Bhubaneswar Temple Walkabout

I spent this past Sunday on a bit of a cultural walkabout here in Bhubaneswar, meandering around town to visit some of the smaller, off-the-beaten path temples that dot the city, along with the more famous ones (i.e., the impressive Lingaraj).

As I’ve written before, Bhubaneswar is oftentimes referred to as the City of Temples or Temple City due to the sheer volume of Hindu houses of devotion. Modern-day Bhubaneswar is relatively young, having been designed and built in the late 1940s. That said, the city has a history spanning some 3,000 years.

This rich, millenia-spanning history affords one views of temples spanning the entire spectrum of Kalinga architecture. And yes, I got that straight off of Wikipedia. While I do not exactly know what that means, I do know that the temples of Bhubaneswar are imposing, towering above the relatively small modern-day structures often built right beside them, and are covered with incredibly intricate carvings and designs. The only place that comes to mind in trying to compare these temples is Siem Reap, Cambodia and its Angkor-era temples.

It’s amazing that these have withstood the test of thousands of years of intense weather. Bhubaneswar is not too far from the coast and is battered nearly annually by cyclones. It’s also unbelievably hot and humid here. I’m talking 120-degree sticky heat for most of the year. Needless to say, these buildings stand in stark contrast to today’s concrete, boxy eye-sores that dominate India’s cities.

I was rather surprised to read that Bhubaneswar is a tourist hotspot, at least in eastern India. I mean, it’s understandable given its rich history, but I’d certainly never even heard of the place before moving here. That and, in the time I’ve spent here over the past two years, I can count on one hand the number of obvious foreigners (read: honkeys) that I’ve seen.

I really, really detest living here as the isolation is waaaaaay overwhelming, but think it’s worth visiting for a day or two if you’re planning a lengthy visit. It’s at least conveniently located as it puts you within a few hours’ drive (if that) of Puri’s beaches and the incomparable Sun Temple in Konark, as well as a short 6-hour train ride to Kolkata. Beyond that, the food here is phenomenal, especially the street vendors.

Anyhoot, I took a bunch of pics of various temples and have shared them below. I should apologize in advance and warn you that I was using manual focus on the camera and my vision is so terrible I didn’t realize how blurry some of the pics were until slapping them on my Flickr account. It’ll be a fun exercise for strangers though: this blurriness is how I see all of the world, haha.

The magic:

Originally published at kevinshane.me on December 19, 2013.