February 17, 2025

Official Monkey Business: A Jaipur Temple Experience

Today, I took my personal day off from work and chose to be in Jaipur with 17 of my closest friends. This city has always been famous to me; I’ve heard little stories here and there. I found a skirt in Bengaluru that has a Jaipur style. A few months ago, I thrifted a pair of earrings in Seattle just because they looked cool and were meant as a gift for my sibling. The strangest thing? These turned out to be Jhumka earrings, an Indian style, so I saw them everywhere in Jaipur.

Most importantly, I had heard about the Monkey Temple in Jaipur. Of course, this immediately topped my bucket list after I saw a video of a monkey climbing around on someone’s head. I love monkeys, but I respect and fear them more. My visions of monkeys range from petty theft to targeted mischief. Honestly, I do not trust them.

The entry to Galta Ji, the temple complex that houses the Monkey Temple, included a long, winding road up a mountain. From the top, there was a panoramic view of the Sun Temple. Cobblestone paths led us down the hilltop into a valley housing six more temples. The nickname of the Monkey Temple comes from both the abundance of monkeys and its dedication to the Hindu monkey god, Hanuman.

Here, there were steppe wells, sacred water tanks, and most importantly, two types of monkeys. Gray Langurs hung around the outskirts in the trees, while Rhesus Macaques came down to collect the groundnuts we had bought at the main gate. These monkeys were friendly and only once did one attempt to unzip my bag, and the hair-pulling was probably just their version of affection. They climbed on my head, on my skirt, and from visitor to visitor, from rails to stairs, and back again when someone offered a chunk of banana.

Exploring the temples, my friends and I were adorned in yellow and orange. A double bindi opened our third eye, and a string was tied around our wrists. This thread was a Raksha Bandhan, and it is considered auspicious to wear until it falls off. My favorite part? The purification ritual via peacock feather pats to the head. This was so unexpected it made us giggle, despite ourselves.

This was the most peaceful I’ve felt in a while. It’s a beautiful thing to be surrounded by mountains that you can spot from so far away in the city. There was a serene quiet throughout the valley, with more monkeys than people, just as it should be.

By,
Kelsey