India: Southern India Photo Gallery @ National Geographic Traveler

from November/December 2006

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India: Serenity of the South Photo Gallery
Photographs by Michael Melford Text by Scott Stuckey

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uroville, a New Age city founded in 1968 and located six miles north of Pondicherry, is an ongoing experiment in ecological and spiritual living. Its ideals of "progressive harmony" center on the Matrimandir, a hundred-foot-tall golden globe-shaped meditation center that looks like something out of a '60s-era sci-fi film. "While I was visiting," recalls photographer Michael Melford, "this school group showed up. All the children were well behaved, neat, and clean. After about five minutes the kids lost interest in the dome and talked among themselves."

Read more about India in "Passages Through India," a special section in the November/December 2006 issue of National Geographic Traveler.

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