Jain Temple Tour 10/24/17

Hello Global Semester blog readers! It's Clare again. This time, I'm lucky enough to share our visit to the '72' Jain temple with you.

The morning began with yoga at 7 a.m. for some, catching up on sleep for others and another savory breakfast for most. After a couple hour break to do some work, we began our two hour bus ride to the Jain temple and community.

Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the elder and president of the community. He led us to the foot of the temple, where we took our shoes off - this is becoming a regular part of the globie experience - and began our tour. The temple is called the '72' temple for its 72 statues that line the inner side of the outer wall of the temple. There are 24 to represent the past, 24 for the present, and 24 for the future. After a few minutes on the roof to see the shrines there, we entered the main room of the temple. Our guide shared how to pray, a dance done to please the almighty, sprinkled us with holy water, and showed us how to see the god in a mirror and shake bells (the last is hard to explain, so I've included a picture for your convenience). 


After a group picture on the temple steps, we made our way to lunch. It reminded many of the langar meal we took part in just a few days earlier during our excursion to the Sikh temple. Some food was sweet, but of course we had to have our spice in there as well. After our meal, the president  shared some information about Jainism. One very clear message we received was about nonviolence. For example, the community has small brooms made of yarn, so when people find bugs on them, they can remove the bugs without doing any harm. 

Back at HMI, we all enjoyed another Indian dinner before listening to three research presentations from our lovely globies, Sophie, Olivia and Kate.

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