The Monkey Master at Galta Temple.

Today I woke up and at 9 o'clock in the morning we all went in a 3 wheeled taxi with Dilip to a monkey temple that we saw on The Discovery Channel. Funny enough the man that was in the documentary was there to show us around. He was a friend of Dilip’s. We walked about 15 metres, when we saw around 30 black faced monkeys all different shapes and sizes.

The man’s name was Kunnar, but everyone calls him ‘The Monkey Man’ or ‘The Monkey Master’. He showed us how to feed the monkeys peanuts. You hold the peanut a bit tight, but not too tight otherwise it could bite you or scratch you. Then you feed to their mouths, or give it to them in their hands. There was one really old, gentle monkey who never got in fights with other monkeys. He was one of my favourite monkeys. My other favourite monkeys were the babies, because they were definitely the cutest. They would hide behind their mummies then the mums would sometimes push them forward to go get the peanut. They also have the cutest faces especially with their enormous ears.

Galta Temple is really ancient. It is about 400 to 600 years old. There is 1 temple that is 600 years old and it was torn to bits, it was just a pile of bricks with all the doors and roof and some of the sides smashed off. The old temple was facing the east. As you walk up the hill there are 3 pools. The first pool had ladies in pretty saris that wash their clothes in there and monkeys drinking from it. At the second pool there were kids running along a wall and jumping into the water. The third pool was a square shape with stairs all the way around going down to the water. Everyone is really kind to the monkeys here and let them do whatever they like because the people believe they are from Hanuman -The Monkey God who is like Shiva's best friend.

The monkeys were always running up and down the stairs for a drink of water. Kunnar took us all the way to the Sun Temple at the top of the mountain. It was a long walk and I was really hot. At the top we could see right over the city of Jaipur and watch the naughty monkeys below running on top of the houses and going inside to steal food.  I would like to watch the documentary again to see the places I have been.


The Sun Temple for Surya



At the top, mum met a man from Nepal who had come here to pray and learn.

National Geographic Documentary Series “Monkey Thieves”
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