Jagannath Temple

Jagannath Temple Review

The coastal town of Puri is heavily visited because it contains one of Hinduism's most sacred sites: the 12th-century Jagannath Temple, devoted to the Lord of the Universe. The interior of the temple complex, enclosed within high walls, is strictly off-limits to non-Hindus, probably due to numerous attacks by invaders through history; even the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was denied entrance on the eve of her death because she had married a non-Hindu. Hindus of non-Indian origin are occasionally admitted. The intricately sculpted main temple is 65 meters (213 feet) high, and, with its spire's crowning pennant, towers above its enclosure. Hordes of monkeys live in and around the lions and heads of demons carved in its beautiful beehive spire. The lively temple, undoubtedly one of India's most interesting, occupies 400,000 square feet and has about 6,000 pandas (priests). Devotees, monkeys, throngs of pilgrims, and priests populate the courtyards and flow around the sanctums. Its enormous kitchen feeds 10,000 people daily and 56 special types of food are offered to the gods after they are bathed and have their teeth brushed. Walk around the walls to see the four elaborately decorated gates. For a glimpse of the rest of the complex, pay a donation and, armed with binoculars, climb to the rooftop of the Raghunandan Library, across from the main temple entrance, called the Lion Gate, where pilgrims thrust their way in through the crowds of vendors.

Puri attracts even more crushing hordes than usual during the July Rath Yatra, or chariot festival, a 10-day festival involving processions of the painted and ceremonially dressed wooden temple deities—Lord Jagannath and his brother and sister—on elaborately decorated floatlike carts pulled by thousands of devotees to the sounds of cymbals, drums, and chanting. One of the most spectacular of India's temple fairs, it's also the only time non-Hindus get to see the statues, which are usually seated on their jeweled pedestals inside the temple.