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The Royal Gaitor Tumbas are beautifully serene, set in a quiet locale, far from the bustling crowds. They were so quiet and bereft of people, that I felt a bit scared because we were two women, with a child, wandering through the Tumbas. The buildings are so beautiful, that one forgets that these were the places where the royals of Jaipur were cremated. The tombs marking the death of children was quite poignant. One can hear the calls of peacocks from the surrounding hills and see the walls of the fort. It is well worth a visit, but I recommend going with a tour operator, rather than on your own. There is an entry fee, but you don't get any ticket- so you know who is pocketing the money! Also there is Shiv temple inside, and we were asked to visit by an old person, who was also shooing away donkeys that had strayed inside. We didn't and given the interest of this person and a younger one in us (probably for tips or donations), we chose not to go deeper into the Gaitor Tumbas either.But still, I regard it as an enriching visit.…
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Date of experience: July 2019
2 Helpful votes
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Extremely eerie how this area is so tranquil, to a point I actually hearing birds chirping in India for the first time. Standing in the garden area feeling the warm breeze while listening to the amazing sounds of all different kinds of wildlife was so peaceful. I came here to show respect to Maharaja Jai Singh and Gayatri Devi.…
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Date of experience: March 2020
3 Helpful votes
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This was a little gem, having come down from the Nahagarh Fort right above we were looking for something to while away 30 mins before lunch and took a punt on this as recommended by the guide books. It was really lovely, the cremation pavilions are beautifully carved and the whole site was clean and tidy and virtually empty. Entrance fee was about 20pence…
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Date of experience: January 2020
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My favourite place in Jaipur. We went at 10.30 in morning. It was so beautiful I can’t believe it. Very few people here, easy to take pictures without others spoiling them. Peaceful place surrounded by hills and fresh air. Also walk the stairs next to this location to the temple for some exercise and good views of Jaipur. …
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Date of experience: January 2020
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This place, which in my opinion has an extraordinary charm, can be read as a site of concentration of funerary architectural practices also widespread outside Rajasthan, but which find here one of their highlights, thanks also to the pleasantness and relative loneliness of the place. The key to the complex is the architectural element, widespread in early modern Indian architecture, called "chatri" or "chhatri", basically a circular, square or polygonal canopy, supported by columns, which in turn are present in different numbers (starting from from a minimum of four) and shape. Here it is presented in particularly elaborate and sumptuous forms. The chatri are also present without reference to funeral memories: those who visit the Mughal monuments of Agra or Fatehpur Sikri will remember them standing at the corners of large buildings, which is intended to further ennoble by this decoration. How were the chatri interpreted in Rajasthan? Melia Belli Bose, a scholar of the University of Victoria (BC, Canada), in her book "Royal Umbrellas of Stone: Memory, Politics, and Public Identity in Rajput Funerary Art" (2015), states among other things that gradually "Rajput rulers came into contact with the Indo-Islamic courts and understood the legitimizing messages their tombs conveyed", so they adapted the pre-existing element of the "chatri" for the purpose. This practice, extended not only to the dead rajahs, but to all noble persons, causes Rajasthan to be dotted with funeral chatri. But I doubt that such a large set of equally ornate chatri exists elsewhere; and therefore there is another ensemble so scenic that it can be compared to this. These chatri are designated as "cenotaphs", that is, empty tombs, due to the fact that funeral practices provided for cremation, so there is no corpse to be stored. This would not in principle prevent the ashes of the deceased from being stored under or near the chatri; but I don't know if this happened in the case of the Royal Gaitor. Overall, this seems to me an evocative place of the personality of Jaipur and its territory, in the same way as other, much more visited, attractions.…
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Date of experience: August 2019
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