The temples in the smaller town of Khajuraho are stunning & what’s even more impressive…they were all built sometime around 950 A.D! How can people THAT long ago construct these big, beautiful temples each covered in small intricate carvings? The carvings are primarily sex-related which makes the Khajuraho temples so unique, sex meets God in one of the holier places in India. I can imagine the locals 1,000 years ago making the journey to the Khajuraho temples to pray a little & learn all there is to know about orgies and gravity-defying sex positions. Who knew God and sex could mix so well?! At times I felt a little out-of-place walking around the outside of the temples gazing at the perverted (and very creative!) sculptures. Women are the major theme of the temples, very voluptuous women surrounding one very lucky guy. Apparently, the temples were built so young men could come here and learn about the world and how to handle their desires. The kama sutra teaching men about their household duties…. not sure that’s such a great idea! I met a middle-aged Indian man on the 7 hour train ride out, who wasn’t so pleased with the sex education written on the temple walls. All in all, we were both extremely impressed at the detail of the carvings and the towering size of all the temples. Renting push bikes and biking around the town’s small side streets from temple to temple with a small group of children chasing close behind us made the whole experience even more surreal. We were biking down dirt roads watching daily life go along… water buffalo escaping the heat in a muddy lake, women sweeping the dirt floor of their home, children chasing us & chickens, and the men huddled around in a circle yelling while playing a game with marbles.
