{"id":29637,"date":"2025-05-17T00:01:47","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T07:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=29637"},"modified":"2025-05-01T07:08:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T14:08:29","slug":"india-2025-karni-mata-temple-the-rat-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/05\/17\/india-2025-karni-mata-temple-the-rat-temple\/","title":{"rendered":"India 2025: Karni Mata Temple (the Rat Temple)"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Mike Huber<\/h6>\n

India Part IX<\/p>\n

After ensuring we didn\u2019t have any tails on us from our highway escapades, it was a short turnaround at the hotel before a visit to a temple in Deshnoke. I had heard much about this temple over the years and really wasn\u2019t sure what to expect.\u00a0 What was urban legend and what was actually the truth surrounding this strange place? This temple was named the Karni Mata Temple, or as it is better known, the Rat Temple.<\/p>\n

\"\" Well, it turns out this temple is everything I imagined it would be, but actually experiencing it was something for which none of us were prepared. Karni Mata is a Hindu Temple that believes rats are the reincarnated souls of a local story teller family that died during a famine.\u00a0 The rats are everywhere.\u00a0 There are just thousands all over and they are fed quite well.\u00a0 There are even several troughs for them to eat out from, and donations of grains and milk are frequently left to appease these local deities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

To add to the cringe factor, you must remove your shoes to enter the temple. As we removed our shoes and began our walk down the long hallways, out of the corner of my eye I would see things scurrying from left to right, and then right to left, and then just everywhere.\u00a0 After entering the temple, there are several long hallways with raised troughs that the rats climb up to eat grains and seeds. Every corner we cautiously walked around we would just see more and more rats. Surreal doesn\u2019t begin to describe the place. The rats are so well fed, however, that when walking around the other parts of the city there wasn\u2019t a rat to be seen. It seems they all stay in the temple.\u00a0 With such an abundance of food, why not? This didn\u2019t help us get to sleep any easier, though, as our hotel was across the street from the temple.<\/p>\n

We weren’t getting nearly as much sleep as we wanted (due to the temple\u2019s close proximity) and we were anxious to get out of town and put as many kilometers between us and the rats as possible.\u00a0 Nonetheless, the temple was an experience to be had that few people get the opportunity to embrace.<\/p>\n

Our next stop would be Amritsar, including a special trip to the Pakistan\/India Border Closing Ceremony and the famous Golden Palace. This would prove to be one of our more adventurous days in India, in more ways than one.<\/p>\n

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