Birthday at the Buddhist Caves

Most people probably have never even heard of Pune, so let me share a few other tidbits we've learned.

*It is called the "Oxford of the East" because there are about 170 colleges in the city, with about 10,000 students in each. There are many international students here and they are studying everything from engineering to architecture to medical science to oriental languages.

*It is also called the "Detroit of the East" because of the many auto manufacturers here. There's even a John Deere plant!
*Pune is the cultural center of the state, but Mumbai is the commercial center. There are 6 trains that go back and forth between the two cities daily (a 7 hour roundtrip). Many folks travel that commute each day because the pay is better in Mumbai, but they want to raise their families in Pune.
*We see many HUGE banyan trees. They are considered a holy tree and we were told that women pray around the banyans for the long life of their husband.

July 10 was our first day to start off in the rain---pretty fortunate, considering it's monsoon season. (I saw a sign the other day for a monsoon sale - buy a bike, get a free backpack.). The most popular god worshipped in the state of Maharashtra is Ganesha. On the way into the countryside we saw a giant temple dedicated to him. It was hard to tell size from a distance, but I'm thinking maybe State of Liberty height??? (pic 1) We drove on for about an hour into the mountains and arrived at the Bhaja Rockcut Buddhist caves. We passed ladies washing clothes in a waterfall on our way up the numerous steep stairs going up the mountainside. I would stop periodically to catch my breath and look at the view. There was beautiful green farmland as far as you could see, with the bright green rice fields standing out like patches. The caves were quite impressive, having been cut into the mountainside. They were built around the 2nd century B.C. and are said to be among the oldest and finest examples of early Buddhist rock temple art in India. A beautiful arched meeting hall with the original wooden beams was the main focal point, with the stark monk's quarters stretching out on either side, complete with their stone beds. (pics 2 & 3)) There were also stupas in one area containing the ashes of some of the monks who had lived there. It drizzled on us all the way up, but then the sun popped out for a few minutes to let us enjoy even more vividly the scenery below. Sometimes for us, rain seems to be an inconvenience. For the Indian people who are so dependent on the rainfall for their livelihood, they embrace and welcome it. That attitude has become contagious to our group!

We drove back to the hotel for lunch, where I was presented a birthday cake and gift from the group, complete with singing. We spent the afternoon visiting Pune's most famous monument, the Shaniwar Wada. It was a palace during the time of the Peshwa kings. All that is left is the enormous entrance gate, walls around the outside and foundation of the structures that were inside the courtyard. The palace itself was a wooden structure that was destroyed by a massive fire in 1827. We finished up our day at the Raja Kelkar Museum, the private collection of Dinkar Kelkar, who gathered all of these pieces over a period of 70 years. I'm really not a big museum person, but this one was particularly interesting, I thought. It had thousands of things (actually 70,000) that were "everyday items" from all over India like playing cards, hair combs, musical instruments, nutcrackers, doors - you name it, it probably was there somewhere. We have one more day of planned activities in Pune, and then everyone is looking forward to a "free"day on Sunday! FYI - I have updated the blog on Pune that talked about the painted cow horns.