WEAVER'S WORLD / CHETTINAD / PLACES TO VISIT-2

WEAVER'S WORLD / CHETTINAD / PLACES TO VISIT-2

A beautiful church of the Lady of Lourdes in Trichy that attracts thousands of visitors and devotees. Well maintained, it has a calm and peaceful atmosphere. An ancient church built in Gallo-Catholic style. It is situated near to Rock Fort temple. The paintings inside the church are nice.

Those who are visiting Srirangam for Lord Ranganatha, must visit his sister Maariyamma in this temple. One can have blissful darshan early morning and stay till late evening.

This temple is in Uraiyur area. Here we can write our prayers and tie it in front of the Goddess and people believe that she will answer to your prayers by reading them.A famous Kali temple in Trichy though situated in the in outskirts,she is considered to be a very powerful God.

This temple is on the outskirts of Tiruchirapalli City, some 10 km away from theTiruchi - Tanjore National Highway. It is situated on a small hillock from where one can have very good view of the entire surroundings although not as high as TiruchiRockfort.Story associated with this temple saysthat as the devas could not worship Siva for fear of wrath from the Asuras, the Devas decided to offer their worship secretly in the form of Ants. Normally, the lingams are very slippery due to oil and other offerings; here the Lord made an exception to help the Devas in the form of ants. The surface of the lingam became coarse so that the ants could easily climb up the lingam and do their worship.

In the evenings, one can simply sit here and enjoy the nice breeze for hours together. Not very long ago, one could see only paddy fields all around. These have slowly and steadily been converted into residential colonies.

Ammamandapam is traditionally a ritual place and a bathing location for Srirangam residents and devotees of Ranganatharswamy. This is the main place where a Hindu can perform all sorts of rituals for the departed ancestors. The place is easily reachable from the Central Bus Stand. The place consists of an Open Hall (where prayer items can be bought), three small temples,ritual performing lines/ place and bathing ghats of River Kaveri.

A Church built by the British more than 200 years back, it has a very old cemetery with the remains of British residents dating back to almost 200 years with quaint tomb stones and inscriptions. It makes for a small detour in a tour itinerary.

5 km off Thurayuryou have a nice temple on top of a small hill, for which one has to cross possibly seven small hillocks to reach it. The temple is atop Perumal Malai. The temple is beautiful with very well sculpted stone figurines, musical stone pillars, beautiful stone carvings. The presiding deity is Kalyana Prasanna Venkatachalapathy an imposing deity, the consort is Padmavathy Thayar. At the foot of the hills one can have the darshan of Govindaraja. Another resemblance to Thirumala is that at 5 km there is village named Nagalapuram. The temple is at 960 feet from the ground level. There is a motorable road and for those who desire to climb up there are steps. It is certainly a temple worth going to – to pray and seek blessings.

Other notable places to visit are Sri Ayyappan Temple,Thala Malai, Anna Science Centre Planetarium at Tiruchirapalli. Chettinad region by itself abounds in temples such as Athangudi, Lord Ganesha Temple, Chettiar Clan Temple, Athmanatha swamy Temple, Kamban Mani Mandapam, Chettinad Museum, Karpagavinayagar Temple, Chettiar Palace, Kaviarsar Kannadhasan Mani Mandapam, Koviloor Aadheenam, Meenakshi Sundereshwar Temple, Murugan Temple, Shri Koteeswara Kottaiyur Temple.