Kajuraho
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Encounters Travel is a small-group adventure tour operator offering lively, good value India Tours, such as Indian Express's highlights, Indian Spice including Amritsar and Dharamsala, Temples and Palaces including Varanasi and Khajuraho and the amazing Rajasthan Explorer! |
Ancient Javari Hindu temple in Khajuraho, Madya Pradesh state, north India.
© Jeremy Richards
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Khajuraho village is a bit off the beaten track but well worth a trek 600 kms (385 miles) south-east of Delhi.
It's a magnificently calm UNESCO World Heritage Site of gorgeously proportioned and fascinating Hindu and Jain temples.
Khajuraho temples were built around 1,000 AD and 25 remain out of 80 - many were destroyed by Muslim invaders in later years - in an area of 21 sq kms (8 sq miles).
A Langur monkey romping on a Kajuraho temple.
© Igor Bakman
Only 10% of sculptures on these temples are adorned with excitable bodies, and none of them have erotic themes inside the structures, only outside. Furthermore, those participating are clearly not deities, just regular, well-developed mortals - who have few inhibitions.
Warning: lower down the page are beautifully carved but very explicit 1,000 year-old images.
Elephants in love, aaahh. It's not all about lust then.
© Lester Woodward
An Indian woman learning a thing or two in Khajuraho.
© Guillermo Garcia
One of the more explicit temple walls in the Khajuraho complex.
One theory to explain the mass of erotic images is that India was going though a period of attritional war between states and the Maharajas were running out of men to fight as well as farm, so the local ruler encouraged temple builders to make their art forms more, err.. stimulating, in order to promote a higher birth rate. Looks like it worked because India is now a very crowded place!
The Lakshamana temple, exterior wall detail. Back to India Pictures.
Photo by Aotearoa
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