We quickly changed into what dry and clean clothes we had left and shuttled across the river to meet Suresh for our drive home. We were just a bit underway when Suresh asked if we wanted to see a famous Buddhist temple right along the way. Absolutely!
We learned that there are lots of Tibetan settlements in India. There were thousands of expatriates looking for a new home in the early 60's, and the government of India granted enormous land leases. There are several such communities in the state of Karnataka and one of the biggest is in the Coorg area. This large community has built a big temple compound that is a home to several hundred monks. It was a quick and totally worth it detour.
Eden being asked for yet another photo.
The solid gold statues are filled with thousands of hand written prayers. Everything inside and out is insanely ornate.
Thousands of lights burning for Diwali.
The temple is surrounded by a two-storied courtyard of dormitories. We saw a few monks inside the temple compound and spotted several more through out the village on our drive out.
This was the Friday night of Diwali week. We had a beautiful drive home. Residential areas were a blaze with candles and strings of multi colored light strands. Then, fireworks. For hours of our drive and for hours after we were home, thousands and thousands of fireworks lit up the sky.
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