Breakfast and full day visit to our last market, the Friday Kunduli Market in Koroput and a scheduled stop at Kotapada Weaving Village. However, since we’d already seen one weaving village, ex-Marine and I decided to eliminate it from today’s sights and Bibhu substituted a Paraja pottery village instead along with a short stop at Jagganath Temple in Koroput.

Experiencing different religions, meeting people and trying different foods is what makes travel exciting. Bibhu is a devout Hindu (the main religion of India) and did his best to fill our heads with religious knowledge but with thousands of Hindu gods and goddesses along with different beliefs and concepts, we were forever getting lost in a Hindu maze. The Jagganath Temple in Koroput (a new temple) was interesting though with the main highlight, sitting on the steps before the Goddess of Wealth. She would be highly offended if we didn’t, and in these terrible financial times, certainly didn’t want to give any offense or what remains of our money might be gone! The priest blessed us and we moved on to the Kunduli Friday Market.

Jagganath Temple deities, India
TIP: Wear sandals. You are forever putting shoes on and off throughout India.

The only 65 km/40 mile ride took at least two hours, never doing more than 20 mph on the rough roads. The Friday Kunduli Market is the largest in Orissa, big and colorful but a major disappointment after the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday tribal markets. If you are visiting Orissa, I’m going to bet you’ve seen many markets like Kunduli and in hindsight only, this entire day could have easily been eliminated from the Orissa itinerary. Nonetheless, there were still things to see, and people to watch. Climbing up on jeep roofs with purchases…View image, a section selling drums, two goats riding in a jeep, grinding sugar cane to drink…View image…

drums for sale at Kunduli Market, India 

two goats riding in luxury instead of walking, India
…pots of of alcohol (palm wine, Mahuli, rice wine) for sale by women in Kunduli…View image, a livestock section…View image, and bright shiny bangles…View image.

rows of aluminum pots filled with home brewed alcohol at Kunduli, India 

intent on picking on bangle bracelets at Kunduli Market, India 

Off to a Paraja village, common in the Koraput District. The Parajas have a number of totemistic sects like tiger, goat and harming or eating the totem animal is forbidden. They also worship various gods and goddesses residing in hills or forests. The Paraja Terra Cotta village was occupied by 500-600 people, all involved in making pottery. The pots spend a day in the shade to keep from cracking before being moved to full sun where they dry for 2-3 more days. After that, they are placed in a fire made of cow dung and grass where they remain for another 2-3 days. We watched the potters…View image… working on a big order for a gardening company before heading back to Jeypore for one last night. With this, the markets of Orissa were completely finished but there were other interesting sights to see…

tieing up terra cotta pots for travel in Paraja Village, India
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