Sanchi (24MAR)

Sanchi is home to another impressive Buddhist artifact that was 'lost' British military personnel re-discovered it in 1818. The site is a series of Stupas, monastaries and temples built on a hill. I spotted them quickly from the bus, when we pulled into town, which made me surprise they could have been lost. However the whole area, which is now farmed, was apparently forest when it was re-discovered, and the hill and Stupas were covered in trees as well. Unfortunately, after re-discovery, the site was looted until 1881 and not fully restored until 1919. With the history of looting and restoration work, I was left wondering what was authentic and what had been restored. The Stupas were stone domes of various sizes surrounded by stone fences. The primary stupa had entrances at the four cardinal directions with large, intricately carved gates, while stupa three did not have the gates but did have carvings on each of the stone fence posts. We spend some time touring the hilltop in the morning, before heading to the museum at the base of the hill, which provided good photos and information from the early days of discovery and restoration.

In the afternoon, we met up with a local man that had offered to show us some of the 'off the tourist trail' sites. This guy was quite a character and shared many local remedies and lore with us. He had remedies to rid you of everything from Mosquitoes and snakes to heart disease.
For instance regarding Peacocks: Seeing one brings good luck and their feathers repel snakes. Put a feather above your door and snakes cannot enter. Wear a feather and they will not bite you. Also, peacocks don't have sex. The male bird cries, the female drinks the tears and out pops a fertalized egg.
For baldness he recommended a concoction of onion, lemon and curd, which should massaged into the scalp like shampoo once a week and 'your forest will grow again.' He himself claimed to have gone bald twice before and when we met him he had a nice head of black hair... and a gray beard, so maybe the concoction does something for graying as well.
For delivering a baby, put a peice of bamboo on a woman's abdomen and the baby will pop right out. However, he warned that if you didn't remove the bamboo imediately after delivery, she is likely to push out all her internal organs as well.
Honey can be used to cure/cleanse the eyes, but it must be pure, don't pour grocery market stuff in your eyes. I wouldn't try it on my eyes, but honey is a natural anti-bacterial product and was used in ancient Egypt on open wounds and is even recommended today for cold sores. He then added that onions work as well, but are much harder on your eyes. Uh yeah!

He was a smoker and told us that eating blackberries after the monsoon season clears your lungs out so you could smoke freely again.

For heart disease he recommended boiling the bark from one of the trees we passed for thirty minutes and then drink the water which would be red in color and would cleanse your heart.

For the mosquitoes he recommended an herb he picked along the trail. It was aromatic and smelled quite nice, but it was also covered in ants so it wasn't going to repel all insects.

We spent a good three hours with him and he talked nearly the whole time about local cures, his childhood in the area, and his tea stand that was destroyed by local officials to make room for other developments below Sanchi. He was quite proud of his tea and carried some along with him, which smelled like chocolate. This was a sore point with him and he was quite disappointed in the government and really had no faith in any establishments in India, from the government to the religious leadership and caste. He also showed us a area with petorglyphs, which he estimated at 2500 years old. They were interesting and could have been ancient relics, however they were just off a dirt road in the village and could have been the work of board kids a decade ago as well. We took pictures all the same, and then moved onto another oddity. A horse had been sculpted out of a rock and left unfinished on the side of the hill. He admitted he did not know the age or aim of the sculpture but had a story all the same. He claimed a king had come to see the stupas of Sanchi and left his horse on the hill to wait. The king was so impressed by the Stupas, that he failed to return and his faithful steed waited until it turned to stone.

At the end of the evening we walked into town and sat down at a local shop where he had the proprietor make some of his chocolate tea. It was quite nice, and I could see why he would have had a steady customer base at his old Tea Stand. After tea, we bid him farewell and in the morning we were off to Orchha.

Bohpal (23MAR)

Bohpal can be summed up like this: 8 hour drive for a 20 minute visit to the 3rd largest mosque in the world.
Worth it? Well it did get us closer to Sanchi. Bohpal may have been an interesting city to spend a little more time in, but we really only had about 2 hours of day light by the time we arrived and didn't plan ahead to see much more than the mosque. At the mosque we thought the women in our group may be required to cover up more, but I was actually the one under dressed, showing a little too much leg in my shorts. So, I ended up wearing the shawl one of the girls had brought along, like a man dress. It was pretty sharp and matched my shirt like a black eye.
Anyway I've included some pictures of the mosque. Unfortunately, none of them have me and my sweet outfit in them. I was expecting the mosque to be more ornate inside, but there weren't any amazing details. The most shocking were the huge bee covered honey combs that hung from some of the archways.

Mandu (21/22MAR)

So many things happened in Mandu, and I am so far behind in my blog that I will have to give you a run down in a semi-abreviated format:

-Mandu is an old empire capital from the 13th century, a top a huge plateau that served as natural defense. The Sultans that ruled here named it Shadiabad 'city of joy' and built grand palaces, to include the Jahaz Mahal or Ship Palace that housed 15,000 concubines of the Sultan. Today the ancient city is little more than ruins among and around a small village.

-One of the highlights of the visit was our hotel, which was situated at the edge of a ravine that opened up to the valley below.

- Our guide lives close to Mandu and three of his friends came up to visit him and hang out while our tour was in town. We hung out with them both nights and had a great time eating, drinking and chatting with them.

-A wedding/bachelor party was hanging out at the hotel garden before leaving Mandu for the wedding ceremony in Dhar, and they invited me to join them for drinks.

- They quickly claimed me as a brother, read my palm, told me I was lucky and rich, and offered me shots of VAT 69 straight from the bottle. I did one, much to their enjoyment and a second met with even greater approval. I attempted to thank them and walk into town as they loaded their car, but was intercepted when they pulled into the parking lot of the neighboring hotel and invited me to their rooms for more drinks.

- They were BJP (a political party currently in the minority) hardliners, and apparently believed I could influence US politics. We spent the majority of the time talking about India's enemy Pakistan: "You and me brothers. America and India friends. India and Pakistan enemies. If America attacks/destroys Pakistan, India will support them." This conversation was repeated three or four times and I, as the group appointed ambassador for the US, tried to explain that India and America were allies in the war on terrorism and wanted to fight terrorism in Pakistan. However, the US wants to fight terrorism with the help of the Pakistani government as well. On the other hand, the wedding party continued to believe Pakistan as a whole was bad.

-They also introduce me to a man they told me was a member of Parliament in India and took a photo of me with him.

-After about an hour of drinks, card games, debate and pictures; we exchanged phone numbers and they began to get ready for the wedding. They invited me, but I was not dressed for the occasion and didn't want to impose, so I turned them down. They said they were going to return to Mandu, but I didn't see them again.

-Dilip, one of the younger men (who reminded me of Sacha Baron Cohen- Borat) was very interested in getting to know me, but had limited English. As I was getting ready to leave he pulled me aside to explain that Mahatma Gandhi was a bad man. I was shocked, thought he might be joking, and countered with the fact that Gandhi had done so much for Indian Independence. However, Dilip was more concerned with Gandhi's work to prevent the division of Pakistan and India, and his work to unite the Muslim and Hindu people, which Dilip saw as a bad decision. I could understand the current fear and hatred toward the Muslim extremists that performed the Mumbai attacks as well as other attacks in India in recent times. However, I was surprised at how extreme the groups own views were in light of these events. And I would argue that if Gandhi had not been assassinated, by an extreme Hindu, his work to unite the two religions in India would have prevented the current state of affairs.

- On the second day, one of the members of the group passed out at the end of a tour of the local ruins. We had just finished the guided portion of the tour when she fell like a tree, cutting her chin, chipping several teeth and bruising her face. We then shifted gears and started our tour of local medical facilities in Mandu and another larger village.

- Amongs Mandu's ruins is a tomb, built of white marble, that was visited by the architects of the Taj Mahal for inspiration before beginning work on the Taj. This is also where our group member passed out, so either she fell victim of Delhi Belly, or she too was awe struck by the structure.

- In the evening, I biked out to Rupmati's Pavilion, which was built by one of the Sultans to win a girl, Rupmati. She grew up in the plains below Mandu and the pavilion was built on the edge of the highest point on the plateau so she could look out over the plains. Unfortunately, another king was also smitten by her looks and attacked Mandu to win her over. Before the pending attack, the Sultan fled Mandu and left Rupmati to poison herself, leading to the end of Mandu era of greatness. Ahh, I love a romantic story with a happy ending.

Maheshwar (21MAR)

We made a short stop in Maheshwar on our way to Mandu. It is another town on the holy Narmada River. We visited the Fort Palace and temple as well as the ghats along the river. It was quite peaceful and scenic along the river. The local women were busy cleaning clothes along the river as the children and men bathed or worshipped at the many Shiva lingas along the ghats.

At the Palace, we met a holy man that was excited to explain the many Shiva lingas that were on display in the Princess Anhilya's temple. She had Shiva lingas from each of the 12 jyotirlingas in India made of silver and gold. The holy man was passionately explaining everything to us and we were struggling to understand his broken English. Fortunately, Anant, our guide, had just finished explaining most of it to us, so we were able to follow most of what he was telling us. During the conversation the man stopped and began massaging his throat and hacking like a mother bird regurgitating a worm to feed its chicks. After a few moments he produced a small silver Shiva linga, which he displayed to us on his tongue and explained he kept lodged in his throat. He swallowed it again, only to have to perform the whole process again because one of our group members missed it. On our way out of the temple, he showed us a small coin collection he had and explained the religious significance of each coin. Some of the coins were quite old and had both Islamic and Hindu markings, highlighting India's history of religious harmony. He had several Euro coins and I gave him two US coins to add to his collection. He was quite happy with the additions and gave me a small red and gray stone in return, and he explained the two colors represented the unity of Shiva and his wife Parvati.

Omkareshwar (19/20MAR)

Omkareshwar is an island village that extends to the southern bank of the Narmada River and has great religious significance to the Hindu people of India. The island is said to have the shape of Hindu symbol for 'Om' when viewed from above and is also considered to split two religious rivers that actually join about 1 km up river of the island, behind a new dam that has been built right behind the island detracting from the scenic views of the town. The island is also the site of 1 of 12 jyotirlinga, which are important pilgrimage points for Hindu's worshiping Shiva (destroyer of evils) who is believed to be the greatest Hindu god. Despite the religious significance, the temple was surprisingly small, simple and undecorated; unlike the many temples of south India that had the huge ornate Dravidian towers.

All of the places I have visited through central India have been very dry due to drought and the fact that it is the beginning of Indian summer, just before the monsoon season. Due to the dry conditions the island was not as impressive as it is when it is green and the river is full.

We took a boat tour around the island, which was interesting because we had to hop out of the boat at a couple points in order to allow the crew to push or tow the boat upstream and we even helped pull the boat up river at one point. The river was exceptionally low and if we had waited one more day, we wouldn't have even been able to boat around the island entire island without beaching the boat on the rocks.

The island also has several Ashrams, which are religious communities where people live or visit to learn or worship. While I was returning from photographing my last sunset in Omkareshwar, I stopped and spoke to a couple of men that lived at the Ashram on top of the island. They invited me to visit the next day, but unfortunately I was leaving early the next morning and didn't have a chance to visit with them again.