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72 JAINS TODAY IN THE WORLD
beautiful ornamental details of these sanctuaries and the minutely carved decoration of their ceilings, of their pillars, of their doors, of their walls and of their niches, are simply marvellous! The work of the marble of these temples, translucent, thin like a shell, surpasses all seen elsewhere; some designs are true dreams of beauty".
To permit the readers of this book to have an idea of the number of these masterpieces, to find and visit them more easily and to admire them as connoisseurs, we give in this chapter a list of the most representative ones in India and abroad. It would be quite impossible to cite all those in India; they are so numerous! Thousands of cavetemples, temples, chapels and sacred places exist here that are part of the Jain religious heritage. We have been obliged to make a difficult choice, among that great richness, may tourists have the pleasure to discover many others on their travels!
Nevertheless, we must advise the readers that, to visit a Jain temple, non-Jains must be often accompanied by an adept. Furthermore, they have the imperative obligation to leave their shoes outside, and to not wear garments, bags, belts, sashes in natural leather, fur, skin or silk to respect the absolute principle of nonviolence towards animals. They also have to seek permission to take photos inside temples.
With regard to these sanctuaries, let us recall the Jain tradition according to their construction dates back to Emperor Bharata who would have built the first one in honour of his father Rṣabha.
To temples, we must add many Jain sacred places (tīrtha-kṣetra) where devotees who desire absolutely never to be reborn in our world (called: mumukṣu) must go often on pilgrimages (yātrā) and at least once in their life. Some of these places called "kalyāṇaka-kṣetra" are associated to the memory of auspicious events in Tirthankara's life,
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