Written by Jon Baggs

Ancient Temples

We’ve visited many ancient temples on our travels. From Teotihuacan in Mexico to Bagan Myanmar and Lalibela Ethiopia. They’re places where you can step back in time and see the grandest structures of their era and still be in awe of their beauty and architectural accomplishment. Maybe because there are very few, if any, comparable places in Canada it makes seeing them that much more impactful. It’s fascinating to think of how many generations of people have lived next to and visited these places, the events that happened inside and outside their walls and how much the world around them has changed. As someone who works in construction, it’s incredible to learn how such impressive structures were built with primitive tools and techniques. So, when planning our trip through northern India, the ancient Hindu and Jain temples at Khajuraho, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was a must visit. 

Train Stops

Figuring out how to get to Khajuraho by train was a little tricky. There were no direct trains from Lucknow, but we managed to find a route with a short stopover in Lalitpur. We had an overnight train that arrived early in the morning in Lalitpur and had enough time to get some breakfast before our next train. Unfortunately, Marieke wasn’t feeling well and decided to stick around the train station while Steph and I went to find food. We managed to find a small local restaurant serving samosas and other fried pockets with various fillings that hit the spot. Our train tracking app told us our train was going to be delayed a while, so we decided to check out a nearby Jain temple before heading back to the station. The temple’s exterior had rows of small shrines with statues where worshippers left offerings and burned incense. As we explored further, we found a man-made cave that led to a number of worship rooms with more statues and decorations. As we made our way out of the cave we got a call from Marieke telling us our train wasn’t as delayed as advertised and we should get back asap. We grabbed our shoes and hailed a tuktuk back to the station a few minutes before our train arrived. 

Town of Khajuraho

The train station is about a half hour drive from the small town of Khajuraho, so we had our guest house host arrange a tuktuk to pick us up. After checking in and having lunch, we headed into town to rent bicycles to ride to the temples the following day. We found a bike rental shop with some decent road bikes. The shop owner was a real character and salesman, handing out compliments and trying to upsell us. 

Back at our guesthouse, our host invited us to come to one of the temples, the only one that’s still in use, for a ceremony. There were lots of people heading in and out of Shiva temple and we watched for a while from the courtyard. Inside there was a round stone platform where worshippers sat cross-legged and chanted while others left offerings of flowers and food. As we left, a man blessed us with a prayer, dabbed water from the offering pool on our foreheads and gave us a piece of sweet bread to eat. 

Marieke and I headed back to our guesthouse to get some sleep while Steph joined our host to check out a local film festival show that included local music and dance. 

Temple Cycling

In the morning we got on our bikes and headed to see the temples. The Khajuraho temples are in 3 separate groups around the town, known as the western, eastern and southern groups.  There were once 85 temples in the area with 26 surviving today, the most impressive being in the western group. The temples were built between 900 – 1100 CE by the Chandela Dynasty. They are made of sandstone in the Nagara style architecture made up of a decorated entrance porch, a vestibule with a raised surface in the center of the floor and a sanctum usually containing a statue of the god the temple is dedicated to, all sitting on an elevated platform. On the exterior above the sanctum is a large spire tower made up of many smaller spires which symbolizes Mount Kailasa, the home of Lord Shiva. Besides their age, what makes the temples so special is the intricate carvings integrated into their design. The carvings depict gods and other spiritual beings as well as kings and queens. They also feature common people doing everyday activities like musicians, dancers, farmers, teachers with students and families, showing the connection between day-to-day life and spiritual life. They also famously have carvings of what their information plaques call “amorous couples”(sometimes more than couples), again showing the relationship between life, relationships and the spiritual. 

We started early to try to see as many of the temples as we could in a day, starting with the southern group followed by the western. The ride to the southern group took about 20 minutes and it was a similar ride from the southern to the western. While the southern and eastern groups are free to visit, most of the temples in the western group are in a gated compound and you have to pay an entrance fee. The compound entrance and exit is surrounded by numerous shops and hawkers who tried to sell us playing cards and miniature copies of the Kama Sutra. While we’d been exposed to this type of thing in many countries we’ve travelled to, it was the first time we’d experienced it in India, which made it a bit jarring. Luckily, inside the compound the grounds are clean, well maintained and quiet. After the western group, we headed to the eastern, about a 15 minute ride away. We managed to see all the temples we hoped to visit without needing to rush. Seeing the intricate details and symmetry of the temple’s architecture and the 3 dimensional shapes of the figures carved in them was a great experience. And, while we were happy with the amount of time spent, you could easily spend hours studying some of the more complex temples. 

The last temple we visited was close to our guesthouse, but wasn’t where it was marked on Google Maps. Lucky, some locals pointed us in the right direction and we made it just as the sun was going down. 

Sound and Light Show

That evening we dropped off our bikes and enjoyed another chat with the bike shop owner before heading back to the western temple group for a sound and light show. There are nightly shows in English and Hindi with projections onto the temples telling the story of their history. The show was enjoyable, despite the narration being hard to follow and some of the projections going dark for a bit. Afterwards we headed back to the guesthouse where our host invited us to join for a fire and a few drinks under the stars. 

Khajuraho was a great destination and a nice change of pace from the hectic cities we’d been to. Our next stop would be Agra and a wonder of the world, the Taj Mahal.