Monkey Temples

Subhash

We were toured and shopped out and asked Subhash to suggest something different. He'd been driving us for four days, so he had some sense of our tastes. He asked if we'd like the monkey temple! Indeed, by Jove, yes!

On the way out of town, through Jaipur's poorest of poor, Subhash bought 4 pounds of bananas. Aha! A clue about the monkeys! There were lots of sacred cows on our way and in that area, people feed them and sell greens to tourists to feed them.

When we arrived and paid the fee, a volunteer guide showed up who seemed to know Subhash. He definitely knew how to manage the monkeys -- how to get them to back off, who was the king monkey and had to be fed first, who was a hungry monkey with little ones to feed, that kind of thing. He took some great photos with my camera and even a video of a monkey family. 

As we approached the temple of Hanuman, we began to see lots of women gathering. They came to wash in the "pure" water and to sing and dance for the monkey god who is one of the sons of Shiva (along with Ganesh, the elephant guy). 

It seemed a special festival for praise of the monkey god and the monkey's were very grateful -- at least to us because we brought bananas!

On our way up to the temple, there were snake charmers, and yes, that is a cobra! Yikes! I'm not a lover of snakes! There were also lepers begging, but no small children trying to pick our pockets. So far, we've not encountered the problems we've had in Rome and other places in Europe with pickpockets and people being pushy trying to sell things. Regardless, we are mighty careful.

The monkeys were up to typical monkey business, trying to steal the bunch of bananas out of our hands or running off with the plastic bag as though it was a prize. The architecture was really interesting -- it seemed abandoned, but it was occupied according to Subhash. All over Asia, it seems they've used inferior paint. While bright colors abound in many areas, the paint is almost always washed out.

We fed monkeys and looked at the pretty girls and took photos and had a lovely time. It was a great interlude between seeing ancient stuff and mind-blowing driving!

Later, in Kathmandu, we went to their monkey temple but it wasn't a temple to Hanuman at all -- it was a Buddhist/Hindu temple, complete with monkeys! There were also many sleeping dogs and no cows, although cows are sacred in Nepal too. Many temples in Asia have influences from more than one religion, depending on who is in power at the time. The power of the century spends a lot of time trying to change the style of the temple to match the current belief. Remember the temples in Cambodia where the Buddhist carved huge Buddha heads in the Hindu temples. This was true in Nepal also. Here's a Hindu carving right beside all the Buddhist prayer wheels.