Odisha Tour - Tribes And Temples (Hidden Treasures of India)

Arrival at the airport in Delhi, meeting with our staff representative and transfer to the hotel. Overnight.

Transfer to the airport and flight to Bhubaneswar. Arrive, assistance and transfer to the hotel. Later visit the capital city of Odisha, once the capital of the Kalinga empire. Visit some of the medieval temples (among the 500 temples around the sacred Bindu Sagar lake).

Pass through the Lingaraja Temple (it can only be visited externally), 54 meters high and dedicated to Tribhuvaneswar (the Lord of the three worlds) and surrounded by more than 50 temples and minorshrines.

Also visit Mukteswar Temple, which dates back from the 10th century, with refined and elaborate decorations that denote a mixture of Buddhist, Jain and Hindu styles. Finally visit Parsurameswartemple, dedicated to Shiva, built in the seventh century. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

Breakfast in the hotel and visit the city of Bhubaneswar. The Rajarani Temple is striking for the elegance of its sculptures with a series of nymphs of amazing sensuality. Viist the Hindu and Jain caves of Khandagiri and Udaigiri, located about 5 Km from Bhubaneswar, and the Tribal museum, which showcases the culture and traditions of the tribes of Orissa. Dinner and overnight.

Drive to Puri, one of the 4 important pilgrimage centres for Hindus, also known for the Rath Yatra Festival. Along the way, stop in Konark to visit the famous Sun Temple, a wonder of Hindu religious art. Arrive in Puri and take a walking tour around the famous Shri Jagannath temple ("lord of the world") built in the12th century, boasting a 65-meter high tower. Only Hindus can visit the temple from inside. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

After breakfast, drive to Gopalpur. Enroute stop at the fisherman’s village at Mangalajodi, located on Chilka lake, known for birds watchers. We are in one of India's most fascinating landscape sceneries, including land, sea, lagoons, canals and lakes, where a people of peasant-fishermen lives on plots of land and water.

Continue southwest through rural landscapes and traditional Hindu villages along the Chilika lake, an extensive lagoon coast of India separated from the Bay of Bengal from a 60 km long strip of sand. Finally we arrive in Gopalpur, where you can enjoy the sunset on the beach. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

After breakfast departure for Baliguda. The tribal area of Orissa starts here. Here you may see the Malliah Kondh tribes. In the afternoon excursion to the Malliah Kondh villages, tribes famous for the tattoo-faced women, where you can see the drawings that represent the snout of the tiger. Dinner and overnight at the hotel. 

After breakfast, visit the other nearby villages of the Malliah Kondh and continue to Bisamkatak to visit the villages inhabited by the Desia Kondh tribes. These tribes used to do human sacrifices, but now they replaced the ritual with animal sacrifices on special occasions only. Continue to Rayagada. Arrival, dinner and overnight.