The Ekadanta Kulam gave its report today. Saravananathaswami continues to work on communication relating to Bodhinatha’s travels and also mentioned up-and-coming task forcers and pre-monastic activities from young men here and there. Sadhaka Dandapani continues on preparations for the open house.

We’ve been having some spectacular dry sunny weather…. everything is blooming and visitors are amazed. Today one said “My wife and I visited every single famous garden on Kauai and paid to get into them all. But here… it’s more beautiful than any of them!”

The plant lies dormant for months and then starts growing several inches a day… stay tuned.

Tandu Sivanathan, Deva Rajan, Deva Seyon, Kanda Alahan are joined today by Isani Alahan, Lila Shaktidevi and Shama Kumaran for gold leafing.

The work is going very fast. The entire stone is almost done.

Nearby, the silpis are working on the lower levels of that same Chinna gopuram.

All the fitting is carefully tested and adjusted at ground level first.

Pillars of Iraivan.

Shanmuga Sthapati, who is usually supervising, shows off some of his deep knowledge and skill by working on some ornamentations from “scratch”…

Back at the gilding station. The key seems to be to come back at exactly the right time, when the sizing has dried to just the perfect tack… no too wet and not too dry… and then you can apply the gold quickly and get excellent coverage without a lot of waste.

Deva Rajan demonstrates to Silpi helper Kumar how the work is done…

Though Kumar knows very little English, he got the idea right away.

It is such a joy to work on the temple… it looks like they are almost done and will have completed the whole job in two days!