goldenTemple

A Trip to the Namdroling Monestary and Gommata Giri

Last week end we had a great time. On wednesday we decided that we would go to KRS for the week end as (as you all know) we might have to fly to US in may.. On Friday we started at 3:30 and reached KRS at 6:25. Thanks to good raods.

On Saturday we made a trip to the Tibetian colony near Kushal Nagara (near Madikeri). The Tibetian colony is about 90 kms from KRS. Its is near the small town of Bylukuppe. There are 4 Tibetian camps (as they call, probably because the tibetian refugees came and settled down in batches).

We started from KRS at about 9:15 am of course with breakfast and lunch packed. We arrrived at the monestary by 11:30 am. We had a road side break of about 15 mins. Though it is fasting morning for me on saturdays I broke it. We had Oggarane Avalakki..

The place worth seeing there in Tibetian colony is the Namdroling Monestary. Its a big one and it is the place for studying Buddism.. (for more information about this you can make a goole search for the Monestary name). There is a main Prayer hall, or The Golden Temple as it is refered more often. The temple houses 3 statues.  In the center is the Buddha. To the right of the budda is his follower Padma Sambhava and to the left is Amitayus.. All the statues are made of copper alloys coated with Gold. Each statue is about 60 feet from the bottom of the Peetham..

and conducting rituals..There 2 big typical chinese drums.Also there 2 very big Nadaswaram like instruments (whcih can produce only one or 2 notes).. I remember seeing these instruments in Some tv serial conducted by Siddarth kak.

The temple is sorrounded by beautiful garden and lawns. Also there is a separate hall for religious studies..
We stayed there for about an hour roughly and  started our return joureny..

The Statue of gommateshwara is about 16 feet tall and it is a monolith statue. We need to climb about 30 to 40 steps to reach the top..Even the steps have been carved out of the boulder. >From the top you can have a beautiful view of the sorroundings.. we stayed there for about half an hour and started back at arround 4:30..We took the inner road which passes along the the KRS railway station. The road is quite ok as most parts of the road have been (seen!!) tarred. When we reached it was about 5:00 pm.. To summarize, we had a great day..

Next day morning I had been to a nice walk along the newly constucted bridge.. Regarding this I will write a separate mail..

Haam!!! I have uploaded more photos at the HP photo site the link of which I shall send it you all. (This has to be done from that site itslef :-(

Hope enjoyed this small 'article'. Please do update me for such things from your side..

Keep in touch..

Hari

As it was only 1:15 pm we decided that we would have lunch in between.. We found a 2 big trees with cool shades on the road side. We had Puliyogare and Tair Satham..
We continued our return journey by 2:30 pm.  Now we decided that we would visit Gommata giri near Ilavala.

Gommata giri is about 9 km from Ilavala and about 14 kms from KRs directly (inner route). During my engineering days we freinds had come to this place in night and had a great time.. It was the brain child of our (Midnight) Mohana.  When we reached the place it was about 4:00 pm. There is a small hillock on which there is a statue of Bahubali or Gommateshwara housed in a small temple..

The  hall is very big. All around are the beautiful chinese paintings depicting various aspects of Buddhism.There rows of seats (what we call Mane) and small desks for learning