November 7 – Bhubaneswar – City of Temples

Bhubaneswar, is called the City of Temples so today we visit some temples.  The earliest temples date back to over 300 BC.  We are visiting only a small number of the temples.  

First is Parsurameswara Temple.  This is one of the earlier temples with only a single “chamber” or tower.  The carving on the outside are pretty amazing.

There was a monk and a worshiper inside.

A short walk away was the Muktesvara Temple, built a little over 1000 years ago.  It is considered an early example of the Kalinga Architecture that dominated Hindu temple construction for several centuries.

Adjacent to the Muktesvara Temple was the Siddhesvara SivaTemple.  It is much newer, built only about 600 years ago.  This one we couldn’t go into.

We ultimately ended up at a man made pond or lake with a small temple on an island.  The area was rather pretty and the pond quite large.

Then more walking, 

which took us by a number of temple ruins where we stopped briefly at the ruins of the Sabi Temple.

The last temple was the Lingaraja Temple, dedicate to Lord Shiva and one of the oldest temples in Bhubaneswar.  The complex has over 50 other shrines and is surrounded by a large wall.  The temple complex is not open to non-Hindus so we were only able to view it from the top of the wall.

We then drove to the tribes museum where we saw lots of artifacts…

and a number of vendors selling tribal crafts. 

This is our last day of the Tribal tour and we part company with Tara, Stephen and Valerie in the morning.  We will be flying to Kolkata (Calcutta) tomorrow while the rest go to Delhi.  Stephen and Valerie will then go on to Rajasthan for a Golden Triangle Tour.