More about Khajuraho

On my second day in Khajuraho, Seepu knew to leave me alone at the temples. I told him I wanted to meditate by myself and not be disturbed. Of course, the people here are so friendly that when he left me, the temple guard came up and wanted to help me understand the meaning of the temples. Okay, so rather than resist, I figured this might lead to something good. No mistakes, right?

So, he took me inside one of the temples and showed me many carvings. He allowed me to climb up on various structures so I could photograph better. Then he showed me how to get inside to the altar of Shiva where there was a large shivalingum (a round shape structure) with flower petals on top of it. We both sat down and started to chant Om Nama Shivaya together. What an expereince to be there together with this Hindu man sharing a common prayer! Many people came upon us while visiting the temple, but they did not disturb us. They paid us reverence for praying.

He then took me into another temple where the altar inside was a black marble buddha with cobras all around the head. This was an amazing one as well.

I then visited a bunch of other temples. Some were small and some were big. All were beautiful.

It's difficult to phathom how or why they were built. They are 1025 years old. Most of what has happened in India is the struggle of one group trying to dominate another. And in so happening, women have been consistently separated and covered up. They don't wear the prison type burkas like those of the Taliban women or other fundamentalist Islam groups, nor are they required to cover their faces, but in their beautiful sarees, they are still pretty much covered from top to bottom. But here in the midst of it all are these outstanding Kama Sutra temples with 84 sex positions described in the carvings tasteful and magnificanet for all to see.

Seepu says that the king who had the temples built was afraid that the population was growing too small and wanted to encourage people to have sex and procreate. That is why he had these temples built and had the sex postures done in such detail. Who knows? All I know is they are beautiful and I captured many photos to be posted later.

Many blessings for New Years '06,
Laurie