Saturday, January 9, 2010

Krishna Temple in Udupi

FULL UDUPI PHOTO ALBUM
The Krishna Temple in Udupi was absolutely amazing.  It is so impressive that this temple can handle the massive amount of Hindu followers that travel to this site everyday.  Every visitor to the temple is also fed a lunch or dinner which just goes to show the amount of organization that goes into running this site.
These chariots are used during special celebrations.






There are small worship sites through out the entire complex.






This is the area where visitors wash their feet prior to coming into the temple.




This is the seat that Shri Madhvacharya himself used.


As you can see there are several different levels to this complex.


This elephant is special and blesses visitors.


These rooms are new to the site and will be used to serve meals.


The Paryaya Swamiji blesses and feeds all the animals at the temple each morning (Swamiji is the one in orange).


I was able to be blessed by the elephant.


One of the main temple rooms.


This was a special day to celebrate graduation of students who studied Madhwa philosophy (Sri Sudha Mangala). This is a really great achievement.






We helped push the chariot.


We also traveled to the place where Shri Madhvacharya was born.







Friday, January 8, 2010

Travel to Udupi

We are taking an overnight trip to Udupi. Udupi is on the coast of Western India and is the site of the Krishna Temple. This temple was founded by the Hindu saint Shri Madhvacharya in the 13th century. There are actually eight temples on the site and houses a school for priests.

We took a train to Udupi and as a result of traffic we were so late to the train we literally ran to catch it and had to jump on while it had already started moving. The scenery was beautiful.








Our seats on the train.


Arrival into the train station


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

India Reception

The reception in India to celebrate our wedding was a beautiful and amazing evening at the Leela Palace in Bangalore.   I feel so lucky that I was able to meet and celebrate with so many of Abhay's family and friends in India who were unable to join us in Philadelphia.



Our guests of honor, Abhay's grandparents.


Much to my delight, Ahbay's grandfather wore the knit cap I made him to the reception.






There are entirely too many great photos of family and friends - so please check out the full album.