Temple Porn in Puri

Hah, I bet that title got everyones attention. So while I was in Puri, I went on a daytrip to the neighboring city of Konark, home of the Sun Temple. Built in 1278, it has 24 10-foot wide wheels, representing the hours in a day, and 7 horses "pull" the temple, representing days of the week. The inside of the temple is actually entirely filled with stone and pillars to keep it from collapsing on itself.

And of course, as you can guess from the title, it's filled with erotic engravings. They seem so out of place with conservative India, where handholding between men and women is considered taboo and where some political groups were going to try and force couples making out in the park to get married. Scenes in the temple were thought to possibly instruct Indian males in a male oriented temple, err... what to do.

Taking an afternoon stroll to the Sun Temple.


Dancing Hall in front of the main Sun Temple


Sun dial and guide.


Sun Temple backside




You know, I met many female travellers in India with stories about dirty old men in India, and after being shown around by my guide for an hour and a half, I can see what they're talking about. I'm not opposed to a little nudity in art, but I really didn't need a guide to point out every little explicit detail over and over again. My tour went something like this...

Perverted Indian Guide (PIG): (mumbling in Hindglish- not quite Hindi or English) Guide 40 years. Sun Temple...something something something, Konark in Orissa.

Me: (nodding my head even though I understood every 4th word or so)

PIG: (starts waving umbrella around wildly, nearly knocks some passerbys off the temple, and starts to giggle) Orissan women... something something something... breasts (cups his own for emphasis)... Take Orissan men!

Me: Yes, I know. The sculptures with breasts are women. I figured that out on my own, but thanks for pointing that out to me (once again, my western sarcasm is not understood).

PIG: (head bobbles for a split second, then starts getting really excited now). Man bottom... 2 women! (begins making gestures and motions with his hands that I haven't seen since the boy's gym lockeroom in 8th grade PE class)... Like Orissan women! (then insists on me taking photos of the sculptures).

Me: Uh-huh. (trying to plead innocence with the 2 female tourists walking by giving me dirty looks to let them know that I didn't hire my guide for the temple porn tour).

Ugh. I suppose if I'm going to be shown temple porn, it might as well be from an "expert".

"Guide" pointing out early temple porn.


Blogspot and new Flickr policies won't allow R-rated photos, so here's a PG-13 version of the sculptures.


And here's the official sign describing the temple sculptures, I don't think I could write more flowerly prose even if I tried.