Royal Tour

We don't usually go out for lunch, but we were out of bread for sandwiches. We went to a restaurant called "Sue's Place." They serve Caribbean food at this restaurant. They make a good Russian salad. We felt like we were a royal couple, as we were the only ones in the restaurant, and we had the full attention of the staff there.






Elder Tiefenbach is certainly of royal heritage; he is Sister Tiefenbach's Prince Charming!











We have been waiting for a "Joseph Smith" morning for a long time. We had one a few weeks ago, but we did not have a camera with us, so we did not get a picture. But, this past week, we had a morning that we could pass as a "Joseph Smith" morning. For those of our readers who are wondering what we are talking about, we will explain. The church has a painting of Joseph Smith's vision in which the sunbeams are streaming through the trees. When we first arrived in Bangalore last February, we often saw the sunbeams shining through the trees, streaming all the way down to the ground, and it reminded us of the painting. But, since then, we have not had many such mornings.

 This picture shows the size of many of the trees here. We still continue to be amazed at the massive size of the trunks of the trees here. This tree sits at the exit (or the entrance if you are coming in) to the park. We had just finished our walk in the park. Oh, there is Sister Tiefenbach's Prince Charming again!







We took a preparation day on Friday and spent it with the Smith's touring in Bangalore. We started with Tipu Sultan's Palace. It was build from 1781 to 1791. Tipu (or Tippoo) Sultan finished the building that his father had started. Tipu Sultan was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore (which is where Bangalore is situated). He was Muslim, but most of his subjects were Hindu. He was friendly toward the French, and he did not like the British.

 
Here we are inside the Palace. Actually, it wasn't the residence of Tipu Sultan; it was his court, where he met with dignitaries and talked of the affairs of his kingdom, etc. The actual residence is no longer standing, but it stood just to the east of this building (which is slightly to the front of it). The front of the Palace is completely open to the air. In this picture, Smith's are standing outside the Palace taking the picture, and we are inside. When we walked into the palace, we could tell that it was old because there was a musty smell.


Throughout the palace, we saw evidence of the beautiful paintings that covered the walls. We wish that restorative work could be done to preserve this beautiful building.

All the walls had small nooks cut into them. Again, you can see evidence of the painting that decorated the walls. On the inside wall of many of these nooks, we saw faint paintings, such as a painting of a flower in a vase. You can also see the decorative carvings around the upper nook. Unfortunately, many people have put their own carvings into the walls. It is sad that something with such historical significance has been defaced. We enjoyed looking at the detail of the art work, and Sister Smith and Sister Tiefenbach began to imagine what it would have looked like over two hundred years ago.


The pillars and archways were wonderful!













This is one of the supports helping hold up the ceiling. They, too, were carved with ornate designs.











The palace, itself, is not a huge building. One could tour it in a matter of minutes, but we took time to look at the fine details contained in it. After touring the inside of the palace, we took time to stroll through the grounds that were in front and to the side of it. Sister Tiefenbach loved the delicate fragrance of the beautiful blossoms of this bush. When the palace was being used by Tipu Sultan and his family, did the royal family have flowers in the garden to enjoy? We can only imagine.



Beside the royal palace, sits a Hindu Temple. Ahh, there is Prince Charming again! His majesty is enjoying the royal garden.











We are always impressed with the detailed carvings on the roofs of the Hindu Temples. These ones are not painted. We are not sure why some are painted and some are not. We know that the temples that are ancient are not painted. This temple must be built to the monkey god, Hanuman. Notice the carvings of the monkeys

We went into the temple for a few minutes. We could not stay long because some kind of ceremony was about to take place. When we say inside the temple, remember that the inside is still outdoors. Part of the temple had a ceiling over head, but there were not walls. We saw interesting designs on the ceiling. In the middle of this series of concentric circles rests a symbol that looks like the Star of David. Interesting!






These statues sat on a ledge just below the ceiling.

After visiting Tipu Sultan's Palace and the temple, we headed to the Tipu Fort. Obviously, this fort was also associated with the royal family. Today, most of the fort is not standing.











The gates to the fort are massive! The fort was a stronghold for Tipu Sultan, but it was not strong enough to defend the kingdom against Lord Cornwallis. The fort fell to him in March of 1791.

Here is a view from inside the remaining fort.

This passageway is locked. Hmmm . . . what is on the other side?

We may not have been able to squeeze through the bars of the gate, but our camera managed to find its way far enough in to get a closer glimpse of the unknown. What stories lie on the other side of this passageway? Did the British troops storm through here as they conquered the fort? The ruins hold so many untold stories. Throughout our touring, Sister Smith and Sister Tiefenbach wished that they could see through a glass that could take us back in time to capture the view of the people and the things they were doing. We would like to part the veil of time, so to speak.



This was an interesting carving on one of the walls inside the fort. It depicts a lion fighting with a man. Or, is the man fighting the lion?

Here we are taking a small rest. We were hoping that there were no lions on the other side of the door!











Our next stop was to Bangalore Palace. We had gone here once before, but we did not go inside at that time. This time, we went inside. We could not take pictures inside because we did not want to spend an additional 650 rupees for the privilege. Included in the price of admission (250 rupees for local people and 450 rupees [about $8.00] for foreigners), was the audio tour. At first, we were uncertain that we wanted to spend so much money to go inside the palace, but we decided to go for broke and splurge. Bangalore Palace was the summer home for the royal family, and some people say it was designed after Windsor Castle in England. Others deny this. The palace was not over run by patrons when we went through, so we enjoyed our leisurely tour. Some of the rooms have been furnished with pieces from the time period.


 When we arrived at the palace, the skies were bright and sunny. When we came out of the palace, the clouds were beginning to form. The sun, however, was still strong and hot. We have been able to get many pictures here  in India of the sun shining behind the clouds. It has a spectacular effect.







A beautiful royal garden area has been planted in front of the palace with flowers of many colours and types and other plants. On the edge of the garden was a grove of trees that formed a huge canopy. One lone taller tree with red flowers grows in the middle of the grove.

We walked through the garden, enjoying the different views of the palace and the beauty of the flowers and plants.











Tucked away amidst some other plants, we found some Bird of Paradise flowers. The only Bird of Paradise flowers that we have seen before have been in greenhouses. These ones were in their natural habitat. Wonderful!









This looks like a sunflower, but it is not yellow. It was as tall as Sister Tiefenbach. We don't know enough about flowers to know whether or not this is a sunflower. It was NOT facing the sun. Does that mean that it isn't a sunflower?









Next, all the botanists out there can let us know the name of this plant. The bottom looks almost, but not quite, like a pineapple. We know it is not a pineapple, but we have no idea of what it could be.















Good friends. We are so grateful to have the Smith's here in Bangalore with us.

















The men needed a more manly backdrop for their picture.  Both of them made sure they read the inscription of the barrel of the gun.

From the Bangalore Palace, we went back to our apartment for a short while before we went out for supper at Pizza Hut. We enjoyed our royal tour with the Smith's. It was a wonderful day!

On Saturday, we baked cinnamon buns and jumbo raisin cookies. They were all delicious. Okay, some of you may be saying, "were?" We did not eat all of them. Two of the missionaries from Indiranagar Branch, Elder O'Dell and Elder Singh, dropped by to get a recipe for banana muffins. They walked into our apartment filled with the aroma of freshly baked cinnamon buns and saw the physical evidence of the product. We did not even finish asking them if they wanted a cinnamon bun when they quickly nodded their heads and said, "Yes!" We hadn't started the jumbo raisin cookies when the elders dropped in, so we weren't able to give them a sample of the cookies.

This picture was taken earlier in the week on the ground floor of the building where our office is located. We include it here to show a picture of Elders O'Dell and Singh. Beginning from the front left, we have Elders Singh, Mills, Hodgson, O'Dell, Kullai, and Ravi. Elder O'Dell and Singh share an apartment with the Assistants, Elders Mills and Ravi. We don't know whether or not Elders Mills and Ravi knew about the cinnamon buns that they didn't get. But, no worries: we will make sure they get a cinnamon bun on Monday.

This is an interesting picture. Earlier that day we saw men working in a huge hole in the road. On our way back to our apartment, we saw that it had been mostly filled in. To warn drivers of the unsafe conditions of the road in that spot, they erected a barricade. This is a typical barricade that is used to warn drivers of a large hole. Sometimes, they simply put a bunch of rocks in front of the hole. This is very different from what we see back home.




This is Sister Tiefenbach in her new Indian dress ready to go to church this morning. It has a pair of "pants" that go with it, but because she is a missionary, she did not wear them. Several people at church inquired as to why she was not wearing the pants. She enlightened them about the dress code for missionaries. She told them that girl missionaries are not allowed to wear pants. (I suppose that is not EXACTLY true because we wear them if we are on an outing where a dress or skirt would not be the most practical.) But, we definitely cannot wear pants to church. She thinks it looks great as a dress (or as people here would say, "gown"). Elder Tiefenbach thinks she looks like a royal princess!

We have enjoyed sharing our Royal Tour with you and hope you have been able to experience to some degree the things we have seen. We are thankful for the great experiences we are having in India working with so many wonderful people. We are here because of the prayer the young Joseph Smith offered in a grove of trees inquiring of our Heavenly Father about which church to join. In answer to his earnest prayer, Joseph Smith said, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me . . .  When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other - This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"