keeper from the museum. At the entrance to the complex, guidebooks that include descriptions of each cave are sold. And those who want to get into the caves need to go along a long rocky corridor that has safety fencing.
You cannot stop wondering looking at it.
People lived here, ate, prayed, died, had children.
The temple complex was built on the Silk Road. Therefore, travelers with trade carts often stopped there, which, of course, provided some financial support for building and construction works.
Rich Indian kings also helped the forest monks to maintain temples. What impressed me?
First of all, the age of these caves. They are more than two thousand years old. Of course, I looked at these amazing colors for a long time, which were applied by artists more than two thousand years ago.
I learned that sculptors and painters worked in so-called family guilds. And they did not reveal their tricks of the trade outside their family. That is why the secret of making non-fading colors has remained a secret. Apparently, a dynasty of a craftsman was stopped.
The cave complexes of Ajanta have a long history.
It is known that these temples were abandoned for a long time. Only in 1819, they were accidentally discovered by British soldiers that hunted tigers in this area. India was a colony of England at that time. Therefore, information about the “cultural wonder” very soon became known in London and then spread all over
Interestingly, the researchers of the Ajanta rock paintings concluded that they showed the history of Indian civilization. It is known that the age of Indian civilization is 5 thousand years. So, the paintings reflected a life of three millennia. In addition, various religious Buddhist subjects were depicted on the frescoes.
I noticed that a lot of tourists from different countries come to the Ajanta.
site. ELLORA CAVE COMPLEX
I spend a little bit more time in the Ellora cave complex.
I spent the night in the hotel of the settlement, which is located next to the
The Ellora rock complex dates back to the 6th century. It includes 34 caves.
We drove about 200 kilometers by car from the Ajanta to the Ellora.
The cave temples of Ajanta were made by hollowing out “rooms” (caves), and the temples of Ellora were mainly carved out using the “top-down” method. In addition, certain sculptural compositions were made along with the construction.
For example, the figure of a huge elephant was made simultaneously with the construction of the cave itself.
I have not been to Buddhist caves, but I have been to several Hindu and Jain caves. There are a lot of sculptural compositions in Hindu temples. These temples look very ornate. Jain caves, on the contrary, are very modest. It was explained to us, the tourists, that the richer people had richer temples.
It is interesting that the temples of Ellora are, in fact, a united cave complex. And priests of three different religions lived together there for a long time. This is a manifestation of a tolerant attitude in India.
There is such a story associated with the most remarkable of the temples, the Kailasa temple, a magnificent, perfectly preserved example of Dravidian architecture. According to the legend, the temple was erected by the raj of Ellichpur Edu in gratitude for the healing with water from a nearby spring. The temple is located in the back of a yard side carved out solid rock. There are colossal statues of Shiva, Vishnu, and others made of stone in the granite canopy above the entrance. Behind the canopy, there is a large statue of the goddess Lakshmi, resting on lotus flowers and surrounded by elephants.
An interesting service is provided here for tourists: small vans (some kind of museum taxi) transport tourists from one part of the cave complex to another.
HOW WAS IT
The library staff, where my event took place, did a great organizational job. There were about 30 members of the audience. The event visited local television journalists.
Before presenting my photo and video works, a local resident, a famous dancer of Indian dances, held a mini-concert. Then the representatives of the Russian-Indian Friendship Society, invited by me, spoke and said many good words about the friendship between India and Russia.
There was a teapoy with oriental sweets and Indian tea.
Also, I and the library staff prepared small exhibitions of Indian books.
My speech was received with great applause. In a word, it turned out to be a wonderful evening of documentary photography!
Chapter two FORTS. FORTIFICATIONS
ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF THE EVENT
The idea of the event was to collect images of forts and fortifications from my archive, make some additional photos on the subject, and then create and conduct a two-hour public multimedia program for the 6th St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum.
I knew that there were countless fortifications in the world. Almost always people in different parts of the world live in a state of war.
Fortifications are also great sites for documentary photography. This is exactly what I wanted to say at my event.
A program was created using photos, videos and infographics from five collections: two of them contain photos from foreign countries (Turkey, India) and the other three include photos from Russia (St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod region).
I will tell you about the photos of each of these collections later.
SELJUK FORTIFICATION IN TURKEY
Alanya Fortification is a medieval fortification in the city of Alanya in southern Turkey. Most of it was built in the 13th century. The fortification is located on a rocky peninsula 250 meters high near the Mediterranean Sea.
I was in Alanya in November 2014. It was a tourist trip with my wife, Raisa, we stayed in Turkey for 11 days.
Alanya is an ancient city, it starts its history from the II century BC. Today it is a major tourist city, hosting tourists mainly from Europe, especially from the Scandinavian countries. Of course, tourists from Russia also spend their vacations here.
In the 13th century, the Seljuks conquered Kalonoros (that was the name of the peninsula near which the city is located) and renamed the city to Alaye in honor of the Seljuk sultan Ala ad-Din Kay-Kubad. During the reign of Kay-Kubad, the city reached full flowering. At that time, a significant part of the new fortification (which has survived to this day), a shipyard and several mosques were built. Alaye became a major commercial and military port.
In my photos, you can see some parts of the fortification, the residence of the Seljuk Sultan.
The fortification is quite well preserved, and today it is a museum that is visited by many tourists every day.
What
