Khajuraho and the Sex Temples

The temples of Khajuraho were a last minute addition to our trip. We had always planned to break up the long distance between Varanasi and Agra with a stop, but after a helpful Irish couple told us that “there was nothing interesting between Varanasi and Agra” we started looking for alternatives.

Arriving into Khajuraho at sunrise after an overnight sleeper train.

A little out of the way, Khajuraho is famous (or infamous, depending on your view) as the location of the “sex temples” – ancient Hindu temples whose carvings include a significant number of sexual images. But the temples’ carvings are also some of the best in India. Beautiful temples and some hilarious millennium-old sex images? We were in!

Some of the temples of Khajuraho.

The Town

We found Khajuraho to be more than just the temples – it was a great reprieve from the frenetic pace of other Indian cities. It was calm, small, and green. There wasn’t much to so besides see the temples, but we enjoyed the calm.

The food was also fantastic. Only our first week into India and I couldn’t believe how good the food was, no matter where we went. Our favorite place in Khajuraho was Raja’s Cafe, but we also liked the South Indian dosas and coffee we had at a Madras, a southern place.

Dinner at Raja’s

The Temples

The temples themselves were beautiful. They were built by an ancient empire known as the Chandelas. Huge stone buildings with incredibly detailed carvings depicting gods, warriors, and everyday life. Amazing to think they were built without modern machinery hundreds of years ago.

The symbol of the Chandelas – a human fighting off a lion.

The temples soared into the sky, with carvings at every level.

There were lots of depictions of elephants, dancing women, and other elements of life back then.

A small detail of elephants marching. Carvings such as these covered the temples.

Jami studying the images.

Many of the images contained Hindu gods and stories from the Hindu epics. We learned a lot of the religious background (or tried to, anyways) just by viewing the visual stories.

Carving of Ganesh, the elephant-headed god.

A huge sculpture of Vishnu as a boar

We were unfamiliar with Hindu temples, but were told that the Khajuraho temples’ overall design was consistent with Hindu requirements – rectangular shaped, rising straight up with each layer of the building getting progressively smaller. In the middle, under the tallest section of the temple, was a shrine to whichever God the temple was dedicated.

Most of the temples looked somewhat like this design.

The Porn

No summary of Khajuraho is complete without mentioning the sexual images, even on this family-oriented blog (hi Mom!). We found it hilarious to see the carvings on such religious monuments, as it is so distant from western religious practice. The carvings included everything from flirtatious women (which were everywhere) to hardcore bestiality.

Some of the women.

Jami studying an image

A group of images – notice one of them is ashamed at the sexual act going on.

The audio guide was helpful at explaining the Hindu gods and the meaning behind most of the images, but even it was unsure of why the sexual images were present on the holy temples. Some researchers thought it was a way to “test” worshipers to see if they could see through the imagery; some thought the temple builders believed in a tantric form of Hinduism; others just thought the masons were having a little fun.  Whatever the original purpose, it’s certainly helped bring in the tourists!

The temples from a treehouse cafe.