Ayodhya sadly is a complete travesty and quiet upsetting at the total lack of nouse of the Indian Goverenment. We have said it before and we will say it again but India is nothing compared to China. Tourism and the religous activity here is non exhistant.
Its hard to know where to start. The town is beautifull well it could be if the buildings weren’t left to fall down. As the birthplace of Ram and city where Diwali started quiet rightly his has huge numbers of temples and history - both good and bad. This is not used to bring in tourists of any sort - it seems to be actuiely discouraged.
The reason for this is the ‘Disputed Temple’. This is the a site where Lord Rama was born and a Hindu temple was built on the site. This was later torn down by the Moguls (Muslims) and a Mosque built/ After a couple of hundred years this was torn down by the Hindus… then the Muslims tore that one down - culminating with 1992 when the Hindu extreemists torn down a 200 year old Mosque.
We did visit the temple - though the local Intelligence officer did try to stop us. But still we had to go though three body searches and were not allowed to take any camera’s, phones, electronic items at all. To get to the actual site we had to walk through a caged path - like a sheep dip run but fully enclosed - through to a tent where armed guards manned a very small area where you could see an altar in the distance. Just by this there are thousands of strings tied to the fencing of people who have traveled to the site and made wishes. Which I also did. When the wish is fullfilled you need to rturn to the site and remove the string.
Next we went to the site where stone masons are carving stones for the new Hindu Temple should it ever be built. This is being done by hand with amazing craftman ship. In a temple on the site with a fantastic model of the proposed new temple I also got a sacred string tried round my wrist as blessed by Lord Rama - which will come off when it falls off.
Logic would say that as the disputed temple site is 77 acres the new buildingshould be built somewhere else. In all it became very apparant that vistors aren’t really welcome - Indian or not. When we filled out our hotel registration forms - as with everywhere else we go we put down our residency numbers instead of passport number. The next day - no kidding - we had another visit from another secrest policeman who insisted that we put down our passport numbers - so they can track which foreigners / visitors are around - and this wasn’t even in Ayodhya but Faizabad - the next by town which actually had a hotel.
Not much of a hotel either - no hot water and staff who just had no interest in serving guests. Management too. Every day at breakfast we after waiting 30 mins we had to go into the kitchen and basically prepare our own breakfast - the staff just didn’t do anything.
And no visit would be complete without a Tilak and blessing:
Despite its importance on many levels Ayodhya is not being given its rightful place in the India which is such a shame as it is beautiful and if correctly orgainsed could be a thriving little town which needs income as it is very very poor. A Travesty.
