About 12km away from Ujire is the town of Dharmastala which is home to the Manjunatha Temple - visited by over 10000 pilgrims every day. Yesterday I visited the town and the temple. Luckily I met up with one of the local SELCO interns and was able to skip the 3 hour queue and enter the temple directly. After walking around the temple amongst the thousands of people, we were able to have have the free lunch provided by the temple in the enormous dining hall. Rows of small marble plinths spread 100m across the floor. After each row was seated, everyone was given a banana leaf plate, and piles of rice were ladled onto it from a trolly. After most people had finished eating, a man clapped his hands signalling everyone to move out so the next 100 people could be fed.
Other highlights of the town included a museum, featuring displays of everything from artifacts from past civilisations to a whale skeleton, and a huge statue at the top of a nearby hill, with stunning views across the tree covered mountains.
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