Following the fort we continued on our tour to Ranakpur Jain temple. What we had failed to plan for was that in order to enter a Jain temple we had to be more covered than we were. Caitlin was wearing a long skirt and I was wearing shorts. In both cases we were showing way too much shin to enter. So we had the option to rent pants and a muumuu. Caitlin got the muumuu and I got the pants, I don’t want your imagination to run wild. Prior to going in, all I could think is, this better be worth it, it was ridiculously hot with shorts on and throwing more layers wasn’t going to be pleasant. The situation got a little bit tougher when we had to take our shoes off once again prior to entering, which forced me to unceremoniously run up the stairs to avoid burning the soles of my feet.
Ranakpur was constructed in the mid 1400s and was definitely worth the pants and muumuu. The carving of the columns and ceilings was amazing. It reminded me a lot of Angkor Watt in style but only one temple with detail on every surface. We wandered around and looked at everything, although I felt unsure of what was appropriate protocol as it is a working temple. The center was off limits to us but we were allowed to take pictures. Our home stay would later explain to us that you have to bathe and cleanse yourself, then dress in all white in order to enter the center. He also explained that women who are menstruating are not allowed into the center either. Not really sure why he threw this last gem in there but “The more you Know” right? How someone would know this I don’t know. Since I was anything but clean, and the sweating was constant which would have made white clothes see through we merely looked into the center without crossing the ropes. Enjoy the pictures as we tried to capture the impressiveness of the temple.
The temple from the outside did not amaze.
The first ceiling carving, this was about 4-5ft in diameter.
Its a miracle we didn’t trip and bust our lip the way we kept looking up.
All the columns were carved with intricate details.
Another ceiling post.
It was tough to try to capture it all, as we need to take a 360 picture.
Another ceiling.
Caitlin in her muumuu.
Different design in the columns, not all the columns were designed identically.
Cool elephant carved out of marble.
Me in my styling pants. You could pretty much pick out who the dumb tourists were at the temple. Oops, can’t win them all.
And of course there were monkeys roaming around.
From Russia with Love 
It is very nice I am glad it was worth it to wear the moomoo. Although I did not see the monkeys wearing white
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