Temples and Lions

The view from on top of the hill.

The last weekend in Ahmedabad we spent doing two day trips towards the south of Gujarat. Friday at midnight, after having said goodbye to those leaving the next few hours, we started driving towards Palitana. It is a pilgrimage center for Jains and to get to the top to the main temple you need to take 3800 steps. In total the hill has more than 800 temples.

Palitana is located a little bit more than 200 km from Ahmedabad so it took us 4 hours to reach it. We had to wait half an our in the car before the entrance to the temple was opened and we could start walking up the stairs. When we started with the stairs, it was pitch dark and we could see the stars very clearly - absolutely beautiful! We had taken only 20 steps or so when we were stopped by a few Indians who belonged to the temples, it seemed. They told us we are not allowed to enter, only at 4.00 AM. When we asked for the time, they also realized their argument was not very strong. Then they said that we were not allowed to go because there are bats flying around which might attack us. Finally they told us it is better to go together with a group, which was when we realized there was no real reason why we shouldn't continue going up the stairs.

The Indians we could have gone with were very much slower compared to us, so we went on our own pace up alone - four girls in the darkness. Darkness can feel very peaceful when you don't hear much or see much - only stars and the lights from the city down below. This time, however, we were walking up stairs in a place which we had never seen before. The stairs could be full of cow poo, the white stones next to the stairs looked like humans and we could not enjoy the beautiful view from the hill. A few times I grabbed the hand of the girl closest to me because I didn't know what was ahead of us. Along the way we stopped a few times to rest, drink some water and have a look at the stars.

Stairs, stairs and more stairs

Walking up the stairs, we met an Indian guy who lived in the US. He told us about the importance of the temples, the though life of a Jain munk and about the religion in general. A ritual all Jains have to complete in their life time is to go up to the main temple 109 times. We saw many youngsters who aimed at completing the ritual as an organized package in 60 days. The man we met was retired and came to India for a religious holiday to complete it. So far he had gone up almost 30 times. He said it was difficult to him and that he was in no rush to complete the 109 times it in 60 days. The thing is that a true Jain would not drink or eat while walking up the stairs, making it even harder to complete during the day when the sun is shining.

It took us 1,5 hours to get up and once we reached the door to the temple we had to wait for half an hour till sunrise and that the door was opened. For us the temple had no special meaning but for the people who came up it was clearly an honor to be there. They were singing songs and cheered when the door was opened. It was interesting to sit inside the temple, have the sun rising behind us and watch the people doing their thing. They wrote with rice and sugar on plates and sang mantras to Adinatha, for whom the temple was built and who is the founder of Jainism.

After one hour we went down, and saw many people walking up. It is possible to be carried up and down by Indian men, but we kindly declined all offers for it. It was one of those days that India was beautiful and the people all very friendly and welcoming. Many of them were happy to see us in their holy place and asked what we thought about the temple. On our way back to Ahmedabad, our driver took us to a restaurant, where the owner was also extremely friendly. We asked for a toilet and there was one but inside his and his family's home, so he showed us his home, introduced us to his father-in-law and mother-in-law and showed pictures of the time Modi visited the restaurant.

A lioness.

The second day trip we did was a lion safari in the only national park in India where Asian lions live. On Sunday, in the middle of the night, we left towards Gir National Park. It was a 7-hour drive from Ahmedabad, including a stop along the way for breakfast. A restaurant along the highway is called a Thaba, we had learned in class earlier in the week. Once we reached the village we went for lunch and took a small walk to have a look at the village. It was basically just one street with small shops but not more than that. A little before 3 PM we jumped onto the safari car and after some bureaucratic issues could finally start driving towards the forest to look for lions.

The forest is full of dust, and after three hours of driving in an open car everything - our faces, clothes, bags, just really everything - was covered in dust. The car did not feel very safe because we could easily fall out and a lion could easily jump in. A limited amount of cars were allowed into the park at once, and all the cars had to follow  the same path. We drove some 50 km in the park in those hours, and were extremely lucky to first see two female lions with three cubs and later three more male lions. That makes 8 lions in total in a park where the changes to see a lion are between 10 % and 50 % depending on the sources! Our guide reminded us many times how lucky we were that afternoon. Besides lions we also saw so many deer, peacocks and peahens, a few villages inside the park but the main attraction was definitely the lion.

Lion!

After the safari we drove back to Ahmedabad. In total we spent pretty much the entire day in a car. On the highway we stopped once for dinner, once because the driver wanted chai and also once because an accident happened on the car lane driving in the other direction. Apparently India does not have such a thing as an emergency number but instead many cars stopped, the men had a look what was going on and then continued driving.