Ajanta Caves: A Buddhist Paradise June 3, 2011

I wanted to book the Ellora tour on Friday and the Ajanta on Saturday, but unfortunately the guys at the hotel said that the Ellora had been cancelled and only the Ajanta was available. At first I didn't believe him so I took a rickshaw to another hotel after calling that hotel...thinking that there was still a possibility for the Ellora. Thank goodness I arrived at the very nick of time. The Ajanta was supposed to leave at 8:30 and I arrived only to find out that there was no Ellora tour because hardly anyone signed up. So the decision was quick...the Ajanta it was. Even the Ajanta didn't have that many people; we were a party of 10 at most...but boy did it turn out to be a fun day. It was a good group too. I had a great time with my party...met Shilpa, a nice girl in my party, and saw some really nice Buddhist sculptures and wall-paintings. The bus left at about 9:00 and we picked up a number of ppl along way who rode the bus to go to their villages.

I think everyone in the group was related except for Shilpa and her brother, Pratap.

The bus ride to Ajanta was very much like Aurangabad...lots of farm land and villages. We had a 10 minute rest stop where I saw a family at work...the father was watering the cows and the daughter was chasing after the goats.

Going to Ajanta was like going down to Tassajara valley...very curvy roads running down to a valley. When we reached Ajanta, we had to take another bus that took us to Ajanta proper. There I bought my entry ticket, and had to run after my group. The temperature was bearable.

I wish there were more lights in the Ajanta caves b/c we had to turn off our flash. This was to prevent the further deterioration of the paintings. But without flash, it was really hard to take any pictures; most of the pictures came out pretty blurry. But Ajanta is one of those places where you kinda need an entire day to absorb and appreciate all the beauty of the Buddhist sculptures and paintings. The caves were begun in the 2nd century BC up until the 6th century AD. From the tour guide, I learned that it was not made by monks but artists who were commissioned by the rulers of those time. I think we had less than 3 hours to actually see all the caves...we started at noon and had to be back at our bus stop at 3 for the ride back. The tour guide was great, he had to explain both things in Hindi and English...he was an old man but very helpful. The caves started out with the Hinayana tradition which did not idolized the Buddha in personal form...instead they created a big stupa in a hallway-kind of cave. Then gradually with the emergence of the Mahayana we began to see the bodily form of Buddha and boddhisattvas...and boy was it worth it.

The earlier caves are like this. 

Some memorable parts were: the cell that the monks stayed in and the wall relief of Buddha's pari-nirvana (his final nirvana, i.e., death). About the cell, it is small as hell; it's probably about 6x7 made for two monks. Even I had trouble reclining because my body could not exactly fit the dimensional length. My head would be right up against the wall and my feet probably an inch away from the other wall and I am only 5'8. So anyone taller than me would not fit....I bet the monks were very short. The beds are made entirely out of the rocks from the cave...and Pratap (Shilpa's brother who went to the Ellora caves yesterday) said that one of the cave in Ellora even had a pillow made out of rock as well.

Two beds made out of rock! Now that's just too ascetic.

The pari-nirvana is, shall I say, one of the most spectacular piece of work ever. The 8 meter long Buddha is reclining on his right side with two groups of people: one on top and the other at the bottom. The tour guide said that the gods are on top rejoicing since the Buddha will be joining them while the group at the bottom are weeping b/c the Buddha has departed from this world. I wish we had more time in this cave--I probably had less than 10 minutes in here. Shilpa was running cave after cave even though the party was heading back to the bus...she was really excited and probably wanted to stay much longer in Ajanta than the tour allowed us.

It was very hard to capture the entire image of this wall relief because of the columns that were built so closed together...time was also a factor...and the actual length was quite long. 

My party was also very awesome. I got to hang out with Pratap and his beautiful sister Shilpa who are both from Karnataka. He's only 20 and I didn't ask her about her age...I'm guessing probably around 24-25. I'm always bad with age here in India because ppl who are in their early 20s can act and look very mature for their age. Both brother and sister are engineers--she has a master in engineering and works for Microsoft while he's in his final years of college. She's very photogenic and likes to have lots of pictures taken..I didn't have any problem whatsoever with that...my camera was ready to shoot. The other group was like a family...very cool and helpful people.

I like to think of this picture as me, my wife, and our cute little boy.

Okay now to the beautiful hand-made stone-ware that I found in Ajanta. I think I paid a fortune when I came back to the bus with a bag heavy with 3 items. My tour was kinda surprised when they saw me coming back with a bunch of plastic bag...Pratap laughed quite a bit when I told him I've spent roughly about 2000 rupees on these items. For Indian people...that just way too much money on things that they don't really care so much about. I probably bargained really hard too. The merchants were trying to sell me a stone-ware bowl shape for 3000 rupees but I couldn't stomach spending that much especially when I just spent about 1200 rupees a minute ago. So I bargained down to 1000 rupees. But let me just say that even 3000 rupees would be a bargain for us here in the west when you find how it is made. At first I was just really attracted to the beautiful stone-ware without realizing its worth (that it was made by hand in the local villages in and around Ajanta). Before realizing the value of it...I felt kinda bad too for spending that much money on some really heavy crafts...b/c I'm gonna have to carry it back to the US. I thought it was probably also made by machine somewhere in India and probably paid way too much than the correct value.

I luv these stone-ware boxes of Ajanta paintings engraved on them.

Writing this blog makes me want to make another trip to Ajanta just to get these little guys. 

The moment I saw these globular jars...my eyes were hooked. How much is basalt worth? They were trying to sell me the basalt buddha for a little over a thousand rupees. They said that it changes colors when it touches water...and I was thinking of buying one for Zen Center so that we can use it for Buddha's birthday. 

But my tour and Pratap really made my day when they told me that the items that I bought were solely hand-made, no machine whatsoever have been used. My housemates also made me even more happier when they informed me that the art is passed down from family to family...and something like this probably would have taken them one to two days to complete. I'm just happy to know that these are unique items and that they are not the same. After telling me how these crafts have been made, I told my group that these are considered extremely valuable in the US. Something like this could probably be sold for hundreds of dollars if the buyer  knows that it is completely hand-made and unique. I also tried telling them that b/c everything nowadays is made by machine...we Americans don't care so much about things that are made by machine...but when an artist has put in so much effort and work into his art...we value that a lot and so they were kinda happy for me to see how happy I was and how much I valued these crafts.

Now just a thought my roommates suggested to me...why don't I start a business selling India crafts in America? I told them that I'm really bad at business and not sure where to start. But I feel very strongly about helping the poor people of India. If only India can import its incredible goods to the US....even selling it for a fraction of the price, it could probably make tons of difference in the poor local villages. Right now...the villagers are making a measly sum for their labor..and they deserve a lot more than that. Look at all the Greek vases that are now worth millions of dollars...well back in the days...ppl did not prize their work either...and now we only find it in museums. The same goes for here.

A perfect ending to a perfect day.