India 2012

Friday16November

Jaipur! The capital of Rajasthan! We're starting our last week! And for several days we've been asking Pritam to find us a good cinema to enjoy Indian cinema, the famous Bollywood. He always told us 'in Jaipur! in Jaipur!' Well, here we are! And not just any cinema: the Raj Mandir, the most beautiful Indian cinema hall in its time. Sumptuous and gigantic decor, but alas, we won't see anything because the show is sold out!   Too bad, we'll catch up in another hall in New Delhi!

Notice in the photo on the left, there's a line for men and another for women. The only way to avoid wandering and disrespectful hands!

This recent Hindu temple from 1976 was established by the Birla industrial group.

2000 tons of white marble make up the monument

Several stained-glass windows surround the temple

Saturday17November

The Palace of Winds (Hawa Mahal), built in 1799, is considered one of the jewels of Rajput architecture. It is mainly this facade that we remember (in fact, that's all we'll see  ). Several hundred perforated balconies to ventilate the palace, and as many women from the royal harem hidden behind, watching the street without being seen.  

Another jewel in the vicinity of Jaipur city, the Amber Fort. Atop its cliff, the imposing fortress looks more like a pretty villa, so much does Lake Maotha soften the whole.

The zigzags of the ramp leading to the main gate are used by a train of elephants carrying somewhat lazy tourists... Alas, it's a somewhat degrading image for our pachyderm friends who seem robotic in this Sisyphean back and forth.

9 kilometers surround the fortress

These elephants are slightly depigmented on the front of their heads and ears. This is common among Asian elephants (Elephas maximus indicus), especially with age.

Some paintings on the elephants for local folklore...

The elephant's big paw and its tail ending in thick black hairs

The panorama over Amber and the wall that runs along the crest of the mountains

The Ganesh Gate (Ganesh Pol).

The Sukha Mandir fountain, flowing through the rooms, allowed for the cooling of the palace.

In places, it's a real labyrinth, but it sometimes leads you to beautiful small rooms with sublimely decorated ceilings.

The incredible decoration of the ceilings and walls of the private audience hall

You won't get lost, but you won't know which side of the fort you're walking on anymore!

And there we go, we leave the fort the way we came. A psyllid (or snake charmer  ) tries to put us to sleep along with his cobra...

Back in Jaipur, facing Man Sagar Lake

In the middle of the lake, the Jal Mahal palace

Great cormorants (phalacrocorax carbo) have taken over the rooftop terrace. As for this black-winged stilt (himantopus himantopus), it's just cooling its legs, on the lookout for a distracted fish..

On the edge of the lake, fish come to enjoy the offerings made by passing devotees.

This great cormorant has abandoned its comrades in favor of a nice cool bath...

The comings and goings of this great egret (ardea alba) signal for us the time for the next visit, the Jantar Mantar!

Jantar Mantar, an entire area dedicated to astronomy built in the 18th century. It was Maharaja Jai Singh II's guru who commissioned the construction of various tools to observe the sky and thus predict, according to the alignment of the stars, auspicious dates for major events.

The site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2010.

Above, the Brihat Samrat Yantra, a 27-meter-high sundial, the largest in the world

Oh, a school group, which means we're going to shake hands and get our picture taken! Except these ones much prefer to be in front of the camera!  

The Rama Yantra A and B, two large tables made of stone rays that allow measuring the position of the planets.

The graduations on the Rama Yantra

Rashivilaya Yantra, twelve different dials, each oriented towards its zodiac sign.

The Rashivilaya Yantra of the Virgo sign

Raja Yantra, two planispheres of the sky, one made of iron and the other of brass.

The Narivalaya Yantra to determine the time when the sun is at its highest point

The Dakshina Yantra, a mural dial to measure the distance of the observed object relative to the meridian (the imaginary arcs of circles connecting the North Pole to the South Pole)

The center of the Chakra Yantra

The Jaya Prakash Yantra allows visualizing the sun's path through the zodiac.

We now move on to the City Palace, the Maharaja's palace which he still occupies. The first stone was laid in 1729. The palace then continued to evolve until the last century.

The audience hall with this 345-kilo jar, considered the largest silver piece in the world...

Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II (1688-1743)

The courtyard of the Chandra Mahal

Rhesus macaques (macaca mulatta) quietly settled on the edge of the palace...

Back at the hotel where a puppeteer can't find a soul to watch his mini-show... We volunteer, it's still part of Rajasthan's heritage! Kathputli ("dancing wooden doll") is this typical little show of the region, essential for centuries in the palaces of the maharajas.