Annamalaiyar Temple in Tiru

Travel Day 984 – Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA

Finally we had managed to go to bed early and finally after getting some rest I was having more energy again and felt ready to do something…

Annamalaiyar Temple Entrance Tower

Strangely enough but for my friend it was the opposite again and his energy level was down. So we had some breakfast and spent some time together on the roof terrace while talking and enjoying the morning. But then I left him behind to first go to my usual lunch spot in the little garden restaurant and then I finally felt motivated enough to visit the big Annamalaiyar Shiva Temple in the main town of Tiruvannamalai…

The temple itself wasn’t really too far away and it could not possibly be missed because its 4 cardinal entrance towers were hovering way above the roof heights of all the surrounding houses. It was actually a really big temple, in style reminding of those great temples I had seen in Madurai and Tanjavur. Luckily the Annamalaiyar Temple didn’t have the cheesy coloring of the temple in Madurai and rather followed the beautiful simplicity of the Tanjavur temple…

Temple with Arunachala Mountain

The barefoot walk around the many courtyards was great, even if sometimes painful due to the boiling hot stone slabs on the ground. But the overall setting of the Annamalaiyar Temple with the Arunachala Mountain in the background was simply great and needed to be enjoyed for quite a while. But I also enjoyed a walk around the temple through all the market stalls and I even enjoyed a change in restaurant while having a meal in a different place for once…

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, until we had a little music concert on the rooftop which we decided to continue with our own personal jamming session and everyone who was able to play an instrument joined in. It was actually really fun and we had a really good time together until we once more got kicked out at a seemingly way too early hour. But this time, my friend and I were way too geared up to go to bed and so we decided to go for a little walk around the area…

Annamalaiyar Temple at Night

Actually once we reached the main road, we came to realize that some sort of pilgrimage was in full progress with lots of people walking barefoot around the Arunachala Mountain. Since we too wanted to do this kind of walk at some point, we spontaneously decided to do it right there with all the other people walking already. As we learned a little bit later, it was a really good choice since it happened to be Tamil New Year and a really nice occasion for the walk…

Not only were there many people on the road, but all the shops were kept open, all the little shrines and temples along the way were lit up with lights or candles and it was overall a really great atmosphere. We even got to have a chai in the very tea shop we used to go to by scooter, on the other end of the mountain and we finally ended up in the big Annamalaiyar Shiva Temple again where we were lucky enough to join a local puja and celebration…

Wow, it really had been a surprisingly busy but interesting day and when we fell into bed at about 5am in the morning we really felt that we had finally something accomplished in Tiruvannamalai…