As everyone reading this in the US
knows, This past Thursday was Thanksgiving. Even though it is not a holiday
here, I took a couple of days of leave and Rae and I made it a long weekend. We
went to Jaipur with our friends the Slocombes, who are here from Canada on a
mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was AMAZING! It
was one of the best experiences we have had in India. Well, that whole kidney
stone thing last year at this time was pretty great. No. No. Wait. I am pretty
sure Jaipur was better. Yes, it was definitely better.
We have more than a week’s worth of
pictures. So, this week we will talk about the sights of Jaipur we enjoyed.
Next week we will write about some amazing experiences we had.
Jaipur is the capital of the state of Rajasthan.
Originally called Amber, a city named after the Goddess Amba, Maharaja Sawai Jai Sing moved the city from the hilltop Amber
Fort ten kilometres or so to the plains below in the early 1700s. It was one of
the first planned cities, though frankly you couldn’t tell that anymore. “Old
city” has been totally overrun by and encompassed by “new city,” although in
some places the original city walls are still standing. The city was laid out
in a grid with wide streets. There is no historical record of him saying he
wanted a wagon to be able to turn around in the street (reference anyone?). Nevertheless
and notwithstanding, the new city offered access to water and room to grow,
neither of which characteristics were true inside Amber Fort.
Jaipur is also known as the Pink City.
When I first heard this name, having been to Jaipur and having seen the number
of sand stone buildings), I thought that was the source of the nickname.
However, it turns out the name was applied relatively recently in the city’s
history. In the 1870s, the Prince of Wales visited Jaipur and the Maharaja had
the city painted pink in his honor. The interesting thing is everything in the
city was painted pink except the palace, which was and is painted yellow, as
you will see below.
I have already mentioned Maharaja Sawai
Jai Sing II. He was one of a string of Maharajas named Singh (Lion in Hindi) who
ruled over Rajasthan (and at different times other countries and Indian
states). The family has ruled over Rajasthan for several hundred years. Even
when the British ruled India, the Maharajas were left in place. They continued
to have tremendous wealth and power until 1947 when India became an independent
democracy. After that, they maintained their title and wealth but no political
power, unless they won elected office, which some of them have done. When we
went through the museum, which is located in the converted public reception
hall of the City Palace, we saw portraits and personal effects of many of them.
It was interesting how many of them were not the children of the previous
Maharaja. Time after time there was not a male heir. So the Maharaja would
adopt the son of his oldest daughter.
A couple of the more interesting Maharajas
were the one who was over seven feet tall and four feet wide. That is all
unusual but what was really amazing is that his legs were only two feet long
and his feet were very small. So you had this huge guy on very tiny legs and
feet.
The pants of this Maharaja were amazing.
They took up most of a wall in width but were very short. I wish we could show a picture but no
photography was allowed in the museum. The Maharaja who was known as Bubbles
was pretty unusual as the one who looked quite a bit like John Lennon from the
Sargent Pepper album. Finally there is the current Maharaja, who is 16.
Well, on to the pictures. We took over
300 pictures whilst we were in Jaipur. Don’t worry, we aren’t going to show
them all. The major sites we went to, and for which we will show pictures and
provide some description are below.
Pink City (Old City) - Here are a few pictures of the Old City in Jaipur, entrance into the formerly public areas of City Palace, and some of the public areas. Much of the the former public areas have been closed in and turned into a museum, where, unfortunately, one cannot take pictures
City Palace - as noted above, in the midst of the Pink City, the Maharaja left his palace painted yellow. The current Maharaja (16 years old) still lives in the palace. As with England, when the flag is flying, the Royal Family is home.
This is a silver jar; about six feet high. There are two of them. One of the Maharajas visited England. The only problem was he only drank holy water from the Ganges. Therefore he had these two jars made to carry the Ganges water with his entourage. It took two silversmiths two years to make the jars out of 4000 silver coins. In the technique this used, there was no soldering so the jars are considered individual silver pieces: the two largest silver objects in the world according to Guinness Book of World Records.
Below is the visitor's palace. This was built because the Maharaja was a pure vegetarian. He knew many of his royal guests, particularly from England, would want to have meat prepared for them. Rather than contaminate his palace, he had this palace built.
Jantar Mantar (calculation instruments) - this was one of the most mind boggling things we saw in Jaipur. One of the Maharajas was very interested in astronomy, astrology, and celestial matters. In an area of about 10 acres he had 14 major instruments calculated so that he could track celestial bodies, determine time, and the changes of season. One of the sun dials is accurate to within 2 seconds. Amazing!
Lake Palace - A couple of weeks ago we posted a picture of the Lake Palace at night. This may not be quite as dramatic but I think it is still beautiful. This was built as a summer palace and is being converted into a hotel (as many of the royal palace are or have been). The lake is man made. They built the palace and then built a dam to create the lake.
A vendor at the lake carrying her wares on her head.
Albert Hall - named after the English Prince Albert, this was originally built as a town hall. It is now a museum (the other major use of historical buildings other than hotels). I missed it but after I shot this picture the pigeons in the foreground (plus a couple thousand others) started swirling around in a huge cloud.
Hawa Mahal (Wind Palace) - closed to the public, this was built so the wives and concubines could sit at the windows and watch what was happening on the city's main commercial street. The windows used to open (hence the wind) but they are now sealed.
Step Well - This was the main well for those (other than royals) living within Amber Fort. It is still being used, as noted in the pictures below which show women using or carrying the water from the well.
Amber Fort and Palaces - clearly one of the most amazing structures we have seen. there are three palaces, that are connected with each other into one. The oldest was built about 50 years prior to the construction of Taj Mahal; the second palace was built contemporaneous to Taj Mahal; the most recent was build about 50 years later.
The next four pictures are from the middle of the three palaces. To our mind it was the most spectacular of three. The shining diamond (almost literally) of the palace was the Hall of mirrors. We could do a whole blontry on this hall alone. These pictures don't do it justice. Stunning.
This is the Maharaja's quarters from the original palace.
The next two pictures are of a jar conveyor system that brought water from the well to the highest part of the palace.
And what is a water conveyor system without a toilet? This is one of the 100 built in latrines placed throughout the three palaces.
And from the ridiculous to the sublime: is a floating garden in the man made lake outside of Amber Fort that provide fruit and vegetables for the royal family.
Hope you enjoyed Jaipur!
Namaste
Hope you enjoyed Jaipur!
Namaste
No comments:
Post a Comment