At the end of my time in Kaziranga, i'd planned to visit Majuli, the largest river island in the world in the middle of the Brahmaputra. A midway point was the town of Jorhat, about a four-hour terribly uncomfortable bus ride from Kohora. Having got got there, I ended up feeling quite tired, maybe due to not sleeping too well the previous few days, so I took a few days to rest up and update some of the entries on my blog.
The highlight of the week was taking a trip to Sibsagar, a town roughly an hour away and home to the the Ahom kingdom which ruled this part of Assam for around 600 years. Originally they came from Yunan province in China, and there is a legacy of remarkable buildings there.
The Kareng Ghar was a multi-storeyed royal palace, with three storeys below ground and four storeys above ground.
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| Kareng Garh |
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| Interior of Kareng Garh |
A little distance away is located the Shivadol, which is thought to be the tallest Shiva temple in the whole of India, with a height of 104 feet. Built by the queen of the Ahom king, Ambika, in 1734, it is capped with a seven-foot high golden dome. The walls of the temple have lovely carvings of gods and goddesses.
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| Shivadol |
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| Carving in the Shivadol temple |
Adjacent to the Shivadol is the Vishnudol, also constructed by Queen Ambika at around the same time. They are both incredibly beautiful structures.
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| Vishnudol |
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| Close up exterior of Vishnudol |
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| Close up of Vishnu effigies |
Nearby is the Devidol, a temple dedicated to Durga, the goddess of prayer. It has many beautiful images portrayed on the walls.
Later on I visited the Rang Ghar, a double-storeyed royal pavilion built in the mid 1750s by the Ahom king for watching birds and animal fights, as well as other cultural programmes. Its an intriguing structure, built to look like a ship, and adorned with images of flowers, animals and birds.
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| Rang Ghar |
Later I visited the Talatal Ghar, one of the grandest examples of Ahom architecture. For about a century, it was the new capital of the Ahom empire. Originally built as an army base, it has two secret tunnels and threefloorsbelow ground level which can't be accessed. The builders used a peculiar kind of cement comprised of sticky rice, mollasses, eggs and other ingredients yet my guide said it had proved incredibly durable.
An interesting feature of the palace is the construction of entrances that involve smaller and smaller entrances as a means of making enemy attacks more difficult to carry out.
Later my guide and I visited the Joy Doul, or Vishnu Doul. It also has wonderful sculptures of gods and goddesses on its walls.
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