That’s what some people claim anyway – 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims DAILY! About 30 to 40 million visitors a year!
Gateway at the Tirupati Balaji Temple, Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh
OK, here’s something I said I’ll post about earlier on (see On a Pilgrimage Spree). Finished writing this ages ago. Just waiting for a busy time like this to use it, hehehe. Plus, this month marks the split of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (where this temple is located) into 2 states, a new state called Telangana (the areas around the city of Hyderabad, Andhra’s state capital), and Andhra Pradesh (name unchanged, for the remainder parts of Andhra). This temple lies in Andhra Pradesh proper. My previous posts on Hyderabad now should technically be labelled Telangana, but who cares?!
Pilgrims at a shop selling images of Lord Balaji (or Venkateswara, etc, he has many names), Tirumala
In terms of numbers of pilgrims, this place gives Mecca and other religious pilgrimage places a run for the money. The crowds here are incredible. Just imagine, an entire town (Tirumala) set up on the hill where the temple is, just to cater to the pilgrims! There’re pilgrim centres, apartments, lodges, public showers and changing rooms, loads of shops and restaurants (all vegetarian unfortunately), countless storage rooms for shoes, phone and camera (you can’t bring these into the temple), information booths, … heck almost everything, except for anything considered non-veg. And oh yeah, shoe shops (…hey, we walked all over Tirumala barefoot looking for one, OK? We sorta misplaced our shoes, that’s for being smart and choosing not to queue up for storing some old slippers which we thought that nobody would want!)
Balaji Temple at night, the 'cages' there at the bottom, are full of pilgrims, even at night
I doubt any of my non-Hindu friends would wanna visit, but if you do, here’re some tips: -
1) Do some research before you visit, especially on the timing of the visit
It’s a mess there. There’re people all over the place day and night. There’re like a dozen or more types of queues into the temple, with different timings. It’s signposted in a few languages, …but not in simple English. There’re normal queues, VIP queues, special queues for foreigners (which we couldn’t find even after making two trips up the hill and asking I dunno how many people, and judging from the looks of the few foreigners we saw, we weren’t the only ones), queues for the different types of prayers, wedding reception queues, etc. The queue can take as long as 7 hours! Our queue (we finally chose the VIP queue) took us about 3 hours.
2) Be prepared, before you join the queues
If you like tight places, this is your type of place. Come prepared however, have your fill of food and drinks, and empty your bowels and bladder before you jump in, as depending on the date, time and type of queue, it may take up to 7 friggin hours! The nearer you come to the inner sanctum where the idol of Lord Balaji is, the tighter it gets. When you reach, you get a second to have a look at the idol, from about 20m away, and out you go. This is one place that doesn’t discriminate between male and female, old and young, everybody gets squeezed, pushed and shoved. Luckily for the squeeze, or how else could I carry a sleeping 3 year old Justin for 2 long hours?? Crowds have buoyancy you know?
3) Take a bus from Tirupati to Tirumala, not a car
This is the first thing the hotel in Tirupati will try to sell you. Book a car to go up to the temple. (The temple is located in Tirumala, on top of a hill. Accommodation is usually in Tirupati, the main city below the hill). But don’t jump for it. There are buses running 24 hours between Tirupati and Tirumala. A trip up the hill by bus takes about an hour (if I remember correctly), and costs err… if I’m not mistaken something like 30 rupees per person per way (that’s like RM3 per person return). A car will cost you a bloody hundred ringgit! And you’d only take it to the top of the hill, leave it there and go on an extended 3 hour pilgrimage while the driver sleeps away!
4) Always use the Shoe Storage Rooms, and bring some extra slippers
Unless you want to end up like the three of us, Papa, Mommy and Justin. But no big deal, we just had to walk across the entire friggin Tirumala barefoot, and hop onto the Tirupati bus barefoot, and walk from the Tirupati main bus station to our hotel across streets, and muck, barefoot.
5) Pick a hotel near the bus station, if staying in Tirupati
Same explanation above. Note that most hotels here have a 24 hour checkout facility, which is real useful for this place. You check in at 4, you check out at 4!
6) Be prepared to be a vegetarian
For the time that you’re in Tirumala anyway, coz there’re absolutely no non-veg restaurants around – zilch. Nope, not even eggs. Get them in Tirupati if you want some meat.
7) Don’t come here for a haircut
Unless you wanna be bald. Just kidding! I’m sure there’re a lot of decent hairdressers around. It’s just that the temple is so full of bald-headed people, male and female alike (they come here to shave off their heads as a vow, …I think, for a wish fulfilled).
8) Never wear shorts (for the men)
Shorts is a no-no to enter the temple, even if it covers the knees. Sarongs or dhotis (the split variety of sarongs) on the other hand, are acceptable, never mind that it just takes a simple tug from anyone and your entire nether regions are exposed to the world. We had to make two separate trips up and down the hill to Tirumala partly because of this.
9) It helps if you speak Tamil or Telugu
It’s the lingua franca of the place – try English (and to a lesser extent, Hindi) and you’ll get a blank stare? Like what’s this foreigner doing here?!?
10) Take an auto-rickshaw if you can’t find a cab (to the airport I mean)
Auto-rickshaws (India’s version of the tuk-tuk) are a fraction of the cost of a hotel-linked car, and they’re more easily available than a hailed or call taxi, if you’re in a hurry. Ours got the job done for us not to miss our flight back to Pune!
Pilgrim Town Tirumala
Tirupati Balaji Temple (or more officially, the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple), Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh, India
Gateway at the Tirupati Balaji Temple, Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh
OK, here’s something I said I’ll post about earlier on (see On a Pilgrimage Spree). Finished writing this ages ago. Just waiting for a busy time like this to use it, hehehe. Plus, this month marks the split of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (where this temple is located) into 2 states, a new state called Telangana (the areas around the city of Hyderabad, Andhra’s state capital), and Andhra Pradesh (name unchanged, for the remainder parts of Andhra). This temple lies in Andhra Pradesh proper. My previous posts on Hyderabad now should technically be labelled Telangana, but who cares?!
Pilgrims at a shop selling images of Lord Balaji (or Venkateswara, etc, he has many names), Tirumala
In terms of numbers of pilgrims, this place gives Mecca and other religious pilgrimage places a run for the money. The crowds here are incredible. Just imagine, an entire town (Tirumala) set up on the hill where the temple is, just to cater to the pilgrims! There’re pilgrim centres, apartments, lodges, public showers and changing rooms, loads of shops and restaurants (all vegetarian unfortunately), countless storage rooms for shoes, phone and camera (you can’t bring these into the temple), information booths, … heck almost everything, except for anything considered non-veg. And oh yeah, shoe shops (…hey, we walked all over Tirumala barefoot looking for one, OK? We sorta misplaced our shoes, that’s for being smart and choosing not to queue up for storing some old slippers which we thought that nobody would want!)
Balaji Temple at night, the 'cages' there at the bottom, are full of pilgrims, even at night
I doubt any of my non-Hindu friends would wanna visit, but if you do, here’re some tips: -
1) Do some research before you visit, especially on the timing of the visit
It’s a mess there. There’re people all over the place day and night. There’re like a dozen or more types of queues into the temple, with different timings. It’s signposted in a few languages, …but not in simple English. There’re normal queues, VIP queues, special queues for foreigners (which we couldn’t find even after making two trips up the hill and asking I dunno how many people, and judging from the looks of the few foreigners we saw, we weren’t the only ones), queues for the different types of prayers, wedding reception queues, etc. The queue can take as long as 7 hours! Our queue (we finally chose the VIP queue) took us about 3 hours.
2) Be prepared, before you join the queues
If you like tight places, this is your type of place. Come prepared however, have your fill of food and drinks, and empty your bowels and bladder before you jump in, as depending on the date, time and type of queue, it may take up to 7 friggin hours! The nearer you come to the inner sanctum where the idol of Lord Balaji is, the tighter it gets. When you reach, you get a second to have a look at the idol, from about 20m away, and out you go. This is one place that doesn’t discriminate between male and female, old and young, everybody gets squeezed, pushed and shoved. Luckily for the squeeze, or how else could I carry a sleeping 3 year old Justin for 2 long hours?? Crowds have buoyancy you know?
3) Take a bus from Tirupati to Tirumala, not a car
This is the first thing the hotel in Tirupati will try to sell you. Book a car to go up to the temple. (The temple is located in Tirumala, on top of a hill. Accommodation is usually in Tirupati, the main city below the hill). But don’t jump for it. There are buses running 24 hours between Tirupati and Tirumala. A trip up the hill by bus takes about an hour (if I remember correctly), and costs err… if I’m not mistaken something like 30 rupees per person per way (that’s like RM3 per person return). A car will cost you a bloody hundred ringgit! And you’d only take it to the top of the hill, leave it there and go on an extended 3 hour pilgrimage while the driver sleeps away!
4) Always use the Shoe Storage Rooms, and bring some extra slippers
Unless you want to end up like the three of us, Papa, Mommy and Justin. But no big deal, we just had to walk across the entire friggin Tirumala barefoot, and hop onto the Tirupati bus barefoot, and walk from the Tirupati main bus station to our hotel across streets, and muck, barefoot.
5) Pick a hotel near the bus station, if staying in Tirupati
Same explanation above. Note that most hotels here have a 24 hour checkout facility, which is real useful for this place. You check in at 4, you check out at 4!
6) Be prepared to be a vegetarian
For the time that you’re in Tirumala anyway, coz there’re absolutely no non-veg restaurants around – zilch. Nope, not even eggs. Get them in Tirupati if you want some meat.
7) Don’t come here for a haircut
Unless you wanna be bald. Just kidding! I’m sure there’re a lot of decent hairdressers around. It’s just that the temple is so full of bald-headed people, male and female alike (they come here to shave off their heads as a vow, …I think, for a wish fulfilled).
8) Never wear shorts (for the men)
Shorts is a no-no to enter the temple, even if it covers the knees. Sarongs or dhotis (the split variety of sarongs) on the other hand, are acceptable, never mind that it just takes a simple tug from anyone and your entire nether regions are exposed to the world. We had to make two separate trips up and down the hill to Tirumala partly because of this.
9) It helps if you speak Tamil or Telugu
It’s the lingua franca of the place – try English (and to a lesser extent, Hindi) and you’ll get a blank stare? Like what’s this foreigner doing here?!?
10) Take an auto-rickshaw if you can’t find a cab (to the airport I mean)
Auto-rickshaws (India’s version of the tuk-tuk) are a fraction of the cost of a hotel-linked car, and they’re more easily available than a hailed or call taxi, if you’re in a hurry. Ours got the job done for us not to miss our flight back to Pune!
Pilgrim Town Tirumala
Tirupati Balaji Temple (or more officially, the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple), Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh, India
