agra and more

so a little thing happened where I sat in a bus for 4 hours with the end result of SEEING THE TAJ MAHAL. you can see my lovely pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/lucinda.stroud/ as well as photos I took while on the road to Agra. In driving to Agra we passed through the more rural side of India which we had seen little of in Delhi, and in some ways it's another world. There are people literally living in shacks by the side of the road that are smaller than my bunkbed at home. There are entire villages that you can see for a few seconds while passing by - barber shops, water pumps, children naked in the street, old men resting on bed frames, women crouched and working. And cows, of course, simply sitting, or pulling carts beside the buses and motorcycles, and herds of goats, and chickens, and camels (!), all mingling with the traffic. The traffic here is crazy and hectic, yes, but in a way it freaks me out less than traffic in the States - people use their horns here as a means of letting the cars ahead of them be aware of their presence rather than being royally pissed off. I'm learning that when the people around me are calm I tend to not panic, even if I can barely hear myself think. And one of the main features of Indian culture is a sort of calm pragmaticism. If you know of a way to make an extra dollar, you try it until someone stops you. If you see an extra meter you can edge forwards on the road, you take it. Things don't always work, naturally - I saw the result of a car accident on the way back from the Taj Mahal where one of the small cars was entirely decimated by a truck that had overturned completely. I can't imagine how there would be many survivors.

But enough of that. I WENT TO THE TAJ MAHAL.

You enter the Taj Mahal complex through the gatehouse. Architecturally it's absolutely brilliant; if you walk in the exact center through the archway, the main building of the Taj is revealed to you gradually, step by step. First you see the center building, then two of the surrounding towers, then the other two, then the mosque and corresponding empty building on the other side. And the size is unbelievable. That people could have built something like this... amazing.

A few facts you might not know about the Taj:
The main building and surrounding plaza is built entirely out of Indian marble, which is the hardest in the world. Not only is it incredibly hard; unlike Italian marble it's completely non-porous, meaning you can touch the marble all you want and no harm will come to it. In fact, the way that the Taj is kept clean is by simply washing it every few years with soap and water; it washes off with no residue. The gatehouse and mosque are built of sandstone and thus have to be periodically repaired/maintained.

Speaking of the mosque, although there are perfectly symmetrical buildings on either side of the Taj, only one is properly situated to face Mecca. The other was built entirely for the purpose of maintaining the symmetry of the entire complex and never served any purpose whatsoever.

The Taj took 22 years to build. After completion, the king's son who succeeded him deposed his father, who spent the rest of his life mostly in prison. He's buried at the Taj beside his wife.

(This is the bit I liked the most) Around the archway of the gate house is a long line of Arabic script; this is repeated around the main arch to the Taj and much of the inlay throughout the building. It turns out that all of this writing consists of 14 passages from the Qu'ran detailing mourning and the humility of man before God (suitable texts for a mausoleum); there are 14 passages because the queen the Taj was built to honor bore the king 14 children, dying while giving birth to the last (who also died). Language is beautiful, and I love how it was worked into the architecture. The way religion mixes with architecture is fascinating.

Visiting the Taj Mahal was definitely the highlight of my weekend, but other cool stuff happened as well. I was complimented by the yoga instructor that visited the residence for my technique and had one of the most physically challenging yet spiritually significant sessions that I can remember. I also washed my socks and underwear by hand out of the same bucket I shower from. In short, fulfilling and challenging. This has been a long post so I'll sign off now, but be sure to check out the pictures and leave comments here if you have any questions about any of them. I'll be working on rearranging some of them into individual albums.