Wednesday, January 16, 2008
We loved our tour of Jaipur City Built in 1727, it is a great mixture of Jain, Hindu and Mughal architecture built from terra cotta. Some Victorian British journalist named it the Pink City and the name has stuck. To be fair the “Pink” is a bit of stretch. However, we felt perhaps in some gin soaked light it might look that way. There are bazaars everywhere and the people, camels, horses all framed against the background of magnificent palaces.
We visited the Mahaja’s Palace and museum,all displaying an amazing mixture of influences,. and a very well run government approved handicraft and gift store, (I succumbed and bought a sari which will probably never again see the light of day), and the Observatory. What a fascinating place this is. First of all the various instruments are quite beautiful in their own right as sculptures. It is very sobering to realize just how much was known in this part of the world about the moon, sun and stars, and how to build massive instruments to observe them. This observatory measures both astronomy and astrology. Both subjects are viewed together as one and all precisely measured. It is a very special place, a stunning tribute to both science and art.
And just to finish our trip to Jaipur we went off to watch some polo at the Rajasthan Polo club. In the fifties the Maharja of Jaipur and his team won the world cup. Jaipur and polo have been synonymous ever since. . It was an interclub match (both teams were from various army regiments) and frankly our gang in Barbados could have held their own with this lot very well.
Still it was wonderful to see the lovely club house filled with wood and leather, and to have been to a polo match in Jaipur.
And if I had to keep only one image of Jaipur is would be of the elephants lumbering down the busy street on their way home for lunch, their day of hauling tourists up the Amber Fort over, taking over the road majestically as all the trucks,tuks buses, rickshaws and appreciative tourists paid heed.
.
We visited the Mahaja’s Palace and museum,all displaying an amazing mixture of influences,. and a very well run government approved handicraft and gift store, (I succumbed and bought a sari which will probably never again see the light of day), and the Observatory. What a fascinating place this is. First of all the various instruments are quite beautiful in their own right as sculptures. It is very sobering to realize just how much was known in this part of the world about the moon, sun and stars, and how to build massive instruments to observe them. This observatory measures both astronomy and astrology. Both subjects are viewed together as one and all precisely measured. It is a very special place, a stunning tribute to both science and art.
And just to finish our trip to Jaipur we went off to watch some polo at the Rajasthan Polo club. In the fifties the Maharja of Jaipur and his team won the world cup. Jaipur and polo have been synonymous ever since. . It was an interclub match (both teams were from various army regiments) and frankly our gang in Barbados could have held their own with this lot very well.
Still it was wonderful to see the lovely club house filled with wood and leather, and to have been to a polo match in Jaipur.
And if I had to keep only one image of Jaipur is would be of the elephants lumbering down the busy street on their way home for lunch, their day of hauling tourists up the Amber Fort over, taking over the road majestically as all the trucks,tuks buses, rickshaws and appreciative tourists paid heed.
.
# posted by katie @ 11:29 PM 
