Moodabidri - Jain Temple

The next and final stop of my 2-day visit to Manipal was to the 1000 Pillars Jain Temple in Moodabidri.

The temple was built in 1403 -- at that time Moodabidri was a center of Jain religion, culture, art, and architecture. The 2.5 meter tall bronze idol of Lord Chandranatha Swami in the sanctum hall is considered to be very sacred.

While I'm not sure if there are really 1000 pillars -- there are a lot of them and no two are alike (different carvings, column shape, etc.). The best part of the visit was the temple "docent" (old man pictured above). He was fascinated with me --- I think I was only the 10th foreigner to visit the temple in the past 6 months -- and the first American. He was chock-full of information about the temple -- and he wanted to share it with me --- unfortunately he didn't speak any English -- so he kept badgering my co-workers to translate things to/from me, annoying for them, amusing for me!