Temples in Tamil Nadu draw hundreds of religious and heritage travellers every year. But, what if you were able do more than just admire, but live and eat like they did during those times.

That is exactly what the heritage vertical of Chennai-based Embassy Travel and Tours Ltd, Mystical Palmyra, is doing in partnership with Pradeep Chakravarthy, a Fellow at McKinsey Leadership Institute and a historian.

Shanmuga Priya Thyagarajan, Joint Managing Director of Embassy Travels, said the project, an attempt to explore and understand the State’s heritage better, started three years ago.

How is it different ?

Chakravarthy says the difference lies in the way the tour is packaged. “Heritage is not just about temples,” he said. There is lot more to a place like art, food and music without bringing in the religion. “That is what we are exploring and offering to people who want to travel with us,” he added. Thyagarajan agrees.

To ensure that travellers get more than darshan and dose of repeated temple history, Thyagarajan says it takes them over three months of planning and research right from selecting the place to short-listing the itinerary. “We choose places that are at least 500 years old and have at least one dying art,” she added.

“Food is another major area of our focus,” says Thyagarajan. Rather than availing itself of the multi-cuisine menu offered in hotels, the team spends months finalising the menu in a bid to provide a spread that is as close to authentic food as possible. Though cook books are the main sources of information, the team goes to the place, talks to local people and decides the menu.

Learning the culture

For instance, during a trip to Vellore to explore Tamil Jain culture, Thyagarajan spent a couple of months travelling back and forth to come up with authentic Tamil Jain menu by talking to the members of Jain community there. “More often than not, it is very hard to find the authentic dish as hardly anyone follows them now,” she said.

“Sometimes, we are lucky to get a good host, like the dinner at Sivakasi Zamin palace where we were able to get a glimpse of how they lived in the past,” she added.

Dying crafts and businesses too find their place in the itinerary.

Not many youngsters

With 11 trips under the belt across Tamil Nadu and more in the offing, Thyagarajan says there is more ground to cover.“When you say heritage tour, people think it is for old people and has only temples. It is hard to break away from that notion,” she added. This is one of the reasons why there is not enough participation from youngsters. The cost of the trip is around ₹20,000 and most of the people are in the ages group of 45-55.

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