East 2015 & 2016

m a rt i n r a n d a l l t r av e l

EAST

2015 & 2016

China Japan India ◆

◆

The Middle East, North Africa & Central Asia

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Voysey House, Barley Mow Passage, London, UK, W4 4GF Telephone 020 8742 3355 Fax 020 8742 7766 info@martinrandall.co.uk Australia: telephone 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand: telephone 0800 877 622 anz@martinrandall.com.au Canada: telephone 647 382 1644 canada@martinrandall.ca USA: telephone 1 800 988 6168

www.martinrandall.com 5085

EAST 2015 & 2016 China Essential China China’s Silk Road Cities Chinese Ceramics Sacred China The Arts in China Ming & Qing Civilization

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Japan Art in Japan

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India Essential India Mughals & Rajputs Bengal by River Gastronomic Kerala Architecture of the British Raj Sacred India Indian Summer Temples of Tamil Nadu

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Middle East, North Africa & Central Asia

33–35

Further practical information 36 Booking form 37–38 Booking details & conditions 39

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Martin Randall Travel Britain’s leading provider of cultural tours Our aim: the finest cultural & historical tours Founded in 1988, Martin Randall Travel is Britain’s leading specialist in cultural tours and one of the most respected specialist travel companies in the world.

Our aim is to create the most enjoyable and memorable cultural tours available – the best designed, the best led, the most informative and illuminating.

In large ways and small, we lift the experience for our clients above standards which are regarded as normal for tourists.

As the number of tours has increased, so has our geographical reach. Our eastward expansion has been such that we now need an additional brochure. Welcome to MRT East.

Learn from leading experts All the tours are accompanied by expert lecturers – academics, writers, curators, broadcasters and researchers. They are selected not only for their knowledge but also for their ability to communicate their learning in ways that are engaging and stimulating. They are also good travelling companions.

Nearly all the tours are also accompanied by a trained tour manager – someone from our office or one of a number of freelance professionals who work for us regularly.

National guides also make a large contribution. We try to select the best available and give them guidance and instruction concerning the special nature of our clients.

Directors: Martin Randall (Chief Executive); Fiona Urquhart (Chief Operating Officer); Sir Vernon Ellis (Chairman), Ian Hutchinson; Neil Taylor, William Burton

Innovative itineraries, meticulously planned MRT is famed for the superb quality of its itineraries – original, imaginative, meticulously planned and considerate.

They rest on the bedrock of relentless attention to detail, and are the fruits of deep knowledge of the destination and its culture.

Special arrangements for admission to places not generally open to travellers and less visited, more out-of-the-way places are features of nearly all the tours.

There are a number of things we do differently which distinguish our tours from both mainstream and specialist alternatives.

Registered office: Voysey House, Barley Mow Passage, London W4 4GF Registered Company no. 2314294 England.

VAT no. 527758803

Do less, see more Our tours have a full programme of visits, but we are careful not to cram too much into the day. More time is spent in places than on conventional tours, allowing opportunity to explore more thoroughly and assimilate at leisure.

We strive to avert the overload and exhaustion which frequently characterises travelling in long-haul destinations. There are few early starts, and one-night stays are rare. Less time is spent travelling than is the norm.

Front cover: ‘Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake’ from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Hiroshige (1797–1858). Left: lithograph c. 1850 (India, exact location unknown). Above: a tea house in Shanghai, watercolour by Mortimer Menpes in World Pictures, publ. 1912.

This brochure was written chiefly by Martin Randall with contributions from Edward Lewis, Sarah Pullen, Samantha Walls and Hannah Wrigley.

It was designed in house by Jo Murray.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Travelling in comfort All the hotels we have selected are comfortable, many are luxurious. Usually they are the best in the vicinity. In remoter destinations the hotels may be relatively simple, but base-level criteria include cleanliness, en suite facilities and air conditioning.

Similarly we use the best and most modern coaches available. And when travelling by train, we book the highest class available. Nearly all intercontinental and domestic flights are day-time services.

Value for money, and no surcharges The price includes nearly everything, not only the major ingredients such as flights, hotels, transport and the tour leaders but also many lesser charges such as tips and drinks with meals.

We do not levy surcharges for fuel price increases, exchange rate changes, additional taxes or for any other reason.

We do not charge extra for payment by credit card. The price published in this brochure is the price you pay.

“I thought this was an absolutely wonderful tour, and am so grateful for the huge amount of care and planning.”

“From start to finish, from booking to conclusion, MRT has well exceeded high expectations.”

“We enjoyed every minute and were sorry that we had to come home.”

Participants on tours to Asia in 2014.

What is included?

Included in the price for every tour: •

The services of the lecturer, tour manager and national guides

•

Accommodation, as described in the brochure and on the website

•

All admission charges

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Travel by private coach, or by train

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Most lunches and dinners, with drinks

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Tips for restaurant staff, porters, drivers and guides

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All state and airport taxes

•

Return travel between London and the destination (optional)

Full details for each tour can also be found at www.martinrandall.com.

Further practical details about our tours

In addition to the information found in the ‘Practicalities’ under each tour description, guidance regarding visas for the countries covered in this brochure, our general fitness requirements, health and security, upgrading your flights, and more can be found on page 36.

Illustration: Senju Great Bridge from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Hiroshige (1797–1858).

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Essential China

A selection of the most celebrated sights

Section of The Great Wall north of Zhangjiakou, wood engraving from Le Tour du Monde 1864.

8–21 September 2015 (mc 452) This tour is currently full 20 October–2 November 2015 (mc 493) 14 days/ 12 nights • £5,870 Lecturer: Jon Cannon Planned as an introduction to China featuring many of China’s most fascinating places. Six unesco World Heritage Sites are included.

Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai: more time in these three main centres than on most tours, and a selection of small-town and rural sites.

Led by writer Jon Cannon, expert in Chinese classic architecture.

Itinerary Day 1: London to Beijing. Fly at 4.45pm from London Heathrow to Beijing (British Airways, c. 10 hours).

Day 2: Beijing. Arrive at Beijing Airport at c. 9.30am and drive to the hotel where rooms will be ready for rest before lunch. Visit the Capital Museum (in September), a striking modern building containing a selection of art and artefacts including wonderful ancient Buddhist statues and an exceptionally fine collection of porcelain or the Temple of Heaven complex (in October), where architecture and landscape design is masterful and harmonious.

First of four nights in Beijing.

Day 3: Beijing. The Forbidden City is at once enthralling and imposing; past the formidable walls and moat are vast courtyards punctuated with terraced pavilions, palaces and gardens.

Marble paving and bridges and finely-carved balustrades mark the imperial way along which lie three ceremonial halls; beyond these are the comparatively closeted living quarters. There is special access (subject to confirmation) to the Shufang Zhai, where banquets and operas were held. Afternoon visits include the 17th-cent.

Lama Temple, formerly an imperial residence before its conversion to a Buddhist place of worship, and a Confucian temple founded during the Yuan dynasty. Overnight Beijing.

Day 4: Greater Beijing. The Ming Tombs in countryside outside the city are the final resting place of 13 of the 16 Ming emperors.

The tomb of Emperor Yongle (1402–1424) consists of a 7-km Sacred Way flanked by stone animals and courtiers, a succession of courts with ceremonial gateways and a man-made hill concealing the tomb itself. Lunch by the Summer Palace, a peaceful setting popular with the emperors since the Jin, periodically enlarged and embellished; after its destruction in 1860 Empress Dowager Cixi expended vast sums in constructing her pleasure palace here.

Overnight Beijing.

Day 5: Jinshanling, Beijing. Morning excursion to a particularly spectacular (though relatively little visited) stretch of the Great Wall at Jinshanling. Walk along a section where it climbs and plunges over hilly terrain. Return to Beijing in the afternoon for some free time.

Overnight Beijing.

Day 6: Beijing, Xi’an. The massive National Museum in Tiananmen Square has superb collections of early Chinese artefacts, Zhou bronzes, painting and the whole range of porcelain from Tang (ad 618–907) to Qing (ended 1911). Fly in the afternoon (Air China) to Xi’an. First of four nights in Xi’an.

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For the average westerner, learning about China’s past is a progressively more astonishing journey, and a humbling one. Much that we regard as constituting the fundamentals of civilization were prevalent in China two or even three millennia ago: skills artistic and technological, laws and governance humane and commonsensical, mastery of the arts of war and the arts of peace, building and engineering projects of staggering magnitude, and the possibility, for some, of a life devoted to the pursuit of beauty and intellectual refinement.

And then there is the fascination of presentday China, likely soon to be the world’s largest economy and destined to have an impact on all of our lives.

The most important Chinese capitals have always been in the north. Xi’an is where the imperial story began, and for centuries it was the capital of the great empire in the east, hosting the grandiose designs of the first emperor with his terracotta warriors and later anchoring one end of the Silk Road.

Beijing has been the grandest city on the planet for much of the past 800 years since Khubilai Khan made it the capital of his China-centric empire. When the Mongols were

finally expelled by the Chinese Ming dynasty, Beijing soon became the most perfectly planned cosmological capital, one that would serve the Ming and Manchurian Qing dynasties for over 500 years.

Hangzhou brings us to the lands of rice and fish, where the climate is gentle and the land generous. The Yangtse Valley breadbasket first supported numerous northern governments and later bestowed its cultural riches and leisure activities throughout the entire empire. Marco Polo was enchanted by the grace and charm of Hangzhou, and in the surrounding hills monks developed some of the finest tea plantations in China. Hangzhou lives on today as a locus of relaxation and culture with profound cultural resonances for the Chinese.

Shanghai, by contrast, is a law unto itself: originally a small fishing village, it began its rise with the foreign settlements that followed the first opium war in the mid-nineteenth century.

A capitalist machine, it has also been the home of much political radicalism and was where the Chinese Communist Party came into being.

These sometime conflicting and irreconcilable roles give Shanghai a vibrancy and timbre like no other Chinese city.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Essential China continued

Jon Cannon Writer, lecturer and broadcaster, he is a specialist in historic religious architecture. He has travelled regularly and widely in China since 1984, and is married to the Chinese author Liu Hong. A former member of the editorial committee at China Now magazine, he has published pieces on China in the London Review of Books and covered the country’s places of worship in his recent Secret Language of Sacred Spaces.

Day 7: Xi’an. Full day excursion east and north of the city. The tomb of the first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, is yet to be excavated but his legacy was secured in 1974 when farmers digging a well discovered his terracotta army of infantry, cavalry and civil servants. There may be 20,000 of them, over 1.5 metres tall;

only a relatively small part of the site has been uncovered, but it is nevertheless one of the most spectacular archaeological finds of all time. The pottery warriors at the later tomb of the fourth Han emperor, Liu Qi, display striking attention to detail; some eunuch figures have been found here, providing the earliest known evidence of this phenomenon in China. Overnight Xi’an.

Day 8: Xi’an. The Shaanxi History Museum explains the history and culture of the province, the heartland of ancient Chinese civilisation.

The Beilin Museum displays a collection of stone stelae, engraved with classic texts and masterpieces of calligraphy, and a fine collection of Buddhist statues. The day ends with a walk through the winding streets of the city’s Muslim Quarter. The Great Mosque, one of the largest in China, was originally built in ad 742 although the present fabric dates from the Qing Dynasty.

Overnight Xi’an.

Day 9: Luoyang. Day trip by high-speed train to Luoyang to see the Longmen Caves, an extraordinary collection of statuary carved into the hillside that runs along the western bank of

20th-century Chinese woodcut.

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the Yi River. Begun by the Buddhist Northern Wei rulers (ad 386–534) and added to during the later Sui and Tang dynasties. There are over 100,000 statues clustered in 2,000 caves and crevices. Overnight Xi’an.

Day 10: Xi’an, Hangzhou. Adjacent to the hotel stands the Great Goose Pagoda, first built in ad 452 for the monk Xuanzang to house the sutra he brought back from his pilgrimage to India.

Fly to Hangzhou (Hainan Airlines), capital of the Southern Song Dynasty 1138–1279. First of two nights in Hangzhou.

Day 11: Hangzhou. Start the day at the Lingyin Temple, one of China’s largest though now much reduced. Just outside the complex are dozens of Buddhist sculptures carved into the rock face, many dating back to the 10th century.

Drive out of the city to Longjing (Dragon Well) Village, source of one of China’s most famous varieties of green tea. The scenic tranquillity of the West Lake has been immortalised by countless poets and painters over the centuries.

Overnight Hangzhou.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

China’s Silk Road Cities Through Shaanxi, Gansu & Xinjiang Day 12: Hangzhou to Shanghai. By train to Shanghai (luggage is sent separately by van).

For its density, vibrancy and extent, both horizontal and vertical, Shanghai is the city of cities. Despite frenetic building activity (the world’s tallest building will reach completion here in 2015) enclaves of low-rise structures remain in the centre, though there is little here that is more than a hundred years old. Visit the Shanghai Museum, outstanding for porcelain, jade, furniture and, in particular, Shang and Zhou bronzes. Overnight Shanghai.

Day 13: Shanghai. Walk along the Bund, Shanghai’s iconic riverside stretch of Art Deco and Neoclassical buildings, symbolic of the city’s burgeoning wealth in the 1920s and 1930s.

See also the city’s finest traditional garden.

The Long Museum showcases an enormous private collection of Chinese art in a variety of media, Northern Song to Qing, Communist era and modern – China is a world leader for contemporary art. Overnight Shanghai.

Day 14: Shanghai to London. Fly at 11.00am from Shanghai to London, arriving at c. 4.30pm (c. 12.5 hours).

Practicalities Price: £5,870 (deposit £500). Single supplement £790 (double room for single occupancy). Price without international flights £5,060.

Included meals: ten lunches and seven dinners with wine.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Visas: see page 36.

Accommodation. Waldorf Astoria, Beijing (waldorfastoria.hilton.com): recently-opened, 5-star luxury hotel in the city centre. Westin Hotel, Xi’an (starwoodhotels.com/westin): modern, comfortable and well-run 4-star hotel, located in the south of the city. Sofitel West Lake Hotel, Hangzhou (sofitel.com): 4-star hotel, located on the east side of the West Lake (rooms do not have lake views). Yangtze Boutique Hotel, Shanghai (theyangtzehotel.com): 4-star, Art Deco hotel ideally situated close to the Shanghai Museum.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Autumn 2016 Lecturer: Dr Jamie Greenbaum Contact us to register your interest In the second century bc, imperial envoy Zhang Qian was sent on a mission to the West, beyond the outer limits of ancient China, to obtain some of the legendary Ferghana horses for Han emperor Wudi’s cavalry. On the equine front the mission was a failure, but Zhang Qian returned to Chang’nan (today’s Xi’an) with stories of the riches he saw and this soon led to the development of trade between China and the alien world beyond its western frontier.

Myriad commodities – as well as religious beliefs and cultural attitudes – traversed the land from China, through Central Asia and Persia to the Mediterranean. The formidable

Dr Jamie Greenbaum Historian specialising in Ming dynasty cultural history. He is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Culture, History & Language at the Australian National University and lectures at the Renmin University, Beijing. He has published books on the late-Ming literary world and the early twentieth-century political figure Qu Qiubai.

Taklamakan Desert, an arid wasteland of shifting sand dunes, posed one of the biggest threats to travellers, who skirted its northern and southern edges, finding respite in the many thriving oasis towns.

The instability brought about by the fall of empires and by the establishment of sea routes saw the decline of these trading corridors and the region disappeared into obscurity until the end of the nineteenth century, when tales of lost cities filled with treasure drew foreign explorers into an international race of rediscovery.

Today, evocative ruins, chaotic markets and Buddhist cave paintings remain to be seen, while the museums are filled with the many artefacts and mummified remains unearthed along the route. Despite relentless modernisation cities such as Kashgar retain their ancient charm, while the enormity of these perilous journeys is conveyed by sight of the vast expanses of landscape that make up China’s last great wilderness.

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How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard.

There are some long coach journeys during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Average distance by coach per day: 48 miles.

Above: Beijing, gardens of the Imperial Palace, steel engraving c. 1840. Below: ‘On the way to market’, watercolour by Mortimer Menpes from China 1909.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Chinese Ceramics

Collections, kiln sites & trade routes in China & Taiwan 18–28 April 2015 (mb 292) 11 days/ 9 nights • £4,430 Lecturer: Dr Lars Tharp

Chinese porcelain, engraving from The Magazine of Art 1882

This tour is currently full. Contact us to register your interest in other future departures or to join the waiting list.

Includes the world’s greatest collection of Chinese art, the National Palace Museum in Taiwan.

Led by cultural historian and ceramics specialist Lars Tharp, author, film-maker and broadcaster.

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Chinese porcelain has been called the first globally traded luxury. For centuries its magical whiteness and translucency, its vibrant blues and later its gorgeous colour painting held princes and aesthetes in its spell.

It was not until a whole millennium after its emergence in China that the secret of its manufacture was discovered in Europe in the early eighteenth century.

In ad 1004 the reigning Song emperor conferred his name upon the porcelain-making city of Chang-Nan, later known as Jingdezhen.

It supplied the imperial household in Beijing, transporting its wares along the Yangtze and the Grand Canal, while other river and laborious overland routes were established to fulfil orders from Persia and later from foreign merchants in Java, Macao and Shanghai. To this day Jingdezhen continues as a major centre for ceramic production with a happy co-existence of ancient traditions and modern processes.

The journey from Jingdezhen to Hangzhou passes ancient villages nestling in landscapes first revealed to Europeans in depictions on vases and tea services. The Southern Song capital of Hangzhou is the southern terminus of China’s – and one of the world’s – greatest civil engineering achievements, the Grand Canal. Begun in ad 612 it ran north-west to Beijing via Luoyang.

Across the straits in Taipei, capital of Taiwan, the fabled imperial treasures are on display at the National Palace Museum.

Amassed over centuries by the emperorcollectors of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it is the world’s finest collection of Chinese art. In 1949, as the war between Nationalist and Communist forces neared its conclusion, Chiang Kai-shek ordered that the collection be shipped to Taiwan to prevent the treasure falling into the hands of the victorious Communists. There it remains, a collection so large that the NPM rotates 3000 of its exhibits every three months.

For the devotee of Chinese porcelain this

Day 1: London to Shanghai. Fly at around noon from London Heathrow to Shanghai (British Airways, c. 11 hours).

Day 2: Shanghai. Arrive in Shanghai at c. 6.00am and drive to the hotel to rest and freshen up before lunch. A relatively young city by Chinese standards, Shanghai is now the nation’s largest and most dynamic. There is an afternoon walk along the Bund, the imposing and well preserved riverside stretch of Art Deco and Neoclassical buildings from the period when Shanghai was one of the world’s greatest financial centres. Overnight Shanghai.

A celebration of Chinese porcelain, a sweep through China’s material culture and landscapes.

Three nights in historic Jingdezhen, porcelain capital of the world.

Itinerary

tour provides a unique opportunity to study some of the finest examples in the context of its manufacture, trade, cultural framework and proximate landscapes. For the merely interested, it is likely to bequeath a lifelong capacity to delight in one of the world’s most intensely beautiful artforms.

‘The Oriental potter’s wheel and kiln’, engraving for a Chinese window design by W.B. Scott (1811–90).

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Day 3: Shanghai. The world-class Shanghai Museum is home to an extensive collection of masterpieces of Chinese arts from the Neolithic period to the Qing dynasty. The fabulous ceramics galleries offer a superb narrative foundation for the days ahead. There is time for independent exploration of the museum’s superb bronze, painting, jade and furniture collections. The 16th-century Yu Garden is visited in the afternoon, an excellent example of classical garden design. Overnight Shanghai.

Day 4: Jingdezhen. Fly (Shenzhen Airlines) to Jingdezhen. The National Porcelain Museum displays wares predominantly from the Song, Ming and Qing periods, as well as some of the finer creations produced since the establishment of the PRC in 1949. Traditional manufacture is demonstrated at the Ancient Kiln Complex.

Overnight Jingdezhen.

Days 5 & 6: Jingdezhen. Two days are spent in and around Jingdezhen. In these hills around lay the once secret resource of kaolin clay, which, when processed in the water-powered mills, formed the potters’ basic material. There are visits to the Porcelain Institute, a research centre for the development of production and decoration, and to the studios of working potters Felicity Aylieff and Takeshi Yasuda.

Overnight Jingdezhen.

Day 7: Jingdezhen to Hangzhou. Drive through the southern tip of Anhui province, dominated by spectacular mountain scenery, stopping for lunch in Shexian County (formerly Huizhou). Reach Hangzhou in time for supper.

Overnight Hangzhou.

Day 8: Hangzhou. The scenic tranquillity of the city’s West Lake has been immortalised by countless poets and painters over the centuries.

See the excavated imperial dragon-kiln site of Guan wares, one of China’s most treasured wares. Visit the Grand Canal Museum before crossing over the historic waterway into the neighbouring traditional village area.

Overnight Hangzhou.

Day 9: Hangzhou to Taipei. Fly at 9.30am (Air China) from Hangzhou to Taipei. After lunch visit the Confucius Temple, the only such temple in Taiwan with southern Fujian-style ceramic adornments. Overnight Taipei.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Sacred China

City palaces, mountain temples & desert grottoes Dr Lars Tharp A specialist in ceramics who appears regularly on BBC Antiques Roadshow.

He was Director of the Foundling Museum and is now its Hogarth Curator as well as vice-chairman of The Hogarth Trust. He is a member of the English Ceramics Circle and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Day 10: Taipei. Spend a full day at the National Palace Museum for a detailed study of its comprehensive ceramics collection. There is also time for independent exploration of the other, equally impressive, collections in the museum.

Overnight Taipei.

Day 11: Taipei to London. Fly at c. 10.45am (Cathay Pacific) from Taipei to London Heathrow via Hong Kong. Arrive at London Heathrow at 8.30pm.

Practicalities Price: £4,430 (deposit £400). Single supplement £510 (double room for single occupancy). Price without international flights £3,760.

Included meals: nine lunches and six dinners with wine.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Visas: see page 36.

Accommodation. Yangtze Boutique Hotel, Shanghai (theyangtzehotel.com): 4-star, Art Deco hotel ideally situated close to the Shanghai Museum. Zijing Hotel, Jingdezhen (jingdezhenhotels.com): the best hotel in town but décor is dated and service can be brusque. Sofitel West Lake Hotel, Hangzhou (sofitel.com): 4-star hotel located on the east side of the West Lake (rooms do not have lake views). Landis Hotel, Taipei (taipei.landishotelsresorts.com): centrally located, 4-star, Art Deco-style hotel.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Spring 2016 Lecturer: Jon Cannon Contact us to register your interest From ancient temples to sacred mountain tops, China’s religious heritage is unique.

Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism have all had a significant presence in the country for a millennium and more. The first three of these – two of which are indigenous to China – comprised the ‘three teachings’ supported by Imperial policy, and historically their influence reached into every aspect of Chinese daily life; the buildings, sculptures and artworks that result are astonishing. Indeed spiritual, artistic and architectural traditions developed by Chinese religious cultures spread throughout east Asia, and in spite of the vicissitudes of recent history remain alive to this day.

This tour starts in Beijing, which is still recognisably a sacred city laid out by the emperors on cosmological lines: indeed arguably the most significant example of that phenomenon in the world. Such structures as the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan), the Lama Temple and the Confucius Temple, all cornerstones of Imperial religious life and ritual, form a fitting introduction to the richness and variety of Chinese religion.

Highlights include the holy mountain of Wutaishan, where there is a significant Tibetan presence in the heart of traditional China, and a collection of ancient Buddhist temples packed with modern pilgrims. By

contrast the exquisite Foguang Temple (ad 857) stands in a beguilingly peaceful rural setting.

Here is one of the oldest wooden structures on the planet, its original sculpture and painted decoration astonishingly intact.

At Datong’s Yungang caves and the ancient desert monastery of Dunhuang, by contrast, the cosmopolitan roots of Chinese Buddhism took hold. The spread of this Indian faith across the country in the first centuries of the Common Era transformed China’s religious life and brought to the country its first permanent, stone religious building, the pagoda. There are fine examples of what is effectively an elongated and orientalised Buddhist stupa at Xi’an and Yingxian.

The architecture of the pagoda, as well as the great painted and sculpted caves and cliffs of our early Chinese Buddhist monasteries, are vivid reminders of this era of dramatic cultural change, their artistic styles still visibly infused with ideas from India, Central Asia and even the Classical West, all on the cusp of becoming something new and distinctively Chinese.

Chinese religious culture is at once precociously humanist and testimony to a society in which spirituality infused every aspect of daily life. In the course of this remarkable series of sites, we will come face to face with the exceptional achievements that resulted.

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How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard and the tour involves a lot of standing around in museums. There are two long coach journeys during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Average distance by coach per day: 55 miles.

Beijing, Confucius Temple, wood engraving from Le Tour du Monde 1864.

See page 6 for Jon Cannon’s biography.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

The Ar ts in China

Museums & private collections in eastern China & Taiwan Spring 2016 Lecturer: Konstanze Knittler Contact us to register your interest Art in China has developed over an immense span of time. From ancient times to the present day the country has created an immeasurable array of artistic expression which is manifested in ritual, pictorial and architectural traditions.

A prevailing feature has been the phenomenal mastery of the skills of making art and artefacts.

Trade and travel led to exposure to the culture of other regions – Japan, Korea, India, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe – and to the assimilation of designs and motifs that we, from today’s perspective, regard as inherently Chinese. In turn, Chinese forms and materials have had a great impact not only on other areas of the East but also on the art of Europe and the western world.

Crucial to the understanding of Chinese art history is that certain types of art and craft peaked in particular periods and had lesser importance in others. Hence we find (for example) that the production of ritual bronzes culminated in the early dynasties of the Shang and Zhou periods (c. 1600–256 bc), whereas pictorial art reached a first zenith only during the Tang dynasty (ad 618–907).

A vast number of objects were created specifically for use in tombs and consequently were buried for many centuries, only to be unearthed in more recent years. Since the discovery of imperial tombs in the twentieth century, scholarship has been transformed.

Laws limit the travel of these ancient artefacts, and some of the artworks are of a type and quality which cannot be seen outside of China.

In contrast with western hierarchies of art, where since the eighteenth century ‘fine art’ has been held in higher esteem, in China the ‘decorative arts’ enjoyed an extraordinarily high status. Excellence in craftsmanship was established early on, and imperial patronage was a major catalyst in the development of ceramics, jades and lacquer objects.

This tour has been designed to present and interpret the arts of China through exposure to the finest examples in many of the best collections in China and Taiwan. Aided by the commentary of the accompanying expert, Konstanze Knittler, it cannot fail to inculcate an intense appreciation of one of the world’s great artistic traditions.

The imperial Chinese holdings are viewed in the major museums in Beijing, China’s capital since the early Ming dynasty (ad 1420), and the National Palace Museum in Taipei,

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Dr Konstanze Knittler Specialist in Chinese art and ceramics and the British market for it in the 19th and 20th centuries. She acquired a postgraduate diploma from Sotheby’s Institute of Art. After a period in the commercial art market in Vienna, she was awarded a Leverhulme scholarship for doctoral studies at the University of Glasgow. She lectures at Sotheby’s Institute and has run short courses on Asian art. which houses the larger part of them following their evacuation during the Civil War. Other cities visited include Tianjin and Shanghai, where there is an increasing number of private museums.

Below left: examples of Chinese decoration from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, 1865.

Below from top: Chinese vase, from The Magazine of Art 1882; 20th-century Chinese woodcut.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Ming & Qing Civilization

The art, architecture & history of the culminating dynasties

Beijing, Summer Palace, steel engraving c. 1840.

5–17 May 2015 (mb 316) 13 days/ 11 nights • £4,780 Lecturer: Dr Rose Kerr Focuses on the five centuries when China reached its greatest extent, greatest unity and longest periods of peace.

Ruling from 1368 to 1911, the Ming and Qing dynasties bequeathed the most spectacular imperial buildings in China.

Porcelain, painting and garden design reached a peak of perfection; this tour sees many of the best surviving examples of all the arts.

Led by Dr Rose Kerr, leading sinologist and expert in Chinese porcelain. Former Keeper of the Far Eastern Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

he built there, the Forbidden City, has against the odds survived numerous vicissitudes and is one of the world’s most extensive and fascinating royal residences.

The last hundred years of Qing rule was a period of decline, of humiliation by foreign aggressors and of internal dissension. Glory sank into misrule and tragedy – and most of the twentieth century can be similarly characterised. In these circumstances it is perhaps surprising that much of aesthetic worth or delicacy survived at all, but plenty does, certainly enough to demonstrate that the era of the Ming and Qing dynasties constituted one of the great civilizations in world history.

Itinerary Day 1: London to Shanghai. Fly at midday from London Heathrow to Shanghai (British Airways, c. 11 hours).

Day 2: Suzhou. Arrive in Shanghai c. 6.00am.

Rooms are reserved in a nearby hotel for a few hours rest. After lunch, drive to Suzhou (2½ hours). With its low-rise buildings and camphor trees flanking streets and canals, the historic centre is an endearing place to begin after the journey. Upon arrival there is a walk and a visit to a garden. First of three nights in Suzhou.

Day 3: Suzhou. Clustered in a corner of the city are a 12th-cent. bridge, a 5th-cent. pagoda and a sophisticated Ming era gateway in the ramparts which allows admission by water or by land.

The Master of the Nets Garden is a masterpiece Te l e p h o n e + 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 8 7 4 2 3 3 5 5

china

Under the two last imperial dynasties, which together spanned 543 years, China reached her peak of territorial extent, political power, of riches, of peace. Most of the country’s greatest surviving historic architecture dates to this period – 1368 to 1911 – and much of that precious and beautiful heritage is seen on this tour. Imperial patronage produced palaces, tombs and temples, consolidating the steady evolution of standard designs to reach immutable perfection.

Integral to the architecture is ornamentation of exquisitely carved stone and wood, often gaily painted, and brightly glazed ceramics. Painting

of the era achieved its classic, ineffable form, but it is for porcelain that Ming is popularly a byword for perfection, and deservedly, yet under the eighteenth-century Qing emperors porcelain also reached sublime heights of beauty. Some of the finest examples from the imperials kilns are seen on this tour. The classical Chinese garden – an art form as highly esteemed by contemporaries as any other – also took shape here in the sixteenth century, and, astoundingly, a dozen or so excellent examples survive in something approaching their original state in Suzhou.

The tour begins at Suzhou, an appropriate place to recover from the flight and ease into this astonishing country. Though a rapidly growing industrial hub (a third of the world’s silk is produced here), the extensive historic centre retains its pre-modern scale and texture with two- or three-storey buildings of whitewashed walls, grey tiles and upturned eaves – whether old or new. Ancient canals still thread between narrow streets which are lined with camphor trees. Suzhou was home to the four founding fathers of the Ming and Qing tradition of painting, and it is no coincidence that garden design is so prominent here.

Nanjing was the base of the Ming clan before they conquered the Yuan dynasty of Mongol emperors in 1368, and the city became capital of a reunited China. The first Ming emperor, Hongwu, rebuilt the walls; 20 miles long and 40 feet high, for size they have never been surpassed. But his successor, Emperor Yongle, moved the capital to Beijing in 1403. The palace

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Ming & Qing Civilization continued

became the capital of all subsequent Ming and Qing regimes. First of four nights in Beijing.

Day 7: Beijing and environs. The Ming Tombs 30 miles outside the city are the final resting place of 13 of the 16 Ming emperors. After a 7-km Sacred Way flanked by stone-carved animals and officials, the tomb of Yongle (died 1424) consists of a succession of courts with ceremonial gateways, a great hall and a manmade hill concealing the tomb itself. Returning to Beijing, visit the Summer Palace, an extensive compound of ceremonial halls, temples and walkways around Kunming Lake, repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt in the late 19th cent.

Overnight Beijing.

Nanjing, The Porcelain Tower, copper engraving c. 1860.

featuring all essential elements in garden design. Designed by the Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei and opened in 2006, the Suzhou Museum blends beautifully with the historic architecture and contains a choice collection of porcelain, painting and other arts.

Overnight Suzhou.

Day 4: Tongli, Suzhou. There is a morning excursion to Tongli, a well-preserved and atmospheric ‘water town’ with Ming and Qing residences and numerous bridges across the narrow canals. In Suzhou, a short boat ride leads to the Humble Administrator’s Garden, largest and best known of the Ming gardens here, with carefully composed vistas of water, rocks, plants and pavilions. Overnight Suzhou.

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Day 5: Suzhou, Nanjing. Suzhou remains a centre of silk production; witness silk embroidery at the Embroidery Research Institute. By train (luggage is sent separately) to Nanjing, capital of China under the first three Ming emperors (and again 1912–49).

Much of the centre is of a manageable scale and plane trees line the busy streets. The tomb complex of the first Ming emperor, on a wooded hill just outside the walls, constitutes a summation of past traditions and set the pattern for subsequent imperial burials.

Overnight Nanjing.

Day 6: Nanjing, Beijing. Twenty miles long, the city wall built by the first Ming emperor became the longest in the world; much remains, and the Zhonghua barbican is a formidable structure with three courtyards. Nanjing Museum, largely newly built, is one of the best in China, with the complete range of arts – bronzes, jades, porcelain, textiles, painting and furniture. Fly at 5.00pm (China Eastern) to Beijing, to which Emperor Yongle removed in 1403 and which

Day 8: Beijing. The Imperial Palace is as impressive and enthralling as one expects (though no longer justifying the epithet, The Forbidden City). Its origins lie with Kublai Khan, but its current form is Ming and Qing. It is a vast rectangular compound surrounded by a formidable wall and a moat with innumerable courts and pavilions, 800 buildings in total.

Despite the depredations of the last 150 years, it survives remarkably well, and has quite outstanding collections of arts and precious artefacts. Overnight Beijing.

Day 9: Beijing. Set in a tranquil park, the buildings of the Temple of Heaven are among the highest achievements of Ming designers.

Further Ming buildings guard the south of Tiananmen Square, a vast space which is the location of National Museum. This has superb collections of early Chinese artefacts, Zhou bronzes and the whole range of porcelain from Song to Qing. Similar collections, with a Beijing bias, are in the modern Capital Museum.

Overnight Beijing.

Day 10: Beijing, Jinshanling. Free morning in Beijing. Leave at 12.45pm and drive out to a particularly spectacular stretch of the Great Wall at Jinshanling which was rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty and regularly saw action. Walk along a section where it climbs, descends and winds over the steep-sided hills.

Surrounded by mountains, Chengde was the summer resort of the Qing emperors and is consequently the location of some of the greatest 18th-cent. architecture in China. First of two nights in Chengde.

Day 11: Chengde. The imperial villa begun

by Emperor Kangxi in 1703, essentially Manchurian, consists of single-storey timber buildings around courtyards in a 590-hectare park. There are several 18th-cent. Buddhist temples in Chengde. Puning Si is still an active Buddhist monastery; the many buildings of Putuozongcheng Temple rise to a multi-storey block which is a replica of Lhasa’s Potala Palace, formidable externally, with gaily painted galleried courtyards inside. Overnight Chengde.

Day 12: Chengde, Qingdongling. Some free time in Chengde before visiting Qingdongling, the Eastern Tombs, burial place in a remote

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Dr Rose Kerr Rose graduated in Chinese studies and spent a year as a student in China during the last year of the Cultural Revolution, 1975–1976. She is an Honorary Associate of the Needham Research Institute in Cambridge, having retired as Keeper of the Far Eastern Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum. rural setting of five of the ten Qing emperors and the largest tomb complex in China. The Sacred Way has the full panoply of archways, bridges and sculpted guardian figures; one tomb has underground chambers with beautifully carved white marble walls. Spend the night in a hotel near Beijing Airport.

Day 13: Beijing to London. Fly at 11.15am, arriving at Heathrow at c. 3.15pm (c. 11 hours).

Practicalities Price: £4,780 (deposit £450). Single supplement £620 (double room for single occupancy). Price without international flights £4,190.

Included meals: eight lunches and eight dinners with wine.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Visas: see page 36.

Accommodation. Scholar’s Hotel, Suzhou (pingjiangpalace.com): well-equipped hotel, quiet and centrally located. Mandarin Garden Hotel, Nanjing: large hotel located in a vibrant part of the city centre, comfortable but dated.

Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Beijing (hilton.com): recently opened, 5-star luxury hotel in the city centre. Yun Shan Hotel, Chengde (cdyunshan. com): the best hotel in town but the décor is dated and service can be brusque. Hilton Hotel Beijing Capital Airport, Beijing (hilton.com): executive hotel with spacious rooms located a short shuttle bus ride from the terminal.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard and the tour involves a lot of standing around on site and in museums. There are some long coach journeys during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Average distance by coach per day: 58 miles.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Ar t in Japan

Art, craft, architecture & design 15–28 May 2015 (mb 323) 14 days/12 nights • £5,840 Lecturer: Professor Timon Screech Many of the finest collections of Japanese art, in museums and in situ in temples and shrines.

World Heritage Sites at Nikko, Kyoto, Nara and Horyu-ji, and the art island of Naoshima.

Outstanding museum buildings by Tadao Ando, I.M. Pei and other leading architects.

Also other aspects of Japanese culture, past and present, including gastronomy and gardens.

Led by Timon Screech, Professor of History of Art at SOAS, London University.

This tour is currently full. There may be a second departure in 2015 – please contact us to register your interest.

Day 1: London to Tokyo. Fly at c. 1.30pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Tokyo (time in the air c. 11½ hours).

Day 2: Tokyo. Arrive at Tokyo Narita Airport at c. 9am and drive to the hotel. Rooms will be ready before lunch. There is an afternoon walk in the dynamic and design-conscious Tokyo Midtown. The celebrated Suntory Museum of Art is located here; exhibitions showcase key pieces from its collection of Japanese arts and crafts, beautiful objects from everyday life. First of four nights in Tokyo.

Day 3: Tokyo. The morning is dedicated to the Tokyo National Museum, which occupies several buildings in Ueno Park and houses some of the finest Japanese art in the world. The main gallery (Honkan) traces the development from prehistoric, sculptural earthenware to exquisite paintings and decorative objects of courtly patronage. A striking contemporary gallery houses the important 7th/ 8th-century treasures from the temple of Horyu-ji, Nara. In the afternoon visit the Edo-period Korakuen Garden, one of the oldest and best preserved in the city. Overnight Tokyo.

Day 4: Nikko. Full-day excursion to Nikko, an historically important Shinto and Buddhist pilgrimage site in a national park with breathtaking mountain vistas. The 17th-cent.

Tosho-gu Shrine complex was established here by the powerful Tokugawa Shoguns (the first shogun of the Edo period, Tokugawa Ieyasu, is enshrined here); set amid towering Japanese cedars and pines, the architecturally extravagant buildings are decorated with elaborate wood-carvings and beautiful paintwork. Overnight Tokyo.

Day 5: Tokyo. Nezu Kaichiro’s extraordinary and diverse collection of Japanese and other Asian arts is perfectly presented in the eponymous museum, a purpose-built space with a delightful garden. Highlights include world-renowned Chinese bronzes and exquisite utensils related to the tea aesthetic. There is free time for lunch in the sophisticated Omotesando area before exploring the vibrant streets of the Harajuku district, home to the Ota Memorial Art Museum and its collection of ukiyo-e woodblock prints. These ‘pictures of the floating world’ colourfully reveal something of the popular culture of the Edo period. Some free time. Overnight Tokyo.

Japanese woodblock print.

japan

Japan has one of the richest and most continuously active art traditions in Asia, perhaps anywhere. Some of the earliest known ceramics have been found here, as is the world’s oldest standing wooden building. But Japanese contemporary art also ranks with the best in the world and is eagerly imitated and avidly collected.

Between those chronological poles is a wealth of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines from all periods, and some impressive military architecture. National, regional and private collections are to be found in great profusion throughout the country; Japan has a long and impressive lineage of art-historical scholarship and connoisseurship. To this in recent times have been added a network of conservation and restoration labs and the latest technology for archaeological investigation. In short, despite the large number of wars and natural disasters that have periodically overwhelmed the country, Japanese arts are to be enjoyed in extraordinary abundance. The great majority of important pieces remain in the country.

Throughout history, Japan has tended to make a less emphatic division between art and craft than is the case in Western countries. Of equal rank alongside the ‘fine arts’ of painting and sculpture there are outstanding examples of ceramic, textile and metalwork, as well as uniquely beautiful gardens and a special aesthetic of food and eating.

This tour exposes participants to Japan across the ages, sampling excellent works from many periods, genres and styles. As a deeply hierarchical society until modern times, there is ‘high’ art and ‘low’ art, from royal and shogunal works to that of the urban populace (the fabled ‘art of the floating world’). Modern Tokyo is part of the experience as well as the ancient capital of Kyoto, as are the yet more ancient city of Nara and the celebrated art colony of Naoshima in the Inland Sea. World Heritage sites figure on the tour, but we also visit less well-known sites such as ceramic studios and mausolea.

Itinerary

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Ar t in Japan continued

Professor Timon Screech Professor of History of Art at SOAS, University of London. He is an expert on the art and culture of the Edo period, including its international dimension, and has published widely on the subject including Sex and the Floating World and Obtaining Images.

Day 6: Tokyo to Kyoto. By high-speed train to Kyoto (luggage by road). Kyoto is considered the centre of Japanese culture and today’s city and the surrounding hills are dense with examples of art and architecture of the highest importance. At the foot of the forested Higashiyama mountains the zen temple complex Nanzen-ji is distinguished by its massive gate (Sanmon) and the quarters of the abbacy (Hojo) which contain very fine 17thcent. painted screens (fusuma) by Kano Tan’yu.

The Kodai-ji Temple is richly decorated with early 17th-century maki-e, gold and silver set in lacquer. First of five nights in Kyoto.

Day 7: Kyoto. Kyoto’s National Museum opened its Heisei Chishinkan wing in 2014, an impressive construction displaying a ceramics, painting, sculpture, sumptuous textiles and much else. The Sanjusangen-do is an unusually long hall containing 1001 subtly differentiated 12th/13th-century gilded statues of Kannon, divinity of Mercy, cumulatively a potent visual effect. The home of potter Kanjiro Kawaii (d.

1966), a key figure in the folk art revival of the 1930s, is an intimate space furnished with his work and an intact ‘climbing’ kiln.

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surroundings, return to Kyoto where the rest of the day is free.

Day 10: Kyoto. The large walled temple compound of Daitoku-ji, established in the 14th century, is an important foundation of Japanese Zen. Its many sub-temples contain dry landscape gardens; one of the finest (and smallest) is in the Daisen-in, a Chinese inkpainting rendered in stone. The Raku Museum holds exhibitions of its synonymous ware, most often in the form of understated tea bowls. Nijo Castle, shogunal residence, has a lavish interior containing brilliantly painted fusuma (screens) by the Kano school.

Day 11: Kyoto to Naoshima. Travel by coach from Kyoto to Uno and from there take the ferry across to Naoshima Island, located in the Inland Sea. Together with the islands of Teshima and Inujima, Naoshima forms part of the ‘Benesse Art Site’. A number of striking galleries by architect Tadao Ando and outdoor installations dot the landscape. Overnight Naoshima.

Day 12: Naoshima. Visit the Art House Project, a collection of traditional buildings in the old fishing village of Honmura that have been restored and transformed by artists to house creative contemporary installations. After lunch visit the Benesse House Museum, a vast structure of concrete, glass and natural light.

In addition to works by contemporary Japanese artists, the collection includes works by Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Bruce Nauman.

Day 13: Naoshima, Osaka. Start the day at the Chichu Art Museum, which houses several Monet paintings as well as sculptures

by Walter de Maria in underground spaces lit only by natural light. The eponymous Lee Ufan Museum houses works by this Korean-born

Day 8: Nara and its environs. A full-day excursion to Nara, first capital of Japan (ad 710– 794). Modelled on the Tang capital of Chang’an (Xian) in China, Nara was the birthplace of major cultural and religious development.

Here Buddhism firmly established itself and prolific production of splendid temples and devotional art ensued, much of which is in situ.

Here are some of the oldest wooden structures in the world. The temple of Todai-ji contains an arresting monumental bronze Buddha; the dry-lacquer and bronze statues of the Hokke-do and Kofuku Temple are sublime in their detail.

Nearby Horyu-ji is Japan’s earliest Buddhist temple, founded ad 607.

Day 9: Kyoto environs. A morning excursion to the Miho Museum, designed by I.M Pei and harmoniously integrated into a forested nature reserve. The approach on foot via a tunnel and bridge leads to a glass structure on the crest of a hill and a sequence of luminous interiors incorporating traditional Japanese motifs.

Collections include Greco-Roman and Islamic antiquities and important Japanese artworks.

After a leisurely lunch in these gorgeous book online at www.martinrandall.com

artist and is the latest addition to the collection of Benesse museums. Ferry to Uno and drive to Osaka for the final night.

Day 14: Osaka to London. Fly at c. 10.45am from Osaka Kansai Airport to London, via Helsinki, arriving at Heathrow at c. 6.30pm (Finnair & British Airways, time in the air c. 13 hours).

Practicalities Price: £5,840 (deposit £500). Single supplement £810. Price without international flights £5,080.

Included meals: nine lunches and six dinners with drinks.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Accommodation. Tokyo (4 nights): Royal Park Hotel, The Shiodome (rph-the.co.jp/shiodome): located in the redeveloped district of Shiodome close to Ginza, the hotel occupies several floors of one the many tower buildings. The location lacks charm but is convenient. The hotel was renovated in 2013 and rooms are functional and well-appointed, if small. Kyoto (5 nights): Hyatt Regency Hotel (kyoto.regency.hyatt.com) an elegant hotel within walking distance of the National Museum. Rooms are comfortable with unique design touches. The restaurants are very good. Naoshima (2 nights): Benesse House Hotel (benesse-artsite.jp): comfortable, modern hotel designed by Tadao Ando and a continuation of the concept of ‘coexistence among nature, architecture and art’, on which the Benesse Museum is based. Osaka (1 night): Osaka Miyako Marriott (marriot.com): opened in 2014 in one of the tallest buildings in Japan; the city views are spectacular. Rooms are spacious with all mod-cons and the restaurants are excellent, if pricey. Included dinners are in the hotels or good local restaurants.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. A rough indication of the minimum level of fitness required is that you ought to be able to walk briskly at about three miles per hour for at least half an hour, and undertake a walk at a more leisurely pace for an hour or two unaided. The tour involves a lot of standing in museums.

Average distance by coach per day: c. 59 miles.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Left: Japanese warrior from Le Tour du Monde 1866.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Essential India

Hindu temples, Rajput palaces & Mughal tombs 20 February–6 March 2015 (mb 245) This tour is currently full 26 February–11 March 2016 (mc 580) 15 days • £5,760 Lecturer: Dr Giles Tillotson Includes some of India’s most celebrated sites and also lesser-known but quintessential places.

Arrangements for special access a feature.

Spends more time at the centres visited than most mainstream tours, and free time is allowed for rest or independent exploration.

Later Bundela Rajputs built impressive palaces and temple-like cenotaphs in the lush landscape of northern Madhya Pradesh. Their palaces bring together elements borrowed from both the Rajput and Mughal traditions, while their funerary architecture asserts their dynastic authority.

The buildings and arts of the Mughals in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are often regarded as the apex of India’s artistic achievements, a prestige due no doubt in no

small part to its best-known representative, the Taj Mahal, a creation which hovers somewhere between architecture, jewellery and myth.

White marble is typical of the late period, while earlier buildings are of red sandstone – the deserted capital of Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri, and the Red Forts of Agra and Delhi.

Delhi is among a rare elite of the world’s cities which have been capital of several successive regimes. With most new ruling powers establishing their headquarters on a site

Delhi, the Qutb Minar, steel engraving c. 1840.

Varanasi, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and the most sacred in India; the Hindu temples of Khajuraho; Rajput and Mughal forts, palaces and funerary monuments.

Seven unesco World Heritage Sites visited.

Led by Dr Giles Tillotson, a leading expert in Mughal and Rajput history and architecture.

india

The rich and fertile riverine plains of northern India have long formed a corridor allowing migrations and invasions to spread across the Subcontinent. The result is an area of fascinating cultural diversity.

Like the Ganges and the Yamuna, the sacred rivers of Hindu lore, this tour runs through the modern state of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. But these geo-political boundaries do not restrict it thematically. Participants are treated to a comprehensive overview of the history of the Subcontinent, from the emergence of Hinduism and Buddhism to the decline of the Mughal Empire, the last Islamic power before the British Raj of the nineteenth century.

Located on the banks of the Ganges, Varanasi is India’s most sacred place and claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Founded by Lord Shiva, the city is mentioned in scriptures dating from the early Vedic period, in the second millennium bc. It was known as Kashi, the Luminous, during the life of the Buddha who visited on several occasions on his way to Sarnath nearby where he preached his first sermon. Pilgrims still flock here to wash away their sins in the holy Ganges. The modern Varanasi is also a place of learning and culture, with the first Hindu university in India.

The Chandelas of Khajuraho and the Bundelas of Orchha are two Rajput clans tracing lineage to the Lunar Dynasty from Varanasi, a commonly used device to claim political authority. The eleventh-century Chandelas built intricately carved temples in Khajuraho, today celebrated (and often misunderstood) for their sensual carvings. They are superb examples of the Nagara or northern style of sacred architecture, with its linear succession of halls leading to the sanctum, topped by a Sikhara, or mountain-peak tower.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Essential India continued

afternoon, visit the eastern and southern groups of temples. Overnight Khajuraho.

Day 8: Khajuraho. A full day at leisure.

Overnight Khajuraho.

Day 9: Khajuraho to Orchha. Drive to Orchha.

Located close to the Betwa River on dramatic rocky terrain, Orchha’s former glory as capital of the Bundela kings is evident in the multichambered Jehangir Mahal with lapis lazuli tiles and ornate gateways. The Raj Mahal palace contains some beautiful murals with religious and secular themes. Elegant Royal Chhatris (cenotaphs) line the ghats of the Betwa.

Overnight Orchha.

Day 10: Orchha. A walk in the old town includes a visit to the high-ceilinged Chaturbhuj Temple; the cross plan represents the four-armed Vishnu. The Lakshmi Temple incorporates fortress elements and its 19thcent. frescoes depict scenes of the 1857 Mutiny.

Afternoon journey from Jhansi to Gwalior by train. First of two nights in Gwalior.

Watercolour by Carlton A. Smith from The Times of India Annual 1935.

adjacent to its predecessors, the architectural legacy ranges from a monumental thirteenthcentury minaret to the majestic expansiveness of Lutyens’s New Delhi. Empire succeeds empire; eighteen years after the Viceroy took up residence in Government House it was handed over to an independent India.

Itinerary Days 1 & 2: London to Delhi. Fly from London Heathrow (British Airways) at about noon and after a 5½ hour time change reach the hotel in New Delhi c. 3.00am. Free morning, lunch in the hotel. The severely beautiful 15th-century tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties are located in the serene Lodi Gardens, close to the hotel. Humayun’s striking tomb, with its high-arched façades set in a walled garden, is an important example of early Mughal architecture. Overnight Delhi.

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Day 3: Delhi. Visit the imposing Red Fort, founded in 1639 under Shah Jahan. Exquisite pietra dura work remains intact in the throne pavilion. Together with the fort, the Jami Masjid, India’s largest mosque, dominates Old Delhi with its minarets and domes. Rickshaw through the labyrinthine streets near Chandni Chowk. After lunch, visit New Delhi where Lutyens, Baker and other British architects created a grand city with unique designs.

Baker’s Secretariat buildings on the Raisina hill are Classical buildings at first glance but closer attention reveals Mughal motifs. Subject to special permission, it may be possible to visit the manicured gardens and interior of the vast Rashtrapati Bhavan, the former Viceroy’s residence. Overnight Delhi.

Day 4: Delhi to Varanasi. Fly from Delhi to Varanasi (Jet Airways) at c. 10.30am. After lunch in the hotel, walk in the old town, visiting hidden shrines and experiencing the busy life along the river. Ends near Dasaswamedha Ghat, named after the ancient ten horse sacrifice which took place here in mythical time. A boat ride along the Ganges ends with the evening river blessing ceremony (Aarti), a ritual going back to the Vedic Age. First of two nights in Varanasi.

Day 5: Sarnath, Varanasi. Begin the day with a boat ride at sunrise, followed by breakfast and a morning walk through the alleys of the old city.

Buddha preached his first sermon at Sarnath and the site remains an active Buddhist centre.

The Dhamek stupa in the Deer Park marks the spot where the Buddha sat to preach. The museum houses the 3rd-cent. bc lion capital which has become the symbol of modern India since independence. Overnight Varanasi.

Day 6: Varanasi to Khajuraho. Fly to Khajuraho (Jet Airways) in the morning. After lunch, visit the Jain temples in the eastern group. The Parasnath Temple is conspicuous for its absence of erotic depictions. First of three nights in Khajuraho.

Day 7: Khajuraho. In the morning, visit the spectacular western group of temples built during the Chandela Rajput dynasty, famous for the beautifully carved erotic scenes. The awe-inspiring 11th-cent. Kandariya Mahadev Temple is one of the finest examples of North Indian temple architecture, richly embellished with sensuous sculptures depicting the god’s heavenly abodes. Nearby, the Jagadambi Temple contains excellent carvings of Vishnu. In the

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Day 11: Gwalior. Athwart a steep-sided hill, the formidable Gwalior Fort is lavishly embellished with cupolas and blue tiles; inside are superb 9th- and 11th-cent. temples. The afternoon is at leisure with the option of a visit to a nearby palace. Overnight Gwalior.

Day 12: Gwalior, Agra. Drive to Agra and in the afternoon visit the Itimad ud Daula (c. 1628), an exquisite garden tomb and the first Mughal building clad in white marble inlaid with pietra dura inlay. A stroll in Mehtab Bagh, a former Mughal garden by the Yamuna river, is rewarded with a view of the Taj Mahal; any anxiety about it failing to live up to it reputation for sublime beauty is misplaced.

Overnight Agra.

Day 13: Agra, Fatehpur Sikri. Rise early to visit the Taj Mahal in the first light of day. It was commissioned by Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, and completed 1648.

Breakfast at the hotel. The magnificent Red Fort was built by Akbar and is the best preserved of the palaces built during his reign. Drive out to Fatehpur Sikri, a new capital built by Akbar (1570) but abandoned after a mere 15 years. The palace complex consists of a series of courtyards and beautifully wrought red sandstone pavilions. Overnight Agra.

Day 14: Sikandra, Delhi. Drive to Delhi via Akbar’s mausoleum at Sikandra, built on his death in 1605. Set in a traditional char-bagh, it has no central dome unlike other Mughal mausolea. In Delhi, visit the Qutb Minar, site of the first Islamic city of Delhi, established in 1193 on the grounds of a defeated Rajput fort.

The towering minaret and its mosque survive as testament to the might of the invaders.

Overnight Delhi.

Day 15: Delhi. Fly from Delhi in the morning (British Airways), arriving in London Heathrow early afternoon.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Practicalities Price in 2016: £5,760 (deposit £500). Single supplement £860 (double for single occupancy).

Price without international flights £5,090.

Included meals: eleven lunches and nine dinners with wine or beer.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Visas: see page 36.

Accommodation. Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi (tajhotels.com): 5-star centrally located hotel.

Taj Gateway Ganges Hotel, Varanasi (tajhotels. com): comfortable 4-star hotel outside city centre. Lalit Temple View Hotel, Khajuraho (thelalit.com): modern hotel located within walking distance of the main sites. Hotel Amar Mahal, Orchha (amarmahal.com): The most basic of the hotels on the tour, this 3-star equivalent is conveniently located and

adequately equipped. Usha Kiran Palace Hotel, Gwalior (tajhotels.com): former palace converted into a charming hotel. ITC Mughal Hotel, Agra (itchotels.in): modern 5-star close to the main sites. The Leela Ambience, Gurgaon (theleela.com): a 5-star hotel conveniently close to the airport.

How strenuous? There are three 3-hour long coach journeys where facilities are limited.

There are some fairly steep ascents to forts and palaces. Steps to temples and palaces can be steep and slippery. Unruly traffic and the busy streets of Delhi also require vigilance. Average distance by coach per day: 45 miles.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Dr Giles Tillotson Writer and lecturer on Indian architecture, art and history. His books include Taj Mahal, Jaipur Nama: Tales from the Pink City, and the novel, Return to Bhanupur. He is a Fellow, and the former Director, of the Royal Asiatic Society and was Chair of Art & Archaeology at SOAS. Below: The Fort at Agra, wood engraving from The Illustrated London News 1857.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Combine this tour with Bengal By River, 12–25 March 2016 (see page 20).

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Mughals & Rajputs Delhi, Agra & Rajasthan 24 October–6 November 2015 (mc 505) 14 days • £5,660 Lecturer: Dr Giles Tillotson One of the world’s greatest schools of architecture and decoration, rooted in several traditions but becoming an original, harmonious and beautiful synthesis.

Architecture, art and history amid the enthralling landscapes and beautiful cities, forts and palaces of north-west India.

The tour includes less visited places as well as major ones, spends more time at each place and includes a number of special arrangements.

Led by Dr Giles Tillotson, expert in Rajput and Mughal history and architecture.

The Mughals, the last and most refined of India’s Muslim dynasties, originated in Central Asia and Afghanistan, being descendants of both Timur (Tamerlaine) and Genghis Khan. Babur conquered the Kingdom of Delhi in 1527, and his successors extended the empire to include

at its peak all the Subcontinent except for its southernmost tip. They remained rulers until 1857, though after the death of the emperor Aurangzeb in 1707 their power and territories withered rapidly. During their period of glory, the dynasty ruled one of the great empires in history and the body of architecture bequeathed by emperors and empresses, warlords and administrators, nobles and governors, ranks among the world’s finest.

The Rajputs, rulers of large tracts of northern India, trace their origins to the sixth century ad or earlier. They built some of India’s greatest temples, established a sophisticated court culture and, all too ready to put into practice a chivalric and militaristic ethos, became the main bulwark of resistance to Islamic invasion.

It is ironic therefore that Rajputs and Mughals came to an accommodation. Rajput maharajas served as imperial commanders and as regional governors, while at home, in the fortified cities of Rajasthan, they developed a courtly culture in tandem with that of their imperial overlords but drawing too on older traditions.

This composite courtly culture is among India’s best known and most admired phenomena, permeating a range of arts from painting and textiles to jewellery and precious artefacts. The proper setting for all these arts were the courtyards and pavilions of their palaces, which rank among the world’s most striking and beautiful works of secular architecture. Their appearance is further enhanced by their setting in the dramatic landscape of Rajasthan, which encompasses both desert plains (in the north-west), and rugged hills and ravines (in the south-east).

This tour covers many of the finest forts, palaces, gardens and cities built by the Mughals in Delhi and Agra and the Rajputs in Rajasthan.

Agra is of course much visited, but the tour allows time to explore the city’s other great monuments that place the Taj Mahal in context.

Jaipur, the celebrated capital of Rajasthan, was built according to the Vastu Shastra, the architectural treatise from the Vedic age which enjoyed a revival under the Hindu rulers of Rajputana in the eighteenth century. Including the most famous sites and some less known ones, the tour also visits the best museums, public and private. A distinguishing feature is that longer is spent at the sites than is the norm for tours to Agra and Rajasthan, resulting in a much deeper understanding and appreciation of this extraordinarily rich episode of artistic and architectural creation.

The Fort at Jodhpur, from Indian India, As Seen by a Guest in Rajasthan, 1933, by C.W. Waddington.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Amber Palace conceal fine craftsmanship – mirrored chambers, latticed windows, carved alabaster. The former duck-hunting lodge Jal Mahal is situated in the middle of a lake (visit by special permission). The Nahargarh (Tiger) Fort houses the lavish 19th-cent. Madhavendra palace built for the Maharaja’s nine wives.

Overnight Jaipur.

Day 8: Jaipur. Founded in the 18th cent. by the prominent Rajput ruler Sawai Jai Singh, the grid design of Jaipur demonstrates its creator’s obsession with mathematics and science. The City Palace contains an unsurpassed collection of textiles and arms. The Jantar Mantar, the 1730s observatory, is equipped with massive astronomical instruments that are astonishingly accurate. A walk takes in the many-windowed façade of the pink sandstone Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds) and attractive havelis.

Overnight Jaipur.

Day 9: Jaipur, Nagaur. In the morning, drive through the desert to Nagaur, one of the earliest Rajput settlements and an important Sufi centre (4 hours). The vast Ahichhatragarh Fort was founded in the 4th cent., built in the 11th and developed and embellished in the 18th. From its ramparts, the tapering minarets of the Akbari Mosque are visible in the distance. First of two nights in Nagaur.

Jaipur, watercolour by Mortimer Menpes, publ. 1912.

Itinerary Day 1: London to Delhi. Fly from London Heathrow (British Airways) to Delhi at around noon, and after a 5½ hour time change reach the hotel in New Delhi c. 3.00am.

Day 2: Delhi. Nothing is planned before a pre-lunch talk. The first Islamic city of Delhi was established in 1193 by the conquering ruler Muhammed of Ghur; the afternoon outing is to the earliest Islamic buildings in India, the towering 12th-cent. minaret of Qutb Minar and its mosque, built using masonry from plundered Hindu temples. A stroll in the serene Lodi Gardens takes in the 15th-cent. tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, relatively simple but beguiling in design. Overnight Delhi.

Day 4: Delhi, Sikandra, Agra. In the morning, drive to Agra. Akbar’s mausoleum (1613) at Sikandra on the outskirts of the town, far surpasses that of his father, Humayun, in size and elaboration, being set in a traditional char-

Day 5: Agra. The Taj Mahal (1631–47) was famously built by Shah Jahan as the tomb of his favourite wife. Rise early to see it in the first light of day; despite inevitable scepticism, it is likely that you will indeed conclude that this is the most beautiful building in the world. Return to the hotel for breakfast before visiting the Red Fort, first constructed by Akbar (1565–73) and added to by Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. Among the highlights are Akbar’s Jehangiri Mahal, with high-quality sandstone carvings of Hindu influence; the Sheesh Mahal, with its mirrormosaic interiors; and the elaborately decorated Musamman Burj pavilion. The rest of the day is free. Overnight Agra.

Day 6: Fatehpur Sikri, Jaipur. Fourteen years after its inception in 1571 Akbar abandoned his new capital at Fatehpur Sikri, but the most important elements of the city had been constructed. The palace complex consists of beautifully carved red sandstone pavilions amid a series of courtyards. In the Diwan-iKhas (private assembly hall) the central pillar fuses a spectrum of architectural styles and religious symbols. Continue to Jaipur for the first of three nights.

Day 7: Jaipur. Athwart a natural ridge below, the magnificent yellow walls of the 17th-cent.

Day 10: Nagaur. Pre-Mughal and Mughal architecture is well preserved in the palace chambers (linked to the hotel by a corridor); the Akbari Mahal, built to commemorate the visit of the Emperor Akbar in 1570, has some original floral murals, while the Hadi Rani Mahal houses some 16th-cent. murals in shades of green depicting daily and courtly scenes. The rest of the day is at leisure. Overnight Nagaur.

Day 11: Nagaur, Jodhpur. Drive through the desert to Jodhpur. The capital of one the largest Rajput states in western Rajasthan is presided over by the magnificent Mehrangarh Fort.

Described by Kipling as the ‘work of angels, fairies and giants’, it was built in 1459 and has some of the most imposing fortifications in the world. The afternoon visit is followed by a private dinner in the fort’s garden. First of two nights in Jodhpur.

Day 12: Jodhpur. The visit to Mehrangarh Fort examines the painting tradition of the Marwari Rajputs, with special admission to the gallery led by the curator. The buildings of the lively Old City are painted in a variety of blues, originally the colour denoting the homes of Brahmins and a convenient insect repellent.

Overnight Jodhpur.

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Day 3: Delhi. The Red Fort and the Friday Mosque, major monuments of Mughal rule, dominate Old Delhi. As we shall so often see, the formidable bulk of the fortress shelters exquisite delicacy (pietra dura work of Shah Jahan’s 1640 throne pavilion). The Jami Masjid is India’s largest mosque. Then by auto-rickshaw through the labyrinthine streets near Chandni Chowk. The Purana Qila, the Old Fort, marks the site of Emperor Humayun’s 16th-cent. capital. His tomb is a pioneering example of Mughal architecture and garden design.

Overnight Delhi.

bagh nearly 1 km2 and encrusted with domed marble kiosks. It has no central dome unlike other Mughal mausolea. Set in a pleasure garden on the banks of the River Yamuna in Agra, the exquisite tomb of Itimad ud Daula (1628) is a pioneer of intricate marble inlay work. First of two nights in Agra.

Day 13: Jodhpur, Delhi. In the afternoon, fly to Delhi. Overnight Delhi (Gurgaon).

Day 14: Delhi to London. The direct flight from Delhi is scheduled to arrive at London Heathrow at c. 4.30pm.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Mughals & Rajputs continued

Bengal by River

Calcutta & a week’s cruise along the Hooghly Dr Giles Tillotson Writer and lecturer on Indian architecture, art and history. His books include Taj Mahal, Jaipur Nama: Tales from the Pink City, and the novel, Return to Bhanupur. He is a Fellow, and the former Director, of the Royal Asiatic Society and was Chair of Art & Archaeology at SOAS.

26 September–9 October 2015 (ec 456) 14 days • £5,280 Lecturer: Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones 12–25 March 2016 (mc 585) 14 days • £5,130 Lecturer: Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones Four days in Calcutta, Bengal’s capital, and a week visiting places along the River Hooghly on an exclusively chartered cruiser.

Practicalities

Bengal, an outpost of the Mughal Empire and the first region to come under the control of the East India Company.

Price: £5,660 (deposit £500). Single occupancy supplement £880. Price without the international flights: £4,990.

Islamic architecture in Murshidabad and Gaur, Hindu temples in Baranagar and Kalna, Georgian and Victorian buildings of the Raj.

Included meals: ten lunches and eleven dinners with wine or beer.

Sailing along the banks of the Hooghly gives a unique insight into unspoilt village life.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Led by Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, an authority on colonial India.

Visas: see page 36.

Accommodation. Taj Mahal Hotel, Delhi (tajhotels.com): 5-star centrally located hotel.

Oberoi Trident Hotel, Agra (tridenthotels.com): modern 4-star close to the main sites. Oberoi Trident, Jaipur (tridenthotels.com): a modern 4-star hotel on the outskirts of the city. Ranvas, Nagaur (ranvasnagaur.com): a 17th-century palace converted into a luxury hotel. There are no twin-bedded rooms. Raas, Jodhpur (raasjodhpur.com): a boutique hotel combining modern and traditional design. The Leela Ambience, Gurgaon (theleela.com): a 5-star hotel conveniently close to the airport.

How strenuous? There are some fairly steep ascents to forts and palaces. Unruly traffic and the busy streets of Delhi, Jaipur and Jodhpur also require vigilance. There are four 4-hour long coach journeys where facilities may be limited. Average distance by coach per day: 44 miles.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

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Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Combine this tour with Gastronomic Kerala, 7–17 November 2015 (see page 23).

20 book online at www.martinrandall.com

When George V announced in 1911 that the capital of British India was to be transferred from Calcutta to Delhi, there was disbelief and horror in Bengal. It seemed to overturn the natural order of things. Founded by Job Charnock in 1690 on the banks of the mighty Hooghly River, Calcutta (now Kolkata) had been the headquarters of British rule in India ever since. Today the city is home to over fifteen million, but the central district remains largely as it was during the Raj. Buildings of all sorts – political, economic, educational, religious, residential – formed the British city. Their styles, Classical and Gothic, are bizarrely familiar, and their size is startling, often exceeding their equivalents in Britain. A walk through the South Park Street Cemetery shows the high price that many Britons paid for coming to Calcutta in search of wealth. ‘Power on silt!’ wrote Kipling of the city. ‘Death in my hands, but Gold!’

West Bengal is the land of lost capitals and fading grandeur. Calcutta was only the latest city whose power was snatched away by changing political events. Hindus, Muslims, Calcutta, from Calcutta, An Artist’s Impression by Desmond Doig.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Itinerary Days 1 & 2: London to Calcutta (Kolkata), via Dubai. Fly at c. 1.30pm from London Heathrow to Calcutta via Dubai (Emirates) where there is a 2-hour stop. Reach the hotel c. 9.00am (time difference from UK is 5½ hours.) The rest of the morning is free. In the afternoon visit the South Park Street Cemetery, where tombs of the early

From an advertisement in The Times of India Annual 1935.

British settlers are of a monumental classicism without parallel in Britain. First of four nights in Calcutta.

Day 3: Calcutta. The Anglican cathedral of St Paul, completed in 1847 in Gothic style, has many fine memorials and a window by Burne-Jones, one of his best. Completed in 1921, the Victoria Memorial is the most imposing building in Calcutta. It houses a collection of European paintings and a display on the history of the city. The Indian Museum, built

by Granville to house the collection from the Asiatic Society, is India’s most important collection of sculpture. Overnight Calcutta.

Day 4: Calcutta. This morning’s walk provides a survey of the civic buildings from the late 18th-century. St John’s Church, which dates back to 1784, is loosely modelled on St Martin-in-the-Fields in London (like hundreds throughout the globe). In the grounds, the mausoleum of Job Charnock, the founder of Calcutta, is the earliest British building in India.

Overnight Calcutta.

Day 5: Calcutta. The Maghen David Synagogue (1884) and the Armenian Church (1707) are reminders of the variety of religions which thrived in Calcutta prior to Independence. The Home of Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet and philosopher who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913, provides an insight into the Bengali Intellectual Renaissance which in turn led to the Independentist movement.

Overnight Calcutta.

Day 6: Barrackpore, Serampore. Board the RV Sukapha in Calcutta. Sail to the former British garrison town of Barrackpore. Many 19thcent. buildings remain, including the riverside Government House (1813) with its Semaphore Tower, part of a river signalling system, and the

elegant neo-Greek Temple of Fame. The gardens of Flagstaff House now serve as repository for colonial statuary removed from Calcutta. The Danish colony of Serampore is across the river.

First of seven nights on board the RV Sukapha.

Day 7: Chandernagore, Chinsura, Hooghly.

In the morning, sail upstream to the former French colony of Chandernagore, established in 1673. Visit the remaining churches and cemeteries as well as Governor Joseph François Dupleix’s House. Sail to Chinsura to visit the 17th-cent. Dutch cemetery before continuing by cycle-rickshaw to Hooghly where the 19thcent. Shi’a Imambara of Hazi Mohammed Mohasin contains fine marble inlay. Overnight RV Sukapha.

Day 8: Kalna, Nabadwip, Mayapur.

At Kalna, visit the series of fine 18th-cent. terracotta temples and the unique Shiva temple with concentric rings comprising 108 doublevaulted shrines. Sail to the pilgrimage centre of Nabadwip, where the river ghats are lined with active temples for a leisurely walk in the bazaar. The skyline of Mayapur on the opposite bank is dominated by a vast new temple.

Overnight RV Sukapha.

Day 9: Matiari, Plassey. Visit the village of Matiari where brass is worked using traditional methods. After sailing further, an excursion to the site of the battle of Plassey, where Robert Clive’s 1757 victory over the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud-Daulah was the prelude to consolidation and extension of the East India Company’s power in Bengal and beyond.

Overnight RV Sukapha at Murshidabad.

Day 10: Murshidabad. The Mughal Khushbagh is a peaceful walled pleasure-garden containing the Tomb of Siraj-ud-Daulah and family.

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Portuguese, Dutch, Danish and French all founded settlements on the dreamy, fertile banks of the Hooghly.

For a time Bengal was the richest province in India, not only because everything seemed to grow in its lush soil but from the industry of its people too. Indigo, opium and rice were cash crops, but textiles first attracted European traders in the seventeenth century.

Beautiful silk and muslin fabrics were known as ‘woven wind’ because they were so fine. The river was a natural highway. Apart from the Grand Trunk Road of the Mughals, there was no other way to travel.

Steeped in history but still very much off the conventional tourist route, this tour adds a new dimension to India for those who already know it, and for those who are yet to encounter it.

Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, and Christianity are all practised in Bengal and each faith has built buildings to its gods and goddesses. The town of Kalna is named after a manifestation of the dreaded goddess Kali, the destroyer who lives in cremation grounds and wears a necklace of skulls. By contrast the Jain temples in the village of Baranagar are a peaceful anthem in carved brick to non-violence and harmony. Bengal contains the largest imambaras in India, buildings associated with the Shi’a strand of Islam, not quite mausolea, although burials are frequently found in them, more gathering places for the devout.

Serampore, the Danish settlement, is known for its eighteenth-century church.

Had the British under Clive not defeated the Nawab Siraj-ud-daula at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the history of India would have been very different. The French, established at Chandernagore and allies of the Nawab, would have seized their opportunity, supported by Francophone rulers elsewhere in India who wanted to counterbalance the pervasive British presence. But it was from their base in Bengal that the British steadily extended their rule through the subcontinent.

The cruiser chartered for this tour is fairly new (built in Calcutta in 2006), on board it feels far removed from modern India and quite close to the India of the Raj. By the standards of vessels on European rivers it is not luxurious, but it is comfortable, has great charm and the crew are welcoming and efficient.

Lounging on the top deck after a fulfilling day of sightseeing with a gin & tonic (of which a quota is included in the price), watching rural life on the banks as dusk falls, comes pretty close to a perfect Indian experience.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Bengal by River continued

The Dakshinaswaram Kali Temple, on the Hooghly in Calcutta, from India & its Native Princes 1876.

architecture, the Hazarduari Palace was built

by Duncan McLeod in 1837 as a guest house for the Nawab. The museum holds a respectable collection of European paintings, sculpture and arms. The imposing Katra Mosque (1724) is modelled on the great mosque at Mecca.

Visit the Nashipara and Katgola palaces, 18thcent. homes of rich Jain merchants in classical Georgian style. Overnight RV Sukapha.

Day 11: Baranagar. Sail to the village of Baranagar and walk through fields to visit three miniature carved-brick Jain temples. Sail in the afternoon through a stretch of charming waterway that weaves past banks lush with mango groves and mustard crops. Overnight RV Sukapha at Jangipur.

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Day 12: Gaur, Farakka. Drive from Jangipur to the quiet city of Gaur, the ancient capital of Bengal. Situated within easy reach of the black basalt Rajmahal hills, Gaur is filled with elegant Muslim ruins. The many mosques, palaces and gateways stand as testament to a prosperous past and gifted stonemasons.

Overnight RV Sukapha.

Day 13: Disembark Farakka. Calcutta.

At Farakka, disembark the RV Sukapha in the morning and transfer to the station to board a train for Calcutta (a journey of c. 4 hours).

The rest of the day is at leisure. One more night in Calcutta.

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Day 14: Calcutta. After a 2-hour stopover in Dubai, the flight arrives Heathrow c. 6.00pm.

Practicalities Price: £5,280 (2015), £5,130 (2016) (deposit £500). Single supplement £890 (both departures) (double room for single occupancy).

Price without international flights £4,590 (2015) £4,410 (2016).

Included meals: eleven lunches (including 1 packed) and twelve dinners with wine or beer (not all restaurants in Kolkata serve alcohol).

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Visas: see page 36.

Accommodation. Oberoi Grand, Calcutta (oberoihotels.com): a long-established luxury hotel conveniently located in the city centre. RV Sukapha, River Cruiser (assambengalnavigation.com): built in 2006, it is comfortable and has great charm. The décor is simple and cabins are fairly spacious. Service is excellent.

Changes to the itinerary: circumstances might arise which prevent us operating the tour as advertised. On the river, circumstances such as the ebb and flow of the tide and shifting silt levels might necessitate omission of one or more ports of call. We would try and devise a satisfactory alternative.

How strenuous? Sure-footedness is essential to get on and off the ship; the riverbanks may be slippery. Unruly traffic and the busy streets of

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones An authority on colonial India. Her books include Engaging Scoundrels: True Tales of Old Lucknow, Lucknow: City of Illusion and The Great Uprising in India, 1857–58.

She lectures for the Asian Arts course at the V&A and is Secretary of the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.

Calcutta also require vigilance. There are a few fairly steep ascents to hilltop forts and temples.

There is a 4-hour train journey where facilities may be limited.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 12 and 18 participants.

Combine the 2016 departure with Essential India, 23 February–11 March 2016 (see page 15).

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Gastronomic Kerala

Traders, spices & churches of the Malabar Coast 7–17 November 2015 (mc 525) 11 days • £4,780 Lecturer: Dr Elizabeth Collingham Surveys the history and distinctive culture of the region through its cuisine: Jewish, Muslim, Christian.

Three nights in Fort Cochin, the spice trade centre of the Arabian Sea. From tea and spice plantations to lush backwaters, a leisurely paced tour amid varied scenery.

Three cooking demonstrations followed by lunch and two privately hosted lunches.

Eco-friendly hotels set in natural surroundings.

Itinerary Days 1 & 2: London to Cochin (Kochi).

Fly at c. 1.30pm from London Heathrow to Cochin via Dubai (Emirates) where there is a 2-hour stop. Reach the hotel by 10.00am (time difference with the UK is 5½ hours). The rest of the morning is free. Later in the afternoon, visit the Mattancherry Palace. First built by the Portugese in 1557, it was rebuilt by the Dutch in

1663. The murals in the king’s bedroom which depict mythical scenes from the Raas Leela and the Ramayana are a masterpiece of Keralan paintings. Dinner in the hotel restaurant explores the rich culinary heritage of this trading centre. Overnight Cochin.

Day 3: Cochin. A morning walk around Fort Cochin includes the Chinese fishing nets, which have been in use since the 14th century and St Francis Church (c. 1510), one of the earliest Catholic churches in India and the temporary resting place of Vasco da Gama. A cooking demonstration focusing on the Mopilah (Muslim) culinary tradition of northern Kerala precedes a private lunch. Muslim traders may have settled on the Malabar Coast as early as in the 7th century and have since developed a cuisine with distinctive flavours. Afternoon at leisure. Overnight Cochin.

Day 4: Fort Cochin. Jewish merchants and Christian settlers arrived in Kerala with St Thomas the Apostle in 52 ad. The Paradesi Synagogue, built in 1568 by European Jews, is tucked away in the heart of the Jewish Quarter. Its airy interior is enhanced by hand painted Chinese floor tiles and European glass chandeliers. A cooking demonstration is followed by a Christian lunch in a private home.

Opened in 2009, the Folklore Museum houses a private collection of Keralan artefacts.

Day 5: Cochin, Munnar. In the morning, drive through the coconut palms and spice plantations of the low- and midlands to Munnar, centre of Kerala’s tea industry. Located at an altitude of 1,600 metres, this hill station was discovered by Scottish planters in the 19th century and was once the British Summer capital of south India. Tea tasting session in the

‘A fruit stall’, watercolour by Mortimer Menpes in India 1905.

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Kerala has supplied the world with spices since antiquity. Roman ships sailed to the Malabar Coast laden with sacks of gold to trade for their favourite spice, black pepper. Modern Kerala is still a major producer of black pepper and this tour follows in the footsteps of Chinese, Persian, Jewish, Arab and European merchants who have been coming here ever since, in search of spices.

The warm but cloudy climate of the Western Ghats provides the perfect conditions for cultivating pepper vines that wither in strong sunlight. On the distinctively-shaped knolls, pepper plants straggle among the fronds of cardamom trees while large tracts of the hills are covered by neat rows of bright green tea bushes.

When the Portuguese discovered the sea route to India in the fifteenth century they stumbled into the most intense commercial zone in the world. Kerala’s spice markets attracted merchants trading African slaves, gold and ivory, precious stones, dyes and rugs from the Persian Gulf, Chinese silks and porcelain, nutmeg and cloves from the Indonesian archipelago. The Portuguese quickly established a trading base at Fort Cochin and within thirty years of their arrival on the scene dominated Indian Ocean trade until they were superseded by the Dutch in the seventeenth century; their churches are a testimony to their determination to demonstrate their religious hegemony as well as their military might.

The Paradesi synagogue in the Jewish quarter is almost the last trace of Kerala’s Jewish community (most of Cochin Jews have now emigrated to Israel). However, the community have left behind a cookery tradition influenced by the Middle Eastern and Spanish origins of the Indian Jews. Kerala’s Syrian Christian community is also thought to have been founded as long ago as the first century CE. St Thomas the Apostle is said to have made a number of converts to Christianity while on a proselytising mission to South India. This Nesrani community is famous for its appam, soft rice breads, fluffy in the centre and crispy on the edge, perfect for dipping in the stews

which characterise their cuisine. A fragrant biryani is the best-known contribution of the Arab spice traders to the Keralan culinary repertoire. The Portuguese introduced creamy custards and pastries as well as an array of foods which they had only just discovered themselves in the Americas: the chilli pepper eventually came to dominate Indian cookery, ousting black pepper from its position as the hottest spice. The Portuguese also introduced cassava (tapioca), now widely eaten in Kerala.

Tea cultivation was introduced to India by the British and one of the Raj’s most enduring legacies was to persuade Indians to drink tea after a concerted campaign in the late nineteenth century.

The hallmark of Keralan, and Indian cuisine, is that it has absorbed influences from each wave of visitors, from early Christians and medieval Muslim Sultans to the English bureaucrats of the Raj. Food, then, is one of the best vehicles to explore India’s colourful history and Kerala’s cuisine is no exception. Cooking demonstrations and privately hosted lunches allow participants to revel in Kerala’s rich and delicious culinary history, while gentle walks in tea and spice plantations provide some insight in the production of these once luxurious goods.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Gastronomic Kerala continued

afternoon. First of two nights in Munnar.

Day 6: Munnar. Drive around the rolling hills to one of the 30 tea estates in the area. After a walk around the plantation witnessing pickers at work, visit the processing factory. The Tamil lunch in the estate’s bungalow reflects the tea workers’ origin from the neighbouring state.

Overnight Munnar.

Day 7: Munnar to Thekkady. Leaving the tea growing region of the high altitudes, drive through thick forests of teak and rosewood to reach Thekkady. Afternoon walk around a spice plantation to explore the growing process and the complex network of correlations between species. In the evening, dinner focuses on locally farmed produce. Overnight Thekkady.

Day 8: Thekkady to Kumarakom. Ayurveda, the Hindu system of natural medicine originates from Kerala and uses numerous plants and spices also found in the local cuisine.

The Sahyadri Ayurveda centre – the largest N.G.O. in South India – grows its own plants and produces its own brand of medication.

Privately hosted British-influenced lunch in a planter’s home. Afternoon drive to the backwaters, a network of lakes, lagoons and canals with its unique ecosystem. First of three nights in Kumarakom.

Day 9: Kumarakom. Morning walk around Alappuzha (Allepey), the first planned city in Kerala, dating from 1776. The dilapidated mansions of the Gujarati spice merchants are easily recognisable with their intricately carved wooden gates. After the final cooking demonstration, lunch is sadhya, the Keralan banquet consisting of a variety of vegetarian dishes and traditionally served on a banana

leaf. Return to the hotel by boat. Overnight Kumarakom.

Day 10: Kumarakom. In Kottayam, the 450-year old Cheria Palli – ‘Small’ St Mary’s Church – displays unusual symbols on its façade. The original murals inside were painted using natural pigments. Nearby, the Valia Palli – ‘Big’ St Mary’s Church – houses two Nestorian crosses, one of which may be the oldest Christian artefact in India. The hosted lunch highlights the distinctive culture of the region and is followed by a walk around the farm. The rest of the afternoon is at leisure.

Overnight Kumarakom.

Day 11: Kumarakom, Cochin, London. Leave early to drive to the international airport (c. 2 hours) to board the mid-morning homeward flight. After a 2-hour stopover in Dubai, arrive at London Heathrow c. 6.00pm.

Practicalities Price: £4,780 (deposit £450). Single supplement £840 (double room for single occupancy). Price without international flights £4,290.

Included meals: nine lunches and seven dinners with wine or beer (not all restaurants serve alcohol).

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Visas: see page 36.

Accommodation. Brunton Boatyard Hotel, Cochin (cghearth.com): sea-front property, ideally located within the heritage area of Fort Cochin. Windermere Estate, Munnar (windermeremunnar.com): family-run property

india 24 book online at www.martinrandall.com

Dr Elizabeth Collingham Food historian and writer. She obtained her Phd at Cambridge. After teaching at the University of Warwick she became a Research Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge. Books include Imperial Bodies: the Physical Experience of the Raj. c.1800–1947. She is also an Associate Fellow of Warwick University and is writing a history of food and the British Empire. offering stunning views of the surrounding plantations. Spice Village Hotel, Kumily (cghearth.com): eco-friendly hotel set in the lush landscape of the Western Ghats. Hotel Coconut Lagoon, Kumarakom (www.cghearth. com): comfortable bungalows in natural lakeside settings.

How strenuous? Surefootedness is essential for boarding and disembarking the boats; jettys may be slippery. Walks in the tea and spice plantations are over uneven ground and there are some uphill climbs. There are two coach journeys of 4 hours or more where facilities may be limited. Average distance by coach per day: 35 miles.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Below: Cranganore Fort in Kerala (not seen on this tour), copper engraving 1774.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Architecture of the British Raj Evolution of styles in Bombay, Calcutta & Delhi 23 January–4 February 2016 (mc 565) 13 days • £5,640 Lecturer: Professor Gavin Stamp Visits the major centres of British power, still India’s leading cities – Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta (Kolkata) and Delhi.

Extraordinary wealth of European-style architecture from the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth.

Little-visited treasures as well as the major ones included, with private visits and special access a feature of the tour.

An archetypical case of the MRT policy of travelling less and seeing more, with four days in each of the cities and free time.

Led by Professor Gavin Stamp, a specialist in Victorian and Edwardian architecture.

was native Indian architectural talent. Then there is Indo-Saracenic architecture, a Victorian Orientalist hybrid, promoted by the British.

A Battle of the Styles raged in Victorian India in parallel with the Gothic-Classical debates back home: whether to impose our own styles as would any conqueror, proclaiming the superiority of British civilisation, or legitimise our role as rulers by appropriating Indian styles?

There will be much to debate on this tour.

Itinerary Days 1 & 2: London to Bombay (Mumbai). Fly from London Heathrow at c. 10.00am (British Airways), and after a 5½-hour time change reach the hotel in Bombay in the early hours of the following morning. The rest of the night constitutes the first night in Bombay.

Day 2: Bombay. Nothing is planned before a pre-lunch talk. Our hotel, a domed Edwardian pile which is one of the most famous in India, faces the Gateway of India, an Orientalised triumphal arch marking the spot where King George V and Queen Mary landed in Calcutta, Government House, from Calcutta, An Artist’s Impression by Desmond Doig.

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The British Raj in India was an extraordinary and unique phenomenon, both historically and in terms of its physical legacy. It might be said that the Subcontinent became British almost by accident. There was never an official expansionist strategy, and indeed time and again governments in London urged restraint or proscribed further territorial enlargement.

When on occasion enthusiasts conceived grand designs they were usually stymied by the doctrine of ‘masterly inactivity’.

Extraordinarily, for the first two-and-a-half centuries of British presence, India was not ruled directly by the Crown but indirectly by a commercial firm. The Honourable East India Company was founded in 1599, one of several such European enterprises initiated at the time to trade with the East via the recently discovered sea routes. Only in the aftermath of the Mutiny or Uprising of 1857–8 did India come to be ruled from Westminster.

British India was initially a trading enterprise, with treaties willingly entered into by local rulers. The cities of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay were originally established by the Company as trading posts. Military means were used intermittently to defend the status quo or for piecemeal consolidation of interests.

Most Britons who went to India expected to end their days in Britain. India was a place to seek adventure and to pursue a career, rarely a place to which to emigrate. If the imperial venture had its roots in trade, its fulfilment manifested itself in bureaucracy. At the height of the British Raj, about a thousand Anglo-Indians administered a population of 300 million. The Indian Civil Service was perhaps the most efficient and least corrupt in history. There was no shortage of arrogance and prejudice; but there was also devotion to duty, sense of service, religious tolerance and idealism concerning the benefits of their work.

Independence came almost seventy years ago in 1947, but the physical evidence of the British presence survives. The centres of the

major cities established by the East India Company are still astonishingly, perhaps bizarrely British. Calcutta, ‘city of palaces’ with its surviving wealth of stuccoed Classical buildings can be compared with St Petersburg rather than Cheltenham. Bombay, which Robert Byron once described as ‘that architectural Sodom’ can now be seen as the finest Gothic Revival city in the world. And New Delhi, added to the ancient city of Delhi to which the seat of government was moved from Calcutta in 1911, is surely the most successful planned city of the twentieth century and Viceroy’s House one of the finest buildings anywhere.

It may be startling to see so many buildings which seem to have been transported bodily from Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol or London – except that, on closer inspection, adaptations to the climate are evident. Some are designed by major British architects – George Gilbert Scott, Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker among them – but most are by less familiar names: some who sent out drawings from Britain but others – like F. W. Stevens, William Emerson, Arthur Shoosmith - who settled in India for years or decades, while, towards the end, there

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Architecture of the British Raj continued

Professor Gavin Stamp Architectural historian with an interest in 19thand 20th-century British architecture. He has published on Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, the Gilbert Scott dynasty and Sir Edwin Lutyens. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and the RIBA, and Honorary Professor at the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge.

1911. In the afternoon we walk around the Victorian heart of Bombay, seeing the major public buildings which make it the most complete Gothic Revival city outside England: the Secretariat, the High Court and, above all, the University. Other buildings include Watson’s Hotel, a mid-Victorian structure of prefabricated cast-iron, and the Prince of Wales Museum, an Edwardian building in the IndoSaracenic style which houses, among much else, a collection of both European and Indian paintings. Second of four nights in Bombay.

Day 3: Bombay. The Gothic Victoria Terminus railway station was clearly inspired by St Pancras in London. The Gothic Revival Afghan Memorial Church is also a melancholy reminder of the first of Britain’s several disastrous interventions in Afghanistan.

St Thomas’s Cathedral, typical of so many Anglican churches in India: a Classical building adapted to the climate and filled with poignant monuments to British merchants, soldiers and administrators who never returned home.

The Sassoon Library and the University Library, erected from designs sent out by Sir Gilbert Scott, two of the more remarkable Gothic Revival buildings. Evening free. Third night in Bombay.

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Day 6: Calcutta. Established in 1690, Calcutta flourished as an East India Company trading post and later as the capital of British India, especially after Clive’s victory over the Nawab of Murshidabad in 1757. Located in the vicinity of Dalhousie Square at the heart of the city are St John’s Church, with the tomb of Job Charnock the city’s founder, Town Hall, Writers’ Building, General Post Office and High Court (Gothic, unlike most of Calcutta). Government House, begun in 1799 by Governor-General Marquess Wellesley, was the grandest of the palaces. The Rabindra Bharati Museum is an 18th-cent. house which was the home of the poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore. Cross the Howrah Bridge, the huge cantilever steel structure over the Hooghly river opened in 1943, to see the Howrah Station, an Edwardian building which is still a vital testament to the importance of the railway in unifying British India. Overnight Calcutta.

Day 7: Calcutta. St Paul’s Cathedral, 1839–47, is one of the few Gothic buildings in Calcutta, and contains many good memorials and a superb Burne-Jones window. The huge domed Edwardian Baroque Victoria Memorial, by far the grandest building in Calcutta, was founded by Lord Curzon as a museum of British India and contains a magnificent collection of paintings and sculpture. The Belvedere was the residence of the Lieutenant Governors of Bengal and now houses the National Library.

Overnight Calcutta.

Day 8: Calcutta. South Park Street Cemetery is a beautiful as well as poignant burial ground in which so many of Calcutta’s early residents lie in or under remarkably magnificent and Bombay, 1931.

Day 4: Bombay. In the morning we experience a rather older India with a visit by boat to the famous caves on Elephanta Island, with their rock-cut architectural forms and sculptures dating from the 5th to the 8th centuries. In the afternoon we visit by special arrangement the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, the oldest in the city, founded as the Victorian and Albert Museum in 1855. Remainder of the afternoon free. Fourth and final night in Bombay.

Day 5: Bombay, Calcutta (Kolkata). Visit Mani Bhavan, the house which was used as Gandhi’s political headquarters in Bombay from 1917 until 1934 and from which he launched his campaign of civil disobedience against British rule. Then drive to the airport and fly to Calcutta, where we stay at the Oberoi Grand, a late 19th-cent. building. First of four nights in Calcutta.

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sophisticated monuments. The Indian Museum was established in 1814 by the Asiatic Society; its present home opened in 1878 and was the work of Walter Granville, architect of the Post Office and the High Court. It contains India’s most important collection of sculpture. Remainder of afternoon free. Last night in Calcutta.

Day 9: Calcutta. The Maghen David Synagogue of 1884 and the Armenian Church of 1707 survive as reminders of the cosmopolitan nature of the city before Independence. Fly to Delhi at c. 5.30pm (IndiGo). First of four nights in Delhi.

Day 10: Delhi. On this first day we shall explore the area north of Old Delhi. It was here that some of the fiercest fighting took place during the 1857 Mutiny; we see the Flagstaff Tower and the Mutiny Memorial. Here also the move of the capital from Calcutta to Delhi was announced at the 1911 Coronation Durbar; visit the temporary Viceregal Lodge, now part of Delhi University, occupied by the Viceroys until the new palace Lutyens designed for them was ready. Located inside the Kashmir Gate of Old Delhi, scene of desperate fighting in 1857, is St James’s or Skinner’s Church, with its unusual centralized plan built by a cavalry officer, Colonel James Skinner, in the 1830s. Overnight in Delhi.

Day 11: Delhi. This day is devoted to the magnificent Islamic architecture of Delhi.

Delhi is a very ancient city but its principal architectural glories date from the 17th century when it was the capital of the Mughal emperors.

Shah Jahan began the Red Fort and its palace in 1639 (the British nearly demolished them after 1857) with its open diwans (audience

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Sacred India

Ancient religious art & architecture chambers) and the Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) of white marble. The huge Jami Masjid (Friday Mosque) with its two noble minarets is one of the very finest Islamic buildings, and the 16th-cent. garden mausoleum of the Emperor Humayun is an outstanding example of earlier Islamic design. Some free time in the afternoon.

Overnight Delhi.

Day 12: New Delhi. The day is devoted to New Delhi, established in 1911 and inaugurated 20 years later. The magnificent group of government buildings at the heart of the low-density plan include the Secretariat and Parliament, both by Sir Herbert Baker, and the Viceroy’s House (now residence of the President) in which Sir Edwin Lutyens integrated Mughal, Hindu and Buddhist elements into his monumental Classical concept. Also by Lutyens, Hyderabad House is one of the palaces built for native princes; another such palace, Jaipur House, close to the All India Arch at the end of the long vista from Viceroy’s House, is now the National Gallery of Modern Art. Among the buildings designed by Lutyens’s disciples are the Anglican cathedral

by Henry Medd and the Garrison Church by Arthur Shoosmith, an astonishing building which is a 20th-cent. monument of rare distinction. Overnight Delhi.

2–15 March 2015 (mb 250) 14 days • £5,430 Lecturer: Charles Allen A journey through the heartland of India to see many of India’s most remarkable religious sites.

Varanasi, India’s most sacred city and Sarnath, where the Buddha preached his first sermon.

The Hindu temples of Khajuraho and the caves of Ajanta and Ellora.

Led by Charles Allen, acknowledged authority on ancient and colonial India.

‘The sacredness of India haunts me like a passion.’ So declared that great proconsul Lord Curzon just over a century ago. To this day the notion of India as a specially sanctified space continues to shape but perhaps also to distort our image of the subcontinent, thanks in part to the Beatles, the Guru Maharishi and the Swinging Sixties. But what really sets

India apart from other exotic corners of the globe is not so much its religiosity as the sheer abundance and variety of religious expression to be found there, together with the remarkable art and architecture it has generated.

It is through the visual arts that the religious impulse finds its finest expression, and in India that expression extends over a period of some 3,500 years, moving from the snake- , treeand fertility-goddess-worship of the original forest dwellers right through to the present.

This span of time encompasses the advent of the Aryan pastoralists with their Vedic gods; the challenges to Brahmanical authority by the founders of Buddhism and Jainism; Emperor Ashoka’s unifying imperial dharma; the counter-reformation of devotional Hinduism and the cults of Shiva, Vishnu and Krishna; and the advance of Islam in both Sufic and militant form – to say nothing of Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Christianity and even Judaism.

This ambitious and varied tour of India takes you on a journey through its very heartland which includes almost a dozen of India’s most

Khajuraho, façade of the Temple of Kali, wood engraving from India & its Native Princes 1876.

Day 13: Delhi to London. Fly from Delhi in the morning (British Airways), arriving in London Heathrow early afternoon.

Practicalities Price: £5,640 (deposit £500). Single supplement £960 (double room for single occupancy). Price without international flights: £5,190.

Included meals: nine lunches and six dinners with wine or beer.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Visas: see page 36.

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Accommodation. Taj Mahal Palace, Bombay (tajhotels.com): a centrally located iconic landmark. Oberoi Grand Hotel, Calcutta (oberoihotels.com): a luxury hotel located in the city centre, impeccable service. Oberoi Maidens Hotel, Old Delhi (oberoihotels.com): colonial charm and ideally located in the heart of the old city.

How strenuous? Sure-footedness is essential; uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. Unruly traffic and the busy streets of Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi also require vigilance. Average distance by coach per day: 17 miles.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Sacred India continued

remarkable religious sites, many of them on the World Heritage list. But it must be stressed that this is not a religious tour per se. Its object, quite simply, is to explore and, above all, enjoy India’s varied forms of religious experience in their proper context: not in museums and galleries but in those theatres where they have found their highest expression, both in terms of religious practice and artistic activity, whether beside the bathing ghats at Kashi, the City of Light (otherwise known as Benares and Varanasi), the finely carved temples at Khajuraho with their Tantric erotic carvings (yet to be fully understood), the ancient and austere rock-cut caves and temples at Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta, or the sublime artistry of the great Buddhist stupa complex at Sanchi.

Itinerary Days 1 & 2: London to Delhi. Fly from London Heathrow (British Airways) at about noon and after a 5½ hour time change reach the hotel in New Delhi at c. 3.00am. Free morning followed by lunch in the hotel. In the afternoon, visit the towering minaret and mosque at Qutb Minar, site of the first Islamic city of Delhi, established in 1193 on the grounds of a defeated Rajput fort.

Overnight Delhi.

Day 3: Delhi to Varanasi. Fly to Varanasi (Benares) (Jet Airways) in the morning.

Afternoon walk through the old city and a boat ride on the holy Ganges at sunset to witness the Aarti ritual. This fire offering, which dates back to the time of the Buddha himself and revived in the 19th century, is a daily blessing ceremony and a central element of the religious life of this sacred city. First of three nights in Varanasi.

Day 4: Sarnath, Varanasi. Sarnath is where the Buddha preached his first sermon and remains an active Buddhist centre. The Dhamek stupa in the Deer Park marks the spot where the Buddha sat to preach. The Sarnath museum houses the Ashokan lion capital, the symbol of modern India since independence. Afternoon visit to the Bharat Kala Bhavan, the university museum.

Overnight Varanasi.

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Day 5: Varanasi. An early morning boat ride to witness the morning prayers and ablutions of the devout is followed by a walk among the sacred temples and holy ponds of the south part of the city, near Assi Ghat. Breakfast on the ghats (stepped embankments). Some free time in the afternoon. Overnight Varanasi.

Day 6: Varanasi to Khajuraho. Fly to Khajuraho. The spectacular group of temples built during the Chandela Rajput dynasty (9th–11th-cent.) is celebrated for the beautifully carved erotic scenes. The Kandariya Mahadev Temple is one of the finest examples of North Indian temple architecture and is richly embellished with sensuous sculptures depicting the gods’ heavenly abodes. The Jagadambi Temple excels for its carvings of Vishnu. First of two nights in Khajuraho.

Charles Allen British writer and historian born in India where several generations of his family served under the British Raj. He has published numerous books, most recently Ashoka: The Search for India’s Lost Emperor, and in 2012 filmed a documentary for the National Geographic entitled Unearthing the Bones of the Buddha.

Day 7: Khajuraho. In the morning, visit the eastern group of temples with the intricately carved Jain Temple. The Chaturbhuj Temple is unique in its absence of any erotic depictions.

The afternoon is at leisure with an optional return visit to the western group of temples.

Overnight Khajuraho.

Day 8: Khajuraho to Bhopal. Leaving at 8.00am, we drive to Jhansi and take an express train (3½ hours) to Bhopal in the afternoon. Arrival at the hotel c.6.00pm. First of two nights in Bhopal.

Day 9: Sanchi, Vidisha. Remotely located in open, hilly and sparsely populated countryside, Sanchi is one of the treasures of India and a unesco heritage site. On top of a hill with lovely views all around, the site was supposedly founded by the Great Ashoka. The 2nd-cent. ad stupa with stone railings and four magnificently elaborately carved gateways survives almost intact. Nearby Vidisha was an important Hindu centre under the Gupta dynasty as seen in the majestic carving of Varaha, the boar incarnation of Vishnu. Overnight Bhopal.

Day 10: Bhopal to Mumbai. In the morning, fly to Mumbai. The Dr Bhau Daji Lad City Museum (built 1885) was formerly known as the Victoria & Albert and is the oldest museum in Mumbai. A private visit led by the curator explores the city’s distinctive communities and their respective religious practices. Overnight Mumbai.

Day 11: Mumbai, Aurangabad. In the morning, take a privately chartered boat to Elephanta Island. The largest of the two groups is dedicated to Lord Shiva. The relief panels depict the god in various forms. The central Trimurti image, or three-headed Shiva, is said to represent the three aspects of the deity and considered a masterpiece of Gupta art.

After lunch, fly to Aurangabad. First of three nights in Aurangabad.

Day 12: Ajanta. Cut into the volcanic lava of the Deccan plateau, the Buddhist caves at Ajanta were first excavated around the 2nd cent. bc.

A later group of caves was built during the Gupta era in the 5th-6th cent. ad before the site was abandoned in the 7th century in favour of

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Ellora. Celebrated for their fine statuary and the refined wall paintings, they are often considered one of the greatest achievements in Indian art.

Overnight Aurangabad.

Day 13: Ellora. With their uninterrupted sequence spanning four centuries, the caves and rock-cut temples at Ellora are both artistic masterpieces and technological achievements.

The various monasteries dedicated to Buddhism, Jainism and Brahmanism also attest to the religious tolerance which prevailed under the Rashtrakuta dynasty. The impressive rock-cut, monolithic Kailashanatha Temple marks the transition between rock-cut and structural architecture, which took place around the 8th century across the Deccan.

Overnight in Aurangabad.

Day 14: Mumbai. Fly early in the morning to Mumbai to connect with the BA flight to London, arriving at Heathrow c. 6.00pm.

Practicalities Price: £5,430 (deposit £500). Single occupancy supplement £680. Price without international flights £4,890.

Included meals: ten lunches (including one packed) and nine dinners with wine or beer.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Accommodation. The Taj Mahal, Delhi (tajhotels.com): a modern and comfortable hotel in the heart of Lutyens’s Delhi. The Taj Gateway Ganges, Varanasi (thegatewayhotels.com): large, functional 4-star hotel, close to the centre within in 40 acres of garden. The Lalit Temple, Khajuraho (thelalit.com): a modern hotel within walking distance of the main site, surrounded by a well-tended garden. The Jehan Numa Palace, Bhopal (jehannuma.com): former royal residence on the edge of the city. The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai (tajhotels.com): a centrally located iconic landmark. The Taj Residency, Aurangabad (vivantabytaj.com): pleasant hotel set amid well-tended gardens.

Visas: see page 36.

How strenuous? Sure-footedness is essential to board the river boats. Unruly traffic and the busy streets of larger cities require vigilance.

There are some fairly steep ascents to hilltop forts and temples and numerous steps in Ajanta and Ellora. There are 2 coach journeys over 2 hours during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Average distance by coach per day: 38 miles.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Indian Summer

Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Shimla 30 March–11 April 2015 (mb 272) 13 days • £5,320 Lecturer: Raaja Bhasin A fascinating selection of places which have the common feature of relating to the last years of the Raj. Led by Raaja Bhasin, historian, author, lecturer and Shimla resident.

Shimla, the grandest hill station, the buildings a hotch-potch of bastardised European styles.

Reached by the famous mountain ‘toy train’.

Chandigarh, the modern ideal city built by Le Corbusier.

Amritsar, The Porcelain Dome, watercolour by Mortimer Menpes, publ. 1912.

nationalism. Even Winston Churchill was moved enough to remark, ‘It is an extraordinary event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation’.

The border with Pakistan is close to Amritsar, and with belligerence which is almost histrionic, the sundown ceremony of lowering the flags and closing the gates is played out daily. Nearby is the former princely state of Kapurthala where the Francophile ruler, Jagatjit Singh, completed a palace in 1908, loosely modelled on Versailles. He tried to introduce French as his court language.

When the Punjab was divided between India and Pakistan in 1947 the state capital Lahore was replaced in the Indian portion by a brand new city, Chandigarh. Its building in the 1950s was a deliberate break with the past. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru called it ‘a new city of free India, totally fresh and wholly responsive to the future generations of this great country.’

Led by Le Corbusier, the city design and urban elements were unabashedly modern and western. Still admired and criticized in equal measure by planners, architects and urban historians, it is yet rated as among the best cities in India in which to live.

Itinerary Days 1 & 2: London to Delhi. Fly from London Heathrow (British Airways) at c. 9.30am and, after a 5½-hour time change, reach the hotel in New Delhi early the following morning.

Nothing is planned before a pre-lunch talk. In the afternoon, visit Old Delhi for a short walk

on The Ridge, taking in Flagstaff Tower, a safe haven for the British during the Mutiny of 1857.

The Mutiny Memorial commemorating those killed in action is a Neo-Gothic spire with elements of Indian design. First of three nights in New Delhi.

Day 3: New Delhi. New Delhi was created 1912–31 by Lutyens, Baker and others as a uniquely grand and spacious city. The Secretariat buildings on Raisina Hill are Classical at first glance, but closer inspection reveals Buddhist and Mughal motifs. Subject to special permission, it may be possible to visit the interior of the vast Rashtrapati Bhavan, the former Viceroy’s residence. The fortresslike garrison church of St Martin, designed

by Arthur Shoosmith (1930), has been called one of the great buildings of the 20th century.

Overnight New Delhi.

Day 4: Delhi to Amritsar. The Teen Murthi Bhavan was built in Classical style in the 1930s as Flagstaff House before becoming the home of the first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Today, it is a museum dedicated to one of the fathers of modern India. Fly from Delhi to Amritsar (SpiceJet) at c. 2.00pm. First of two nights in Amritsar.

Day 5: Amritsar, Wagah. Amritsar was founded by the 4th Sikh guru in 1579 and is home to Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple.

The sacred lake surrounding the temple dates from this period but the current form of the temple is 18th-cent., and the gilt early 19th-cent.

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Both the high noon of the British Empire in India and its closing years were played out in the city of Delhi and in the ‘summer capital’, Simla (now Shimla), dubbed by many the grandest outpost of the Pax Britannica. Tracing the ebb and flow of the Raj in two imperial capitals, this tour covers architecture, events, lifestyles, landscapes of the Western Himalaya and numerous stories of places and people. Amritsar is part of this story, and Chandigarh provides a glimpse into Indian Utopia after Independence.

Built, destroyed and rebuilt a dozen times, Delhi is one of the oldest cities in the world, and also one of the most multilayered. It is home to some fifteen million people and its heterogeneous population has genetic strands that span the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and several other parts of the world. Today, towers of chrome and steel stand side by side with centuries-old monuments built by the Mughal rulers. Between the two, the immense architectural momentum of the Raj culminated in the creation of New Delhi, still the core of this fast-expanding city.

Up in the hills of the Western Himalaya, Simla was the summer capital of British India, the grandest of the British hill stations. For around a century, a fifth of the human race was ruled from its heights for the better part of every year. The architecture is practically a gazetteer of western styles, but often with a twist, a nod to the heritage of the subcontinent.

The town created an enigmatic way of life and the steamier side of its social world gave inspiration to Rudyard Kipling, who as a young correspondent spent some summers amidst the cedars. Many decisions that shaped India and the region were made within sight of the snow-clad Himalayas. Today it is the capital of the state of Himachal Pradesh and many of the grander buildings, bungalows and streets still evoke the heyday of a past age.

West of it lies the fertile ‘Land of Five Rivers’, the Punjab. Here is the sacred city of Amritsar, site of the Golden Temple, the most sacred shrine of the Sikh faith. This was also where the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in 1919, when a crowd of unarmed civilians was fired upon. The event totally altered the face of Indian

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Indian Summer continued

of demonstrators against British rule in 1919 and now is a moving memorial garden. In the afternoon, drive to Wagah for the theatrical sunset closing ceremony of the border with Pakistan. Overnight Amritsar.

Day 6: Kapurthala, Chandigarh. In the morning, drive to Kapurthala, where the local ruler, an ardent francophile, built his palace (1900–1908) loosely modelled on the palace of Versailles and the chateau of Fontainebleau. Now a boys’ school, the interior is lavish, while the gardens are embellished by fountains and statuary in the traditional French style. Continue to Chandigarh to arrive at the hotel in time for dinner. First of two nights in Chandigarh.

Day 7: Chandigarh. The joint capital of the states of Haryana and Punjab emerged from the partition of the Punjab in 1947. Conceived

by Le Corbusier and Maxwell Fry following the principles of the International Modern movement, it is laid out on the grid principle.

The Capital Complex is the home of the administrative buildings, the ‘head’ of the city and some of Le Corbusier’s most ambitious planning. Overnight Chandigarh.

Day 8: Chandigarh, Shimla. Transfer to Kalka in the foothills of the Himalayas to board the ‘toy train’ to Shimla. The Kalka–Shimla Railway

has been operating daily since 1903 and is a remarkable feat of engineering. After a 5-hour ride through stunning scenery, transfer to the hotel. First of three nights in Shimla.

Day 9: Shimla, Mashobra. The former summer capital of British India, Shimla is set in the lush pine and cedar forests of the Himalayan foothills. Its impressive colonial architecture is best admired through walks along the Mall.

Viceregal Lodge, the summer residence of the British viceroy is probably Shimla’s best-known building. Built in 1888, the grey sandstone structure retains the British royal coat of arms on its façade. After lunch at Wildflower Hall, visit Bishop Cotton School, Shimla’s oldest educational institution, founded in 1859.

Overnight Shimla.

Day 10: Shimla. Walk eastward along The Mall towards Christ Church. The Gaiety Theatre was built in 1887 as the original Town Hall.

The Gothic building has been the centre of Shimla’s social life for over a century. The tower of Christ Church (1857) dominates Shimla’s skyline from the Ridge, above the town. Time for independent exploration in the afternoon.

Overnight Shimla.

Day 11: Kasauli, Chandigarh. Morning drive to Kasauli via Dagshai, scene of the Connaught Rangers’ Mutiny in 1920. The Central Jail (1849)

Raaja Bhasin Author, historian and journalist. He has published several books on the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and its capital Shimla and is a recognised authority on both. He is the state Co-convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. is where the executions took place. The pretty hill station of Kasauli has some interesting 19thcent. buildings such as Christ Church and the Kasauli Club. Afternoon drive to Chandigarh.

Overnight Chandigarh.

Day 12: Chandigarh to Delhi. In the morning, fly to Delhi. Coronation Park in north Delhi was the location of the 1911 Durbar, at which George V announced the shift of the British capital from Calcutta. Following Independence, it became the resting place of the statues of kings and officials of the British Raj. Overnight New Delhi.

Day 13: Delhi to London. Rise early for the flight, arriving Heathrow at c. 1.00pm.

Practicalities Price: £5,320 (deposit £500). Single occupancy supplement £760. Price without international flights: £4,610.

Included meals: eight lunches and eight dinners with wine or beer.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Accommodation. Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi (tajhotels.com): 5-star centrally located hotel. Ranjit Svaasa, Amritsar (svaasa.com/ htmlwebsite): colonial mansion converted into a characterful boutique hotel. Taj Chandigarh, Chandigarh (tajhotels.com): modern 4-star city hotel. The Oberoi Cecil, Shimla (oberoihotels. com): landmark 19th-cent. building, converted into a luxury hotel in the 1930s.

Visas: see page 36.

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How strenuous? There are some steep walks.

Unruly traffic and the busy streets of larger cities require some vigilance. There is a 5-hour train journey during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Average distance by coach per day: 33 miles.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

Left: Amritsar, The Golden Temple, engraving from Across India in the 20th Century 1898.

30 book online at www.martinrandall.com

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Temples of Tamil Nadu

Architecture, sculpture & ancient rituals 26 January–8 February 2015 (mb 232) 14 days • £4,790 Lecturer: Asoka Pugal The art and architecture of Hinduism, and its chronological development, in the southernmost state of the Subcontinent.

Includes Mamallapuram, Thanjavur, Srirangam and Madurai.

Looks at other aspects of India in Pondicherry, the Chettinad region and elsewhere.

Lush tropical landscapes, rice paddies, sugar cane, coconut groves, neat colourful villages.

Madurai, wood engraving by William and Thomas Daniell 1812.

including water tanks and great pillared halls.

Temple complexes became powerful economic units, housing a multiplicity of functions – ritual, administrative, artistic, musical, educational and charitable.

The tour covers several of these later complexes, each of them still thronging with life as a thriving cult centre. To wander in the streets of temple towns such as Chidambaram and Srirangam reveals how the temple determines the nature of the whole settlement, both in its formal layout and in the ritual and processional activities that punctuate the religious calendar.

As well as the dazzling range of sculpture that forms an inseparable part of South Indian temple architecture, there are rare remnants of early Indian painting which developed in parallel. The tour enables participants to examine traces of painting from the Pallava period, the unique eighth-century murals in the Jain cave temple at Sittanavasal, and the wonderful Chola murals in the Brihadishvara, Thanjavur, as well as works of the Nayaka period and the later Tanjore school.

Other aspects of the tour complement the focus on temples. The courtyard houses of Chettinad were the homes of Chettiar merchants, a community whose patronage of temples in the colonial period helped to ensure the continuation of the Dravida tradition. The former French colony of Pondicherry contains interesting architectural examples of crosscultural interaction.

Itinerary Days 1 & 2: London to Chennai (Madras). Fly from London Heathrow (British Airways) at c. 9.30am direct to Chennai, and after a 5½hour time change reach the hotel at c. 2.30am.

Nothing is planned before a pre-lunch talk. In the afternoon, visit the bronze collection of the Government Museum. Overnight Chennai.

Day 3: Chennai, Mamallapuram. Drive to Mamallapuram, in the morning. After lunch, visit the 7th-cent. cave temples with mythological relief panels, including the extraordinarily dynamic Mahishasuramardini (Durga slaying the buffalo demon) and the great Arjuna’s penance relief (‘Descent of the Ganges’). Overnight Mamallapuram.

Day 4: Mamallapuram. The elegant Shore Temple combines shrines to Shiva and Vishnu.

The 7th-cent. monolithic shrines, including the so-called five rathas (chariots), are a veritable catalogue of the architectural possibilities inherent in the Dravida tradition at this early stage, which clearly evolved out of the early wooden architectural tradition.

Overnight Mamallapuram.

Day 5: Kanchipuram. Once the Pallava capital and still an important holy city, Kanchipuram is full of ancient temples. The Kailasanatha Temple, the cosmic mountain of Pallava ruler Rajasimha (c. 700–728) dedicated to Shiva, is within a walled compound and girdled with shrines. The rarely visited Vaikunta Perumal Temple has a sculptural programme depicting Te l e p h o n e + 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 8 7 4 2 3 3 5 5

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Since its formative phase in the seventh century ad, the southern or Dravida tradition of Indian temple architecture has shown an extraordinary continuity up to the present day, reflecting the continuity of religious practices which it has framed. This tour traces the development of that tradition throughout its history, offering an experience of its whole range of expression, from sensuous intimacy to monumental grandeur.

Like the architectural tradition, the tour begins with the seventh-century temples of the Pallava dynasty at their seaport of Mamallapuram: rock-cut cave sanctuaries where mythological moments are presented in overwhelming relief carvings, and monolithic shrines conceived as palaces of the gods. The famous shore temple belongs to the eighth century. By this time the Pallava rulers could aspire to the status of universal monarch, and Rajasimha, at his capital Kanchipuram, built the great Kailasanatha (Lord of Mount Kailasa), a ‘temple mountain’ that represents the entire cosmos, linking the human world with the heavens.

Smaller temples were the rule, however, erected in villages and at sacred sites as agriculture and Hindu society expanded across the region. The tour includes examples from the Chola period (ninth to thirteenth centuries) in the Cauvery basin, noted for their exquisite sculpture in granite. From this fertile heartland the cultural influence of the Chola realm spread across the seas to Southeast Asia.

In complete contrast to the human scale of local shrines, the imperial Chola temples of the eleventh and twelfth centuries are India’s most colossal religious monuments. With its 60m-high tower, the Brihadishvara temple at Thanjavur (Tanjore) uses forty times as much stone as the average Chola temple. Assigned to this establishment were no fewer than four hundred dancing girls.

The later Chola temples initiated the trend towards ever larger temple complexes, with concentric enclosures entered through towering gopurams (gateways). These ‘templecities’ reached their apogee under the Nayaka rulers (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries), enclosures and gopurams being added on an increasingly monumental scale, the precincts

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL Temples of Tamil Nadu continued

has some of the finest early Chola sculpture.

The Mahamakam tank (17th-cent.) is said to unite the waters of all India’s sacred rivers. At Darasuram, the Airavateshvara temple (12thcent.) is a late Chola masterpiece (1146–72), beguilingly sensuous and architecturally lucid.

The Sthala Puranam Temple at Swamimalai, dedicated to Lord Murugan (son of Shiva), is on a hill with city views. Overnight Veppathur.

Day 9: Thanjavur. Drive to Thanjavur to visit the Brihadishvara, Rajaraja I’s colossal imperial temple (c. 1010). The compound is entered via the earliest of the truly monumental gopurams and also contains a variety of subsidiary shrines, including the finely chiselled Subrahmanya (17th-cent.). The museum in the Nayaka palace houses a fine collection of Chola sculpture, including bronzes. Lunch is at a resort on the attractive banks of the Cauvery River. In the afternoon, drive to the Chettinad region for the first of two nights in Kanadukathan.

Madurai, temple gate, watercolour by W.S. Bagdatopulas publ. 1935.

the origin and history of the Pallava kings.

The Ekambareshvara Temple, with its towering gopurams of the Vijayanagara period (16th-cent.), gives a first taste of a large temple complex still very much in use.

Overnight Mamallapuram.

Day 6: Pondicherry. Pondicherry (two hours by coach) is a former French enclave acquired in 1674 which retains much of its colonial charm. Two respective walks in the French Quarter and the Tamil Quarter highlights the dual cultural heritage of this pleasant seaside town. Overnight Pondicherry.

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Day 7: Chidambaram, Gangaikondacholapuram. The temple town of Chidambaram is planned on the mandala principle around the 12th-cent. Nataraja Temple. Home to Shiva as the cosmic dancer, there is sculpture depicting classical dance and lively 17thcent. narrative ceiling paintings. Continue to Gangaikondacholapuram, the ‘City of the Chola who conquered the Ganges’: the Brihadishvara is a gigantic imperial Chola temple erected by Rajendra I (1012–44). The composition of the tower is subtle and complex. First of two nights in Veppathur, near Kumbakonam.

Day 8: Kumbakonam, Darasuram, Swamimalai. Kumbakonam is a thriving town with numerous temples from the Chola period and later, including the Nageshvara which

Day 10: Srirangam, Nattarmalai, Sittanavasal.

Srirangam is a classic temple town dominated by the concentric enclosures of the huge Ranganatha temple complex (13th cent. onwards). Among the numerous structures is the Rangavilasa Mandapa with columns teeming with sculpture. The 9th-cent.

Vijayalaya-Cholishvara temple is set in a beautiful hilly landscape at Nattarmalai.

Continue through enchanting countryside to the Arivar Koil cave temple (8th-cent.) containing vibrant mural paintings evoking the abundance of nature. Overnight Kanadukathan, near Karaikudi.

Day 11: Alagarkovil, Madurai. A relaxing morning walk through the small Chettinad town of Kanadukathan. Visit a family mansion, a fine example of shared accommodation according to the Chettiar tradition. In the afternoon drive to Madurai, via Alagarkovil, a hilltop temple dedicated to Kallalagar, a form of Vishnu. First of two nights in Madurai.

Day 12: Madurai. The vast Meenakshi Temple complex, mostly erected in the 17th cent. under the Nayaka rulers when Madurai was an independent kingdom, is the epitome of a South Indian ‘temple-city’. Its towering gateways, swathed in coloured figures, rise up to 60m.

The Pudu mandapa is an open hall with huge and exuberant sculpted piers with portrait sculptures of Nayaka kings and ministers. The grand pillared Celestial Pavilion is all that remains of the 17th-cent. Thirumalai Nayaka Palace. Overnight Madurai.

Day 13: Thiruparankundram, Chennai.

The 8th-cent. Pandyan Temple at Thiruparankundram, cut into a granite hill, is considered one of the sacred abodes of Murugan. The shrine contains depictions of Durga and Ganesh and is approached by a series of mandapas (17th- and 18th-cents.).

Afternoon flight Madurai to Chennai (SpiceJet).

Overnight Chennai.

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Asoka Pugal Historian and lecturer.

Born in Tamil Nadu, he graduated in History from the University of Madras followed by postgraduate studies at Madras Law College. He has been working in the tourist industry for the past thirty years as well as in television producing documentaries.

Day 14. The only direct flight from Chennai leaves at 4.00am and arrives at London Heathrow at c. 9.30am.

Practicalities Price: £4,790 (deposit £450). Single supplement £660. Price without international flights £4,150.

Included meals: eleven lunches (including 2 packed) and nine dinners with wine or beer.

Components included as standard in the price for all tours are listed on page 4.

Visas: See page 36.

Accommodation. The Taj Coromandel, Chennai (tajhotels.com): a comfortable heritage hotel with Art Deco rooms. The Temple Bay, Mamallapuram (radissonblu.com/hotelmamallapuram): a seafront resort with direct access to the beach. The Palais de Mahé, Pondicherry (cghearth.com/palaisdemahe): an attractively restored 18th-century mansion in the heart of the French Quarter. The Mantra Resort, Veppathur, near Kumbakonam (mantraveppathur.com): cottage rooms set in a peaceful, rural location, immersed in a garden of coconut palms with a pool. Visalam, Kanadukathan, near Karaikudi (cghearth.com/ visalam): an attractive and sensitively restored mid 20th-century Chettinad mansion in the heart of a small town. The Taj Gateway, Madurai (thegatewayhotels.com): set in 60 acres of lush garden on Pasumalai Hill, a very comfortable hotel furnished in colonial style. The Trident Hotel, Chennai (tridenthotels.com): a well-run 4-star hotel conveniently located for access to the airport.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. There are some fairly steep ascents to temples. During coach journeys facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Most sites have some shade but the Indian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons.

Please also see our general fitness requirements on page 36, and our self-assessment fitness tests which you must take before booking.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

The Middle East

Tours in Iran, Oman, Jordan, Israel & Palestine

Please contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.com Above left: Examples of Arabic design, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, 1865. Right: The Convent of Mar Saba, Palestine, wood engraving c. 1880.

Persia

Essential Jordan

Israel & Palestine

21–29 March 2015 (mb 259) 9 days • £3,360 Lecturer: Jane Taylor

24 March–2 April 2015 (mb 261) 10 days • £4,280 Lecturer: Dr Garth Gilmour

24 October–1 November 2015 (mc 506) 9 days • £3,360 Lecturers: Sue Rollin & Jane Streetly

13–22 October 2015 (mc 492) 10 days • £4,430 Lecturer: Dr Garth Gilmour

Outstanding monuments of several civilizations – Nabatean, Roman, Early Christian, Umayyad, Crusader. Three nights are spent at Petra, the most impressive archaeological site in the Middle East.

Some of the most significant and evocative archaeological sites, and architecture from Herod to Bauhaus. Ancient walled towns, landscapes from rocky deserts to verdant valleys and several days in Jerusalem, the world’s most extraordinary city.

Oman

Jordan Revisited

Palestine

16–26 November 2015 (mc 526) 11 days/10 nights • £4,670 Lecturer: Professor Dawn Chatty

12–21 April 2015 (mb 284) 10 days • £3,640 Lecturer: Jane Taylor

12–20 October 2015 (mc 483) 9 days • £3,460 Lecturer: Felicity Cobbing

Remarkable landscapes, hill forts, traditional souqs, archaeological sites,; a diverse population reflecting its mercantile past. Accompanied by a social anthropologist long involved in the Middle East. Hotels are comfortable to superb, with one night in a desert camp.

An alternative itinerary, largely away from the crowds, devised for people who have visited Jordan before but equally valid for first-timers.

Hellenistic, Roman, Ottoman architecture and artefacts. Special arrangements. Two optional walks through striking landscapes.

A pioneering tour which includes the major archaeological sites and the most significant historic buildings on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. Led by Felicity Cobbing, curator of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

Ancient & Islamic Iran 23 April–7 May 2015 (mb 384) 15 days/14 nights • £4,370 Lecturer: Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones 4–18 September 2015 (mc 455) 15 days/14 nights • £4,370 Lecturer: Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones A selection of the most interesting cities, buildings and archaeological sites in this vast and varied country. Three full days in each of Isfahan and Tehran, and ample time in Shiraz and Yazd. At the time of writing there is no British embassy or consulate in Iran and the Foreign Office advises against travel. Unless these circumstances change we will not run these tours.

Archaeology, architecture & landscapes off the beaten track

Archaeology, architecture & art in the Holy Land

Archaeology & architecture of the West Bank

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more destinations

Peoples, customs & landscapes of Arabia

The major Nabatean, Roman, Christian & Islamic sites

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Nor th Africa

Algeria, Egypt & Morocco

Above left: Moorish design, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, 1865. Right: Constantine, Algeria, watercolour by Frances E. Nesbitt, publ. 1906.

Roman Algeria

Ancient Egypt

Morocco

5–13 October 2015 (mc 477) 9 days • £3,320 Lecturer: Anthony Sattin

5–16 October 2015 (mc 489) 12 days • £3,880 Lecturer: Professor John Ray

22 March–2 April 2015 (mb 271) 11 nights • £4,170 Lecturer: James Brown

2–10 November 2015 (mc 517) 9 days • £3,320 Lecturer: Barnaby Rogerson

A comprehensive introduction to Pharaonic Egypt visiting the principal sites from Giza to Abu Simbel. Led by Professor Ray, a leading authority. A full and busy tour but it avoids rush and allows time to absorb and reflect.

13–24 September 2015 (mc 466) 11 nights • £4,170 Lecturer: James Brown

Outposts of Empire

Tipasa, Djemela and Timgad, three of North Africa’s most exceptional Roman sites, usually devoid of tourists. Charming city of Algiers, Alger La Blanche, with its 19th- and early-20th-century European architecture and authentic Casbah. Constantine, Algeria’s most alluring city.

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“So impressed with the smooth movement of sixteen individuals around three hotels in three cities and innumerable ancient sites. Breathtaking.”

“An excellent overview of Morocco – ancient and modern.”

From Cairo to Abu Simbel

Antiquities of Upper Egypt

Highlights of Luxor & Aswan 13–19 April 2015 (mb 283) 7 days • £3,170 Lecturer: Dr Robert Morkot Some of the most extraordinary sites in antiquity, many currently without the usual crowds. Comfortable pace, the best hotels: on the tranquil West Bank in Luxor, in Aswan at The Old Cataract.

Please contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.com

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Cities & empires

From Tangier to Marrakech, via the imperial cities of Fez and Meknes, and the magnificent Roman ruins at Volubilis. Spectacular landscapes: the Atlas Mountains, palm groves, woodland, desert. See the sun set over the sand dunes at Merzouga.

Andalusian Morocco Legacy of a remarkable cultural exchange 13–21 May 2015 (mb 330) 8 nights • £3,210 Lecturer: James Brown A unique approach to northern Morocco’s heritage and relationship with southern Spain.

Includes three nights in Rabat, Morocco’s often overlooked but charming capital. Excellent hotels and restaurants throughout.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Central Asia & Anatolia Uzbekistan & Turkey

Above left: Boghazköy, Turkey, lithograph c. 1840. Right: Turkish design, from The Grammar of Ornament by Owen Jones, 1865.

Samarkand & Silk Road Cities with Khiva, Bukhara, Tashkent & Shakhrisabz 19–29 May 2015 (mb 315) 11 days/10 nights • £3,290 Lecturer: Sue Rollin 1–11 September 2015 (mc 444) 11 days/10 nights • £3,290 Lecturer: Professor James Allan 22 September–2 October 2015 (mc 457) 11 days/10 nights • £3,290 Lecturer: Dr Peter Webb

“I thought this trip was outstanding, in conception, input and execution.”

“All the sites were wonderful, with individual characteristics that avoided repetition.”

Greeks & Romans in Anatolia 11–20 May 2015 (mb 319) 10 days • £3,430 Lecturer: Henry Hurst The western seaboard of Anatolia was the most prosperous region of the Mediterranean world from the Hellenistic kingdoms to the end of the Roman empire, bequeathing the finest collection of city ruins to be found anywhere.

Eastern Turkey

Archaeology, architecture, history & landscapes 9–24 May 2015 (mb 309) 16 days • £4,460 Lecturer: Rowena Loverance 3-18 October 2015 (mc 472) 16 days • £4,460 Lecturer: Rowena Loverance A journey through Turkey from Gaziantep to Lake Van, to Mount Ararat and the Black Sea. Wide ranging themes, ever-changing landscapes and varied architecture including Byzantine and Georgian churches, Seljuk mosques and Armenian monasteries.

Istanbul

Byzantine & Ottoman metropolis 13 -19 September 2015 (mc 436) 7 days • £2,570 Lecturer: Jane Taylor Study of a uniquely diverse and fascinating city.

Major Roman remains, magnificent Byzantine churches, glorious mosaics and frescoes, an unequalled range of great mosques and palaces with art museums to match.

Central Anatolia

Cappadocia & the civilizations at the heart of Turkey 9–21 April 2015 (mb 282) 13 days • £4,080 Lecturer: Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones Endlessly fascinating journey through an extraordinary variety of landscapes and civilizations. From the ancient capital of the Hittites to Turkey’s modern capital, Ankara, via the troglydite frescoes of Cappadocia and Seljuk architecture at Divriği.

Please contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.com Te l e p h o n e + 4 4 ( 0 ) 2 0 8 7 4 2 3 3 5 5

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Some of the most glorious sights in the Islamic world. Magnificent mosques and madrassas, acres of wonderful wall tiles, intact streetscape, memorable landscapes. Remote and remarkably unspoilt.

Classical Turkey

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Fur ther practical information & more about our policies & style Visas

Tailoring the package

China & India. British citizens and most other foreign nationals require a tourist visa. The current cost for UK nationals is around £66 for China and £90 for India, including service fees. This is not included in the price of the tour because you have to procure it yourself.

You need to submit your passport to the visa application centre in your country of residence prior to departure – we will advise on the procedure. Processing times vary from country to country but UK residents should expect to be without their passport for up to ten days.

We can provide a tour without the international flights, allowing you to make your own travel arrangements. A price for this is given in each tour description.

Japan. Tourist visas are not required for British, Australian and many other foreign nationals.

Fitness requirements & tests A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, these tours are not for you.

Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. On many tours there are fairly steep ascents to hilltop forts and temples. Unruly traffic and the busy streets of larger cities require some vigilance. There are some long coach journeys during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Most sites have some shade; the Indian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons.

Self-assessment tests. We ask that all participants take these quick and simple tests to ascertain whether they are fit enough: 1. Chair stands. Sit in a dining chair, with arms folded and hands on opposite shoulders. Stand up and sit down at least 8 times in 30 seconds.

2. Step test. Mark a wall at a height that is halfway between your knee and your hip bone.

Raise each knee in turn to the mark at least 60 times in 2 minutes.

3. Agility test. Place an object 3 yards from the edge of a chair, sit, and record the time it takes to stand up, walk to the object and sit back down. You should be able to do this in under 7 seconds.

practical details 36

An additional indication of the fitness required, though we are not asking you to measure this, is that you should be able to walk unaided at a pace of three miles per hour for at least half an hour at a time, and to stand unsupported for at least fifteen minutes.

Health & hygiene, food & drink Participants will be sent information about inoculations and other precautionary measures.

A course of malaria tablets is advisable for some of the India tours.

Bottled water is provided at the hotels, in the coaches and at restaurants. Some special dietary requirements might be difficult to cope with,

though vegetarianism in India is well catered for. In India, stomach upsets are not uncommon despite higher levels of hygiene in restaurants.

Similarly, China does not have European standards but conditions are constantly improving. The Japanese are fanatical about cleanliness and this is generally reflected in high levels of hygiene.

Air, road & rail Upgrades. The package prices are based on standard or economy fares but we can quote for other classes on international flights upon request. Most internal flights are one-class only.

In India, roads are improving rapidly, and we only use modern, air-conditioned coaches.

Speed and comfort on railways do not compare with Europe but the experience provides scenic interest. In China and Japan rail travel is generally very good, if not excellent.

Hotels & restaurants We select our hotels with great care. Nearly all have been stayed in, not merely inspected, by one or more members of our staff.

The importance we attach to charm, character, location and warmth of welcome might count against the most prestigious establishments.

Outside the principal cities, the hotels we use are usually the best in the area.

Many of the hotels we have selected are as good as or better than ones we use in Europe and the Middle East. But because some of our tours travel to parts where few mainstream tourists go, not all of them are top category. All, however, have en suite bathrooms and are adequately comfortable and clean. If we deem that the hotels in a particular area are not of the requisite standard, we do not send tours to that area.

Single supplement. Most hotels charge for the room irrespective of the number of occupants.

Single travellers are therefore effectively charged double. To mitigate this unfairness, we subsidise solo travellers by charging less for the single supplement than the hotel charges us.

As with hotels, we choose restaurants with care, though sometimes there is not much choice.

Generally we select local dishes, though many hotel restaurants offer international menus as an alternative.

book online at www.martinrandall.com

Please ask if you would like to travel to the destination in advance of the tour or to return later. Hotels, transfers and other services can be booked through us. We regret we cannot arrange extensions to places we do not visit on our tours as we cannot guarantee the standards of service and accommodation. For any change to the package there would be a fee – for a change to flights it would be £80 – in addition to any extra costs.

Private tours. We would be happy to discuss the possibility of versions of these tours for groups of friends and family or for societies and affinity groups.

Weather & clothing We choose dates for tours which avoid periods of extreme weather. In India, even in winter (November to April), most of the country can be quite hot. For most days on most of the tours you would not need a top over a shirt. On the other hand, in northern India it can be quite cool, especially at night and in the early morning.

Temperature changes in China and Japan are less extreme. The climate tends to be more temperate in spring and autumn.

Information about weather and guidance concerning dress specific to each tour is given to clients upon booking.

Small groups & congenial company We strictly limit the numbers on the tours. The maximum is 20 or 22, as specified in the tour description, though most run with fewer. The higher costs of smaller numbers are outweighed by the benefits of manoeuvrability, social cohesion and access to the lecturer.

Not the least attractive aspect of travelling with Martin Randall Travel is that you are highly likely to find yourself in congenial company, self-selected by common interests and endorsement of the company’s ethos.

Care for our clients We aim for faultless administration from your first encounter with us to the end of the holiday, and beyond. Personal service is a feature. And if anything does go wrong, we will put it right or compensate appropriately. We want you to come back again and again – as most of our clients do.

We never forget our clients are responsible adults, deserving of respect and courtesy at all times.

Illustration: Kyoto, watercolour by Mortimer Menpes, publ. 1912.

MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

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MARTIN RANDALL TRAVEL

Booking details Making a booking 1. Provisional booking We recommend that you contact us first to make a provisional booking which we will hold for one week. To confirm it please send the booking form and deposit within this period.

Alternatively, you can make a definite booking straight away at www.martinrandall.com

2. Definite booking Fill in the booking form and send it to us with the deposit (specified in the tour description).

It is important that you read the Booking Conditions at this stage, and that you sign the booking form. Full payment is required if you are booking within ten weeks of departure.

3. Our confirmation Upon receipt of the booking form and deposit we shall send you confirmation of your booking.

After this your deposit is non-returnable except in the special circumstances mentioned in the Booking Conditions. Further details of the tour will also be sent at this stage.

other countries should ascertain whether visas are required in their case, and obtain them if so.

an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought or a suitable alternative (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder.

However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable). If we, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suitable alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme.

You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against us (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims maybe re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme.

Booking Conditions Please read these You need to sign your assent to these booking conditions on the booking form.

Our promises to you We aim to be fair, reasonable and sympathetic in all our dealings with clients, and to act always with integrity.

We will meet all our legal and regulatory responsibilities, often going beyond the minimum obligations.

We aim to provide full and accurate information about our holidays. If there are changes, we will tell you promptly.

If something does go wrong, we will try to put it right. Our overriding aim is to ensure that every client is satisfied with our services.

All we ask of you That you read the information we send to you.

Specific terms Our contract with you. From the time we receive your signed booking form and initial payment, a contract exists between you and Martin Randall Travel Ltd. Eligibility. We reserve the right to refuse to accept a booking without necessarily giving a reason. You need to have a level of fitness which would not spoil other participants’ enjoyment of the holiday by slowing them down. To this end we ask you to take the tests described on page 36. By signing the booking form you are stating that you have met these fitness requirements.

If during the tour it transpires you are not able to cope adequately, you may be asked to opt out of certain visits, or be invited to leave the tour altogether. This would be at your own expense.

Passports and visas. British citizens and most other foreign nationals must have valid passports for all tours, and these should be valid for six months beyond the date of the tour with at least two blank pages. Visas are required for tours to India and China and we will advise UK citizens about obtaining them. Nationals of

between 56 and 29 days: between 28 and 15 days: between 14 days and 3 days: within 48 hours:

40% 60% 80% 100%

If you cancel your booking in a double or twin room but are travelling with a companion who chooses to continue to participate on the tour, the companion will be liable to pay the stipulated single supplement.

We take as the day of cancellation that on which we receive written confirmation of cancellation.

If we cancel the tour. We might decide to cancel a tour if at any time up to eight weeks before there were insufficient bookings for it to be viable. We would refund everything you had paid to us. We may also cancel a tour if hostilities, civil unrest, natural disaster or other circumstances amounting to force majeure affect the region to which the tour was due to go.

Safety and security. If the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against travel to places visited on a tour, we would cancel the tour or adjust the itinerary to avoid the risky area. In the event of cancellation before the tour commenced we would give you a full refund.

We would also treat sympathetically a wish to withdraw from a tour to a troubled region even if the FCO does not advise against travel there.

Seatbelts. Our tours subscribe to the health and safety legislation of the destination. In some parts of the world the law concerning seatbelts differs to the UK. Financial protection. We provide full financial protection for our package holidays, by way of our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence number 3622. When you buy an ATOL protected flight inclusive holiday from us you receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists what is financially protected, where you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong. We will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate (or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where we aren’t able do so for reasons of insolvency,

We provide full financial protection for our package holidays that do not include a flight, by way of a bond held by ABTA The Travel Association.

The limits of our liabilities. As principal, we accept responsibility for all ingredients of a tour, except those in which the principle of force majeure prevails. Our obligations and responsibilities are also limited where international conventions apply in respect of air, sea or rail carriers, including the Warsaw Convention and its various updates.

If we make changes. Circumstances might arise which prevent us from operating a tour exactly as advertised. We would try to devise a satisfactory alternative, but if the change represents a significant loss to the tour we would offer compensation. If you decide to cancel because the alternative we offer is not acceptable we would give a full refund.

English Law. These conditions form part of your contract with Martin Randall Travel Ltd and are governed by English law. All proceedings shall be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

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booking details

Insurance. It is a requirement of booking that you have adequate holiday insurance. Cover for medical treatment, repatriation, loss of property and cancellation charges must be included.

Insurance can be obtained from most insurance companies, banks, travel agencies and (in the UK) many retail outlets including post offices.

If you cancel. If you have to cancel your participation on a tour, there would be a charge which varies according to the period of notice you give. Up to 57 days before the tour the deposit only is forfeited. Thereafter a percentage of the total cost of the tour will be due:

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m a rt i n r a n d a l l t r av e l

Telephone 020 8742 3355 Fax 020 8742 7766 info@martinrandall.co.uk 5085

www.martinrandall.com

Australia: Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly QLD 4068, Australia Telephone 1300 55 95 95 Fax 07 3371 8288 anz@martinrandall.com.au From New Zealand: telephone 0800 877 622 Canada: telephone 647 382 1644 canada@martinrandall.ca USA: telephone 1 800 988 6168

Reproduction of a 14th-century Chinese painting.

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Barley Mow Passage London W4 4GF United Kingdom