'll notice that the tomb of Shah Jahan actually overlays some of the calligraphic inscription on the floor, which is clearly a reminder that the mausoleum was not designed to incorporate him. Shah Jahan was buried here by his son, who had imprisoned him for the last several years of his life in Agra fort. Nobody knows whether he would have wanted to be buried in the Taj, but it is clear in viewing the mausoleum that it was not designed to incorporate his body from the beginning.

The Taj

Today we went to the Taj Mahal. It would be worth the whole trip to India just to visit the Taj. It's that incredible. The experience of being there is sublime, like being in a dream. There really isn't anything that I could say to prepare you for it. And the pix don't even come close to doing it justice.

The Taj is in Agra, which is about a 3-4 hour drive (200 km) from Delhi. Agra was the capital of the Mughal empire, which was at its peak in the 17th century. Taj Mahal means 'Crown Palace' and it was built by the emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz who died at the age of 39. Supposedly, before she died, she asked Shah Jahan to do two things. First, build her a beautiful tomb, and second, never remarry. Both of these things, he did, however, the remarriage bit is a bit tricky as he lived with a harem of 300 women in Agra fort...more on that later.

The Taj Mahal is constructed of Agra white marble which is an incredible material. Stronger and more durable than Italian marble, it does not stain, discolor or erode. It is crystalline in structure. The tomb is obsessively symmetric. All of the inlays, bas-reliefs, and other sculpted items, along with the buildings and architecture themselves are exactly symmetric about the tomb of Mumtaz. The ONLY asymmetric item is the tomb of Shah Jahan himself which was added after he died and in a way highlights the fact that the tomb is there for his wife, and he is an outsider.

When you visit the taj, you cannot see it until you walk through the gate, because the walls around the gardens are high enough that they obscure it from view. It is striking to get the first glimpse of it through the portal as if in a picture frame.

The facade of the Taj is inlaid with semiprecious stones that reflect the light of the sun like a mirror. When you are standing right in front of it, it is physically hot because of the intensity of the reflections. This is despite the fact that the temperature in Agra is actually quite cool (less than 20 C...as you can see we are wearing fleece...) Here's a shot of the inlay reflections:

The islamic tradition does not allow for representation of human or animal forms in its architecture. Therefore, all of the decorations are either geometric (mostly herringbone and spiral), calligraphic (inscriptions from the Qu'ran), or vegetative (plants, particularly lotuses, roses, irises, and lilies). The craftsmanship is incredible. It took 20,000 skilled craftsmen 22 years to construct the Taj. Over 400,000 man-hours worth of work went into the building. Incredible.

Okay we are about to leave and I have to stop. But there's more stuff I want to tell you about the Taj I will just have to wait and continue that later tonight.

Matt's Wedding

Okay internet hasn't been as available as I would have liked in India, but I have a couple of minutes before we leave for the Taj to write a post and put up a pic from Matt's wedding. So here you go:

Okay I know I said it would just be one, but this one is also really good:

More Later! Oetzi says 'woo-hoo'!