Jagannath Temple Puri

Jagannath Puri is one of the four Char Dham established by Adi Shankaracharya and represents the eastern seat. The Rath Yatra is considered supremely auspicious, offering even those who cannot enter the temple a chance for the Lord's darshan in the open street. The Mahaprasad, cooked and offered to Jagannath, is revered as absolutely pure and shared without any distinction of caste. Puri holds a singular place in the devotion of eastern India and the wider Vaishnava world.

The great 12th-century temple of Jagannath ('Lord of the Universe', a form of Krishna–Vishnu) towers over the coastal town of Puri, its 65-metre spire crowned by the Nilachakra and a flag that mysteriously flies against the wind. Unusually, the deities are carved from neem wood and ceremonially replaced every 12–19 years in the secret Nabakalebara ritual. During the Rath Yatra, the three deities are pulled through the streets on gigantic wooden chariots by hundreds of thousands of devotees — the origin of the English word 'juggernaut'. The temple's kitchen, among the largest in the world, prepares the sacred Mahaprasad that feeds tens of thousands daily.