Monday, May 24, 2010

The Mata Temple

Apologizes in advance if we may appear blasphemous in this post (the Hindus don’t hold it against us), but the Mata Temple in Amritsar is certainly the funniest temple we have ever visited!

Colourful, kitsch, full of people that enter, go out, sit, prey, chat… far from the serious and solemn atmosphere of our cathedrals, the first impression we had as we entered this temple was to be in a ‘neighbourhood club’ rather than in a worship place. But perhaps that’s the concept of ‘temple’ for the followers of Vaishno Devi.

But the most bizarre part of the temple had yet to come.

A few meters after the entrance, on the left, we noticed a staircase with a sign saying ‘Vaishno Devi cave’. Intrigued, we started mounting the stairs. We ended up in what could easily be the ‘fright circuit’ in an amusement park: a labyrinth of steep staircases, narrow passages, and low tunnels leading to the shrine of the main deity. To reach the shrine, we had to go through a series of ‘tasks’, including going through a tunnel where the ceiling was so low that we needed to crawl on all four to pass, or through a cave with ankle-deep water.

When we finally reached the shrine of the Vaishno Devi, Mathilde and I had the same feeling: we never enjoyed so much visiting a temple!

9 comments:

  1. quello che dico sempre "a chi ci crede troppo" è che ai credenti manca un po' di autoironia... be'... sono felice di vedere che qualche credente riesce ad essere anche ironico!

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  2. Post scriptum (by Mathilde): the number of tasks you need to go through are meant to induce the favours of Vaishno Devi, who, to reward you, would guarantee women 'fertility'...

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  3. if the women 'feritility' is guaranteed, i don't think i will ever visit the temple... ;)
    s.

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  4. well, perhaps the indians as well should not be assiduous visitors of this temple...

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  5. Nice, humorous blog. And great pictures! Thanks, and keep it up.

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  6. Thanks Joneall for your encouragement.

    And do keep on following us ;)

    Les M&M's

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  7. this is simple a temple they try to copy from orignal vasihno devi temple in jammu.is only for some one who really cant go there but want to feel love of vaishno. same like reiki. If u see any guy who perform reiki on other , u will see what funny hand movements.but only assepter can tell u how he or she feel...so its all about how we put pictures of our family in front of office desk , so we feel love ..its same like this...

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  8. Hello There,

    I am from the same city and my home is just next door to this temple.

    Please remove the third picture in which you make a face like a statue.This picture hurt our feeling. I hope you understand. I would appreciate it.
    Dev Sharma

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  9. hi dev, thanks for the message. apologize if you feel hurt, but believe me, there is no intention to offend anyone with this post. i am extremely respectful to any religious belief. i am sure you understand. thanks,

    matteo

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