Bikaner and holy rat temple

From Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj it was time to start heading on south and back east across the country for my flight out of Kolkata in several wks. On the way south I wanted to visit the Indian state of Rajastan, much of it situated in the Thar desert, and some intriguing cities in the state. The first city I was to visit was that of Bikaner, located in western Rajastan quite close to the Pakistan border. I wasn't too thrilled that the only direct route there was a day long train trip taking 13 hrs. With 2 wks left to go it is not my desire to spend and entire day cooped up in a train. My desire to visit Bikaner was to see the renowned Karni Mata Temple in Deshnok, about 30 km south. This temple is the site of 1000's and 1000's of holy rats running all over the place. They are venerated as holy according to the mythology of the Hinduism religion. Arriving at the temple after a quick 30 min busride from Bikaner on a road filled with countless camels and a quick walk down another road, I arrived at the temple and had to take off my shoes as is necessary at most temples in India. I had realized this was going to be the case before arriving even though I wasn't thrilled with the idea of walking barefoot on a filthy floor covered with rodent feces, I don't care how holy they are supposed to be. Walking into the temple, which was free in itself, I paid a small fee to use my camera and quickly spotted hordes of rats scattered throughout the premises. There were large basins filled with what looked like milk being drank by the thirsty rats. Otherwise they were scattered throughout the place, sleeping on top of each other and climbing all over guardrails and whatever else they could find to climb. In spite of being generously fed by the Indians and guests many of the rats did not appear to be in the best shape physically or healthwise. Many were quite ragged looking and corpses or nearly dead rats were lying throughout. I found out later on that a probable cause of the rat's bad health was their constantly being fed sweets and candy type products. This has the effect of creating diabetes and of health defects in the rats, inspite of their holiness. Perhaps a lesson for humans to learn in eating healthy and avoiding too much sweets.


The floor of the premises were definitely quite dirty although it wasn't quite as littered with fecal matter as I thought it may be. I still did my best to kind of tip toe around or at least mnimize my foot contact with the soiled floor. While their were many thousands of rats throughout the temple, along with a generous supply of pigeons, I was told they really come out of the walls and their hiding places after dark. I was their around noontime, avoiding absolute rodent mayhem apparently. I was told there existed 3 white rats amongst their brown pack that were considered particularly lucky or auspicious to see. Hence I was keeping my eyes open for these lucky white rats. At one point in one of the dirty corners of the facility there was a small mob of Indians trying to peek around a fenced corner, apparently in effort to see a rumored white rat. When the group scattered I attempted taking a peek myself around the corner, which was next to impossible unless I stuck my camera out and took a picture using the flash. I didn't see anything but piles of dirty brown rats and filth.


A short time later several young Indian girls who were standing in a slightly different area by themselves caught the attention of an Indian man next to me. We walked over and looked where the Indians girls were pointing and sure enough, there just happened to be a filthy white rat sleeping on a pipe or something squeezed in amongst the rest of its brown brethren. It was no doubt a white rat, although a bit discolored from dirt and other grim caked onto its holy fur. I was thrilled to be able to see one of these rare specimens and surprised there weren't more people clamored to try and get a glimpse of it. I was able to get several pics of the rat before it woke up and disappeared back into the bowels of the temple. My luck has not been too bad lately, however hopefully this occurance will add an extra punch of positive benefit to my life. I think at least if I believe in the power of the holy white rat something of fortune will happen for me. I feel lucky enough to be able to travel to such an amazing country as India and experience such moments. Perhaps also some extra luck will keep me from acquiring some obscure disease from walking around in the bizaare atmosphere and filthy floor. I was the only tourist or white person I noticed at the temple. While Bikaner and Deshnok are a bit off the beaten track, I was surprised not to see any fellow Europeans or other travelers. For such a bizaare and unique temple, one would think more travelers would make an effort to check out such a holy place.

My second night in Bikaner I wound up in a guest house in one of the neighborhoods of the city. I would up being led here by an Indian guy whose name escapes me I met at the restaurant below my guesthouse of the first night. After walking several hrs in the fascinating old city with its narrow and congested alleys, lanes and bizaares, I took a rickshaw along with my new friend to my new guesthouse. It turned out to be a nice family house several blocks in from the chaos of the noisy main street, and not too far from the bus station where I was to move on the next day. The guest house was also in the biz of leading camel safaris into the Thar desert, although I had to disappoint them in saying no to their sales pitch of such a trip. Sounded like it would a memorable experience riding a camel in the depths of the Thar desert, however I don't think it would be quite as much fun doing it by myself. Next time I am fortunate to make it to this part of India with either some friends or a nice lady I would definitely take part in one of the camel safaris. They are quite popular in this part of India, particularly in the city of Jaiselmer west of Bikaner.



My room at the guesthouse was quite nice and peaceful without their being any other guest. I only noticed 2 rooms available for room in the dwelling. Otherwise there was the owner and his wife and 4 kids, along with my friend who stays there and elsewhere from what I gathered. The weather was a bit warm and humid in my room so I decided to give it a shot sleeping with the rest of the family on the roof. The father and my friend were gone at the train station till around 2am scouring the trains and crowds for tourists newly arrived and potentially looking for a room and a camel safari. Sleeping on the roof top on a cot was quite nice for a while as their was a nice breeze flowing through the air cooling things off. On top of that the moon was mostly full and shining brightly, 2 days ago it had been full, which added to the exotic ambiance of being far off city in the Indian desert. Unfortunately the mosquitos were out in abundance as well nipping away at my feet and legs. In addition the neighbors 2 houses down had decided it was a worthwhile wk to have themselves a kirtan in their backyard. This included a number of people singing on a microphone and playing various Indian instruments. It sounded nice to listen to at first but as the hours started flying by into the middle of the night it started to get quite annoying. By around 3am I had had enough of the racket and noisy sound checks on the microphone. For whatever reason the family I was staying with had no problem whatsoever with the kirtan going into the late hours of the night. I however decided to pick up my sleeping bag inner liner and head on down into the less noisy but slightly warmer confines of my room.

The next morning, after getting up and having some tea, I took a short walk with my friend to the bus station and was on my way to Jodhpur, about 5 hrs south on a bus. This was 2 wks ago at the time of writing this journal. Several days ago I read in the news that at the main fortress in town I had stayed near and visited there was a pilgrimmage that went horribly awry. Over 160 people were killed and countless others injured an exodus of people that went crazy after some bizaare circumstances involving a rock slide or something. One reads about this sort of thing happening all the time in India during religious pilgrimmages as tens of thousands of people are walking with little to no crowd control.

Tibetan Massage Course and yoga in McLeod Ganj

I started a course today - Sept 9 - on Tibetan massage with a Tibetan man named Mr. Dhondup who is highly regarded. I had a chance to have a session with him the previous week and thought his work was very good and original. He had a different style than what I had experienced in the past. The beginning of the session was devoted to postural analysis. He did some tests seeing which side of my body I put more weight on while sitting, indicating possible overuse or tightness on certain side of my body. He also did some shoulder and neck flexibility and strength tests. After these analyses he worked on my body for a while massaging in certain areas while contorting into some various stretches, reminiscent of Thai massage. After this he brought out some heated up herbal balls and placed them in various areas of my body, including my hands, feet, back of head, and some other areas. He also rubbed the packs into various areas of my body, such as my temples, which felt real nice and smelled quite good. He then did some energy work with some Tibetan singing bowls, placing them over my various chakras while manipulating them to make some whistling type noises which supposeably resonate on a more subtle level affecting the energy body or pranic body. It was quite an interesting experience I definitely felt more opened up energetically afterwards, as well as a bit spacey. I wish I had more money to buy additional sessions, unfortunately I squandered much of my money in previous months in Thailand on many thai massage sessions.

There are many practitioners in town offering reiki, ayurvedic massage, tibetan massage, and energy work and classes. Mr. Dhondup has about 20 yrs of massage experience he proclaims. He also states he has worked on one of the physicians of the Dalai Lama in the past. He is recommended in the Lonely Planet guide to Dharamsala/MG and seems to be highly regarded in town. The course entails 2 hrs a day for 5 days at 1500 rupees. Not a bad deal for about $37, a heck of alot cheaper than it would cost in the states. In spite of being dirt poor at the moment I thought it would be a worthwhile experience for my time in MG and a wise choice of my leftover money. I am now taking out cash advanced on my credit card since my bank acct is about zero. I will have to pay this off immediatley when I get home as to not incur huge penalties.

There are 6 of us in class to start off with. classes are a different subject or body part each day on a revolving sequence. Hence if there is space people can join any day. Of the 6 in class the first day, one man just happens to be from one of the massage courses I took in Chiang Mai over 4 months ago while taking classes with Pichet, the thai massage master. Funny how you bump into some of the same people over again. I had actually bumped into him the wk before while sitting in a coffee shop. He came up and asked if I remembered him, which I didn't immediately but remembered when he said from where. He is about 50 yrs old and from near Perth, Australia on the far west end of the country. Also in class are 2 American girls, one from California who used to live in Summitt County Colorado. The other girl is from the Smoky Mtns in North Carolina. There is also 2 guys from Korea.

The rest of the wk went by well enough. I was stuck with an American girl for the next 4 days. In her late twenties I believe, she was very hard of hearing and for some reason was not wearing hearing aids, which would have been helpful. It was next to impossible to communicate with her as I would have to literally yell in her face for her to understand. I don't know how she is able to get around traveling. It is difficult enough with language differences, far more so when u can't hear your own language. She said this was her 4th time in India. The 5th and last day she had some kind of cold and was constantly sniffling and then wiping her nose with her forearms. I was completely disgusting by and really had no way of communicating with her to be more clean without having to yell and embarass her. Hence I went to the bathroom and grabbed a roll of toilet paper for her to blow her nose into, which for some reason she hadn't thought of herself. Luckily a girl at the table next to me had some hand anti-bacterial lotion which she let my partner use.

The did learn some new stuff in the class but it unfortunately didn't get into the stuff I was most interested in, particularly his use of herbal packs and also postural analysis. I believe one has to take a more extended class or different course to get into these subjects. For the most part it was a beginners class, which can be useful in relearning basics. In 2 wks I go back to Thailand and look forward to taking a 2 wk Thai massage course at the Old Medicine Hospital. This course I held off till I am about ready to head home, this so the material would be fresh in my mind as I arrive home and begin practicing.

Macleod Ganj is filled with yoga teachers and centers, similar to Rishikesh. Unlike Rishikesh however, most of the centers seem to be open and operating in spite of monsoon weather and lesser crowds. During my stay at Yoga Niketan in Rishikesh I had spoken with a friend in the ashram who had spent some time earlier practicing yoga in MG. One teacher in particular he noted and recommended was an Indian guy named Vijay. He said Vijay held very challenging and demanding classes and was worth checking out. Arriving in town I noticed flyers all over town plastered on the walls advertising a myriad of classes. In addition to yoga classes, there were flyers advertising everything from massage and healing centers, music lessons with various Indian instruments, Tibetan cooking classes, meditation, salsa dancing, past-life regression and teaching English to Tibetan refugees and an assortment of other activities. One other class I had noticed and found of interest was a class teaching magic tricks. I visited the residence of the teacher and was informed he was a French man away for several wks. Several wks later I revisited his place and discovered unfortunately he had packed his place up and moved back to France. I would have really enjoyed learning some magic tricks but guess it wasn't meant to be this time.

Arriving at Vijay's studio I found a rather grungy room with a stage on one side. Dirty and semi-crumbling mats from overuse were already set up in class along with blocks and straps by one of his assistants. Vijay himself is about 50 yrs old and in incredible shape. He has apparently been practicing yoga for over 30 yrs or more and is quite a master. He is about 5'8" or so and very lean and all muscle. His classes run twice a day from 9-11am and 2-4pm. The earlier class is his intense ashtanga yoga class, a style of yoga that is the most physically demanding of all the yoga styles out there. From ashtanga yoga all the styles of western power and vinyasa yoga are derived. The founder and guru of Ashtanga yoga, Pattabi Jois, is still alive in his 90's and lives in Southern India in the city of Mysore. Vijay's 9-11am class is probably the most expensive class in town at 250 rupees, 200 if you buy a package of 6 classes for 1200 rupees. Most classes in town seem to be about 200 rupees. I signed up for a package of 6 classes after trying one of the sessions and really felt much stronger after completing 3 classes. They were very challenging and long at 2 hrs. In the US most classes are 1 hr or 1.5 hrs at the most. Afterwards I felt my body buzzing with energy, although very relaxed and somewhat fatigued. Usually there is about 10-15 people in this class, typically regulars and some taking his teacher training course. I met one girl in class from Utah, otherwise it seems to be mostly Europeans with one Tibetan Buddhist monk and a younger Indian girl in her twenties.

Vijay's afternoon class is probably the most popular class in town. it is the cheapest at 100 rupees and fills up quickly.It is significantly easier than the morning class but still challenging. It is amazing watching Vijay demonstrate asanas as he is the most advanced and skillful yogi I have ever seen, not bad for a guy in his fifties. He has complete control over his body and incredible strength. Sitting on the floor with his legs in front of himself he can lift his legs off the ground without dragging them or touching the ground and bring himself up to complete handstand with relative ease. I haven't seen him but I have heard he can do 3 fingered handstand pushups. I would never desire to be as skinny as he is but I do admire his strength and dedication to practice he possesses. Being so skinny growing up and putting much work into getting stronger and more muscular, I have no desire to fall back into the position of being extremely skinny as many of the yoga masters seem to be. Perhaps I have too much attachment to being in relatively good shape and muscular. It's tough to get away from this sort of ideal as it is so promoted in the western world.

Vijay is also a very approachable person and seem to be very humble and down to earth. When class is finished he seems to make a point to make eye contact with each person and thank them for being there. I spoke with him after class one time and he mentioned to me that he may be coming to the states, possibly Denver, at the beginning of next yr. Perhaps the most important thing I learned while in his classes was his cue to keep my chest up, instead of letting it lag and collapse. In doing this I have discovered a greater energy in my chest and heart chakra and better and deeper breathing. It is amazing how subtle little cues that you hear often in class so often don't really register mentally or often not really heard. In the right circumstances or under the proper teacher the words can take on a different effect and meaning and effect oneself more profoundly.

Another teacher I frquented during my time in MG was an Indian guy named Sivadas. In his mid-thirties, he says he has been practicing yoga over 20+ yrs and is also quite an accomplished yogi. He has a very nice studio on the fourth and top floor of a bld overlooking the valley. In addition to teaching yoga, Sivadas is an Ayurvedic massage therapist, reiki master, and does sound healing classes. I frequently went to his 4pm class for Sivananda style yoga. I had often found Sivananda style yoga to be too easy and meditative for my taste back in America. His particular class however was quite challenging and I was quite exhausted but feeling good at the end of class. One thing that did bug me about his classes is that while he advertised 2 hr classes from 4-6, he would often finish class with 15 mins left till 6pm. I kind of felt as though I was getting shortchanged.

I decided to try one of his ayurvedic massage sessions as I had never experienced that particular style of massage common to India. I didn't really need a massage as I had been doing the Tibetan massage course and my body felt reasonably good. However I am always interested in learning something new and seeing a new style. Sivadas said he had been trained in Kerala, the southern Indian state known for Ayurveda. He has learned under one of the masters there, whoever that may be. His work was good and lots of oil was used during the massage, which I reckon is characteristic of Ayurvedic massage. On a cabinet next to his massage table dozens of various avurvedic oils and other potions and aromatherapy vials were sitting. The session wasn't as relaxed and slow as I would ideally have preferred at the moment. He worked quite quick and I was surprised when the session was over so quickly. I heard him go to the bathroom in order to wash his hands. This I figured he was doing in order to wash oil off and procede to a different portion of the massage. However it turned out he was finished altogether when I noticed him sitting to the side waiting for me to get up. As I got up I checked my watch and noticed that only 45 minutes had passed. Perhaps he only does 45 mins but it was my impression it was a 1 hr massage. I should have said something to him but I didn't really feel like being confrontational at the moment and ruining the relaxation of the session. Nevertheless I was quite annoyed about him stopping so soon, particularly in light of the session, at 500 rupees, costing more than most other places I had seen in the city. In a moment of passive aggressiveness I decided to not return a book of his that I had borrowed. Instead I decided to trade it in for monetary value and for another book. Probably not the best way of approaching the situation nor for my karma, but made me feel a bit even.