Amazing Facts About Puri Jagannath Temple

Odisha, Puri’s famous Jagannath Temple holds a prominent place of importance for devotees. It is one of the Char Dham pilgrimage sites in India, and is also well-known for the annual chariot festival or Rath Yatra.

There are several amazing facts you should know about Puri Jagannath Temle, Odisha

1. Oldtest and Biggest Temple: Jagannath Temple, Puri is one of the Oldest and Biggest temple in INDIA
2. Sudarshan Chakra: Where ever you stand in Puri, the Sudarshan Chakra above the Jagannath Temple will always face you
3. No planes, no birds fly above the temple: No birds and no planes fly over the Jagannath Temple
4. Temple Structure: What ever be the time of the day, the shadow of the main dome of Jagannath Temple is never visible
5. No Waste Food: The cooked food inside Jagannath Temple never goes to waste
6. The cooking technique of Mahaprasad: In the temple kitchen, more wonder awaits. Seven pots are placed one top of another which cooked by firewood, it’s the content of the pot placed at the top that magically gets cooked first followed by second and so on till the seventh
7. The Mahaprasad mystery:Mahaprasad is prepared by 600-700 cooks and partaken by up to 50,000 pilgrims generating a business of Rs 8-12 lakhs per day
8. The Mahaprasad Never Shortfall:The quantity of the Mahaprasad cooked inside the temple remain the same for the entire year. But the same quantity of prasad can feed few thousand people to a few lakhs of people, There has never been shortfall
9. Temple Structure:The land and sea breezes in puri blow in reverse direction than conventional breezes
10. Flag Waves Opposite direction: It is observed that the flag located at the top of the temple dome always waves in the opposite direction of airflow
11. An 1800 year old Ritual: A priest climbs the dome of the temple which stands as tall as a 45 story building and changes the flag everyday since 1800 years as a part of a ritual. If it not changed any day, the temple must be shut for the next 18 years
12. SinghDwara Mystery: Once you enter the temple from Singh Dwara any sound produced by the ocean won’t reach your ears
13. Old Ratha Yatra performed wit two set of Chariots: The Ratha Yatra at Puri was initially performed with two sets of chariots (3 plus 3). As there was a river flowing in between Shree Mandira and Gundicha (Mausi maa) temple, the first set of chariots were used to transport the Deities till the river, and then the Deities had to cross the river in three wooden boats and then board the other set of chariots to travel till the Gundicha (Mausi maa) temple.
14. The Nabakalebar : The Nabakalebarais basically Re-birth of the Gods as the Gods of the temple adorns new bodies. It is performed after every 12th to 19th year. It is mainly conducted by the ‘Daitapatis’ or the first worshipers of Lord Jagannatha. The Daitapatis transfer the soul or the “Brahma” from the old idols to the new idols in a blind folded form.