Khajuraho

After leaving Varanasi I took the train heading towards Khajuraho to see some temples that are covered in absolutely beautiful, and erotic, sculptures. Upon arriving in Khajuraho and taking a tour out to some of the nearby minor temples, I only had the afternoon remaining in the day so I left the main temples for the following days, I wasn't disappointed. The amount of work and detail that went into each temple was amazing, the entire exterior was covered almost form the bottom to the top with carvings of animals, humans and fascinating designs. The interior of the temples were also pretty fascinating although they weren't completely covered in sculptures, just a few on the walls. The temples were all in excellent condition too, which I was surprised about as there used to be 85 temples in the area but only 25 remain so I assumed that most of them had fallen into disrepair over the years. After visiting just a couple of temples I returned back to the guesthouse as the day was getting quite late and I spent the night just relaxing in the nice garden and reading about the temples that I would see over the course of the next couple of days.

On the second day in Khajuraho I rented a bicycle to tour around the further temples as I decided to leave the most famous group (the western group) for my final day there. The temples further out were fairly nice but, as I would see the next day, they weren't nearly as well preserved as the ones in the western group. Additionally the carvings on the temples weren't as intricate and the interiors were fairly plain. They were still worth visiting and it was really enjoyable to cycle through the country side and the old part of Khajuraho to reach them so the day was enjoyable. Another benefit about cycling around was that the touts couldn't harass you as much as they couldn't keep up to you (see later about all the touts).

My final day in Khajuraho I visited the famous western group and saw that the temples here were absolutely fabulous. Definitely the best out of all the temples in the area. Within the group there were about 10 temples that were all located within a couple hundred meters of each other so it was easy to just stroll around them gaping at their beauty. The figures that were carved on all of the exterior walls were amazing as they contained mainly sculptures of women about 2 feet high in various poses and performing all sorts of acts. The sculptures ranged from women doing laundry to practicing yoga to even having group sex! It sure was something different to see all of these very erotic carvings covering the walls of the temples. There were also some carvings depicting warriors, Hindu gods, animals and very intricate patterns; but the most common carving was definitely women as most temples were covered by them. The interior of the temples were just as fascinating as there were often carvings covering all of the walls inside as well, although maybe not as good as the exterior carvings, but especially the ceiling inside the temples which seemed to always be carved with a very detailed circular pattern was fabulous.

The only downside of the town Khajuraho was that it was such a small town (only about 10 000 people) that most people seemed to rely on tourism and during the low season (when I visited it) they were almost desperate to get you into their shops. It seemed almost impossible to walk down the main road as everyone would stop you and try to get you into their shop, which was almost all there was on the main road. Even around the temples lots of people, mainly children, waited and tried to sell you souvenirs and so it got quite annoying. Pretty much the only place where you got any peace and quiet was inside my guesthouse or inside the temples where people couldn't sell you anything. Needless to say that although the temples were absolutely fascinating I had had my fill of them after the 3 days there and was ready to head out. So the evening of the third night I took the bus to the nearest train station (3 hours away) and jumped on a train bound for Jalgaon where I planned to visit the Ajanta and Ellora caves, a world heritage site. So look for my next update to hear about my time there.






One of the local kids that hung out around the temples and tried to get me to buy souvenirs. He followed me around for a bit the first day but was pretty fun so I let him.










A view of the exterior of one of the temples. Almost all of the temples had this same shape with sculptures all the way around the bottom of it and designs for the top.















A view of the ceiling inside one of the temples. The intricate details of the circular carvings was fabulous.














A view of some of the erotic scenes that are on the temples. Almost all of the temples have erotic scenes carved on them although this one is one of the more graphic ones.














A sculpture of a couple on one of the temples.














A sculpture of a woman.