The Sri Rangam Temple.

Trichy, 25-11-1994. Many cities and town in southern India have two names - one of them in Tamil - which is occassionally quite confusing. The Rock Fort Temple - definitely worth a visit - offers good views at 23 m. in height. As usual with these hindu temples, devout Hindus are prostrating themselves in front of Hindu idols making a small offering, a bowl with fruit, a coconut, some insence and a bit of colored powder called .T.I.K.K.A. The little shops providing all thesae necesary items in religious Hindu life do a triving business! The Hindus are dressed in their best clothes, chatting among themselves and asking us, the foreign tourists, if they can pose with them for a picture. They buy plastic bracelets and similar stuff - even plastic binoculars - from the souvenir sellers, naturally after the usual haggling over the price. A few km. outside Trichy is Sri Rangam Temple, the biggest temple complex in India with seven walls surrounding the Sanctum Sanctorum. Pelgrims dressed in black and local children explaining the stone sculptures to us.