1000 different gods.

That is how many there are in the Hindu religion (Lonely Planet fact – perhaps take with a pinch of spice). I think I now know the top 3 so have a bit of a way to go before I can claim any useful knowledge of Hinduism. But there have been a few experiences related to Hinduism that have amazed me, so I wanted to share.

On my first set of travels, we visited a large temple town called Trichy, where there is a massive seven-gated temple, which houses a village in the outer rings. The architecture and decoration on the buildings was immense – so elaborate and colourful, with figurines (don’t think that’s the right word) of the temple god and his various incarnations and wives everywhere.

Here's a photo of some of the gates of the outer parts of the temple.

Bruce Willis’ friend showed us around, and answered lots of our questions, or atleast talked in response to our questions. It seems you need to ask an average of three people in order to get a reasonable answer here. (I blame my poor Indian accent.) It was a beautiful temple. We also were there during a dance festival, so got to see lots of beautifully costumed little people dancing to drums and bells, and making very precise facial expressions. Apparently, in the skill of Kathakali dancing, there are some 10 different ways of moving your eyebrows (again, a Lonely Planet fact). We managed two eyebrow positions between the 5 of us. Perhaps British people have a limited portfolio of facial expressions though, given our general lack of use of the emotion muscles. We are good at making scones though, and roast dinners.

Unexpectedly, I was also lucky enough to come across a temple festival one night, with an elephant procession. They were the three most decorated animals I think I’ve ever seen.

The towering elephants slowly made their way around the outside of the temple, serenaded by drums and enormous circular horns, every so often stopping to munch on some (elephant) grass and let their riders do an arm-waving dance on their backs. I’m not sure what a happy elephant looks like quite, but they were very well behaved. There was so much colour about the place, and music and burning ghee – it was quite spectacular.

We left back to our homestay before the elephants were put to bed and what sounded like a Club Med rave started.

As well as the odd elephant, we saw hundreds, or more like thousands of Hindu pilgrims. They are everywhere. Piecing together bits of information from various sources, every year, when the Sukebind flowers or something, men leave their homes and become pilgrims on a mission to a holier place in South India. For the few weeks that they’re travelling together (often in minibuses with all sorts of flowers and leaves hanging from them), they are only allowed to shower before dawn and after dusk, cannot wear shoes, can only wear a black mundu around their waist (a bit like a linen towel), it seemed liked they weren’t allowed to cut their hair, and they were only allowed to have girls below the age of around 8 or over 60 accompany them. My friend got a few ideas for his stag do. (I think I’m missing a few useful facts in describing the phenomenon.) One of the places these pilgrims seemed to be heading was to a temple in a protected wildlife area in Kerala. The temple only opens to the public on one day a year, apparently, and on that day thousands of people can pass through. Religion is both a blessing and a challenge for wildlife conservation here.

And there are just so many people in this country.