Mahabalipuram...Sun, Sand, Sea and Stone...Part5...

This rock is known as Krishna's Butter Ball

The Light House

Buddha Statue

Light House on the Rocks

Mahabalipuram...Sun, Sand, Sea and Stone...Part2

 Some more pictures...

Strange Tiger Statue near Shore Temple

In front of Shore Temple

Water Hole near Shore Temple

Mahabalipuram...Sun, Sand, Sea and Stone...Part1...

I just want to share a wonderful travel experience....

My friends and me decided to go to Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) from Chennai. Usually, the Sun will be very cruel in Mahabalipuram. But the day we chose to go was very ideal and not so hot but still we ended up with a bad tan was another story....:-)

We started early and it took us 2 hrs to reach Mahabalipuram from Chennai. We took an ordinary MTC (Metro Transport Corporation of Chennai) bus. The travel was good. We saw lot of salt farms and all.

Mahabalipuram is a very old city. See the history in Wikipedia- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahabalipuram.

The city is full of old temples, rocks and stone carvings. We first went to Hotel Mamalla Bhavan for breakfast which was very cheap and the food was excellent.

Then we located a tourist information office from where we got a map of the city. On the way we saw lot of stone carving shops. The statues were beautiful, especially statues of Buddha.

Then went to the historical 'Shore Temple' where we could see the very old stone temple built in 6th century which is now maintained by Archaeological Survey of India.

Before I go on, let me share some photos first.

Buddha Statue in a Stone Carving Shop

Stone Carving Shop

Stone Carving Shop

The Shore Temple

I think I better continue in the next post. This one is getting too large...

My Buddha Statue...

I bought this beautiful Buddha statue in early April. The face is so peaceful…

 

So the statue needed a peaceful background also. So I converted the top shelf of the corner stand for this statue.

A dead banyan tree (bonsai) was sitting in my yard for some time. So I decided to use that and some dry flowers which I got from Kodaikanal (a lovely hill station in TamilNadu). Then some fish-tank-pebbles and Lucky bamboo added more texture to the scene.  

  

           The tree of tranquility was created using the dry bonsai tree and yellow dry flowers. The seeds in the center of the flower were taken out so that they will not fall out later. Then the flowers were tied to the branches using golden thread. I didn’t varnish the tree because I want to keep the rough natural look. 

 

      The Hangings were made of fish-tank-pebbles. These are attractive glass pebbles of the shape of Sun, Moon, stars and sea-shells. I used some metal wire (Silver color) to tie the pebbles together without piercing the pebbles.

      What is a serene scene without some green color in it? So I used a green bottle filled with lucky bamboo in the background. 

           Then filled an old wooden bowl with rough pebbles and placed the Buddha statue on top of it. 

  

      Arranged it on the corner stand. Here is the final product…

The lighting is very low in our room. So the picture is not that much clear.

And I know that the background paint color is not matching with this arrangement. But I can’t find any other place to put the tree and the statue.