6,400 steps in Palitana

This Saturday, Zirong, Dario, Charlotte and I visited one of Jainism's holiest (also, hilliest) pilgrimage sites: Palitana. After a not so very pleasant 3:30 am wake-up call, our rented driver took us on the four-hour ride to this magnificent site. It is a temple complex built on the top of a mountain. To get to the top one has to climb no less than 3,200 steps. The rewards, however, are immediate and absolutely stunning. It is a marvelous place with pilgrims dressed in white robes everywhere, chanting prayers in different temples. Free food is served, which is all vegetarian and contains no root vegetables, as eating the root would a) kill the plant, and b) risk killing more microorganisms than necessary. To the followers of this very ancient religion, all life is holy and they are very particular about this. They are also immensely affluent; as a group they constitute no more than 0.42% of India's population, however pay 24% (!) of collected taxes. They also have the highest literacy rate in the country.

That everything was built on the top of a mountain several hundred years ago makes the experience even more incredible. Climbing the 3,200 steps took about an hour and a half - dragging rock the same way... probably longer.