A few weekends ago our "cohort" had the opportunity to travel to Tiruvannamalai, a temple town and pilgrimage site about three hours northwest from Auroville.  We stopped for breakfast at Gingee and viewed Mughul hill forts, which date back to the Chola dynasty in 9th century AD.  During our 2 1/2 days at Tiru, we ...

- Walked 13km around the sacred Arunachula Mountain, considered to be the body of Shiva;

- Visited Sri Ramanamaharshi's Ashram & walked to a cave where he meditated for 23 years;

- We also had lunch at the ashram and talked with Michael, a monk originally from Texas;

- That afternoon, we visited Arunachaleeswarar Temple, the largest Shiva temple in India;

- The next morning, the students and I climbed for 2 hours to the summit of Arunachula;

- We also ate in some amazing restaurants and had time to relax and walk around.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend. You can watch a short video of our climb up the mountain at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Budguxai_a8.