South Asia
Republic of Incredible India, the world's biggest democrazy
Tamil Nadu
Kanchipuram
Sri Rama Lodge +914427222435
Adequate single room for only INR 315.- or US$ 7.15 per night.
Click below for an interactive road map of the Sri Rama Lodge in Kanchipuram and for directions:
Matt: Visiting Kanchipuram’s largest temple and the town's most important Shiva shrine, the impressive 16th-century CE Ekambareshvara Temple with (i) its colossal whitewashed gopuram which rise to almost 60 m, (ii) its multitude of colourful sub-temples and (iii) its venerable mango tree whose four branches are supposed to yield four different-tasting fruits each season, representing four vedas of Hinduism, which are ceremoniously collected by the gardening temple priests and given to Hindu women who come here to petition for fertility - a dubious blessing in this second most populated country of the world, inhabited by more than 1.2 billion people and more than one sixth of the planet's population respectively, and with a population density which is visible, audible and palpable at every turn (India contains already 17.5% of the world's population and is projected to be the world's most populous country by 2025 CE [surpassing China], its population exceeding 1.6 billion people by 2050 CE).
“...the chief cause for the impending collapse of the world - the cause sufficient in and by itself - is the enormous growth of the human population: the human flood. The worst enemy of life is too much life: the excess of human life.”
Matt: Taking the beat-up old T.N.S.T.C. (Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation) bus 212 H from Kanchipuram’s central bus stand to Tirupati (c. 120 km, 3 hours, INR 52.- or US$ 1.20 per person), the incredibly crowded “base camp” for the Shri Venkateshvara Temple on Tirumala Hill, thus crossing the invisible border between Tamil Nadu (“Varavaanga. Romba nanringa.”) and Andhra Pradesh, “The Rice Bowl of India” and India
Click below for other blog posts about stunning South-Indian gopuram
Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2011 Map Konni & Matt
2011 Map Konni & Matt
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