Jain Temples

We did a little cultural/city exploration today and went to some famous Jain temples in the north part of our city.  Even though I had visited them on my previous trip, I was again struck by the intricacy and beauty of the temples.  Many of the temple walls are done in mosaic out of very tiny tiles.  Several places are silver or gold plated.  The time and effort it took to do all that work is mind boggling to me.

We were greeted and led on a tour of sorts by a man who has lived/worked at the temple complex for over 40 years.  He is a little, funny man who always has a smile.  He had been our guide four years ago, and I remembered him...he didn't remember me though.  He kept talking about Ja.nism being equal to being happy and having peace.  If only he knew where true joy and peace came from...
His English was not very strong and he was well entrenched in his ways, but we tried to share and left him with a Peace pamphlet.  He said he would read it...I hope he does.  Please lift up this man.

Prior to going we did a little research on Ja.nism.  To be honest, it is strange--perhaps stranger than H.nduism.  It seems like an odd mix of H.nduism, Buddh.sm, with some other stuff thrown in. I don't really understand it all, but it is definitely work based and has many restrictions.  Probably the most famous characteristic of it is that they kill absolutely nothing--bugs included.  Naturally that makes them vegetarians, but they don't eat root vegetables either because the entire plant dies when it is harvested.  If you want to read up more on Ja.nism so you can better lift up the 10 to 12 million people who practice this religion, here is a link for more information:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism

Here are some pictures of the temple complex.  There are three main temples surrounded by gardens.

When I visited four years ago, they were working on this mosaic.  They finished it, but throughout the complex, they were working on several other beautification projects.

A mini-Taj Jain temple 

A view of inside a temple from the outside.  Photography wasn't allowed in the temples themselves, but you can see an alter here with food sacrifices on it.

This is an interesting picture Julie took.  It is taken within the beautiful, well-manicured Jain temple complex.  You can see the contrast between the temple complex and the city on the other side of the gate.  It is amazing and saddening what money and beautiful resources can be gathered for the sake of stone idols and temples made by human hands...