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The #RathaJatra festival is being celebrated at the Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha today. For those who want to learn more about the temple's heritage and how it functions, @GrassRoutesJnys conducts an insightful immersive tour of the Old City around it: grassroutesjourneys.com/html/tour_puri… 
One of the highlights is visiting the potters colony, which provides about 15,000 new clay pots to the temple every day. They're used for cooking the 56 different dishes that are offered as holy food to the deity and later sold to devotees as mahaprasad.
Men carry the pots of all sizes to the temple in baskets on their heads. They walk barefooted for purity. It's an astonishing and captivating sight. The men must be so strong!
The temple requires piles of firewood for cooking as well.
The tour also goes behind the scenes to visit makers of khajar, a super sweet fried pastry snack that's popularly sold in the vicinity of the temple.
They churn out 500-600 pieces of khajar in an hour!
Images of beloved Lord Jagannath are everywhere. An incarnation of Lord Vishnu, he’s regarded as the lord of the universe and is widely worshiped in Odisha.
There are also many smaller temples and monasteries around the Jagannath Temple.
Devotees and vendors add interest as well. There’s so much going on!
Here’s more about the Jagannath Temple in Puri and how to visit it: tripsavvy.com/puri-jagannath…
You can read more about the Ratha Jatra festival here: tripsavvy.com/puri-rath-yatr…
