St. Thomas Mount National Shrine, St Thomas Mount, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

A Continuation to the previous post.

27^th August 2016.

Our first stop after a good lunch at Balaji Bhavan at Chrompet/ Pallavaram was at St Tomas Mount. We missed the way to the Garrison Church since the old road through the cantonment was closed. Left our van at the parking lot and climbed to the top. During my previous trip, they allowed me to take a vehicle to the top of the hill. It was drizzling. After hearing brief details of the shrine and William  Lambton from our young guide Nandan we went around the shrine.

St. THOMAS MOUNT NATIONAL SHRINE

Some of the details of the St. Thomas shrine are ….

The details below are taken from the leaflet purchased from the shrine stall, there may be some controversies about the years, which I am not interested in. 

The St, Thomas mount is 300 feet above the sea level. There are 135 granite steps constructed in the year 1726 CE, by Coja Petrus Uscan an Armenian, who constructed the Marmalong bridge of Saidapet. The shrine was constructed in the year 1523 CE and dedicated to Mother Mary and named "SENHORA DA EXPECTACAO” ( Expected Mother’s shrine) by the Portuguese.

St. Thomas’s rib bone is kept in a vessel at the center of the cross. Blood stains are observed from the cross, made by St. Thomas on 18^th December 1558 CE and last seen during the year 1704. The inscription on the cross was translated during the year 1908 CE and read as ‘ Messiah brought peace through this cross”.

It is believed that the paintings of Mother Mary, belong to the year 50 CE and  Jesus Christ in the year 1727 CE. 

There are two tombs at the entrance of the shrine dated 1759 and 1764. There is also a banyan tree which is estimated to be more than 175 years old with Jesus (who has no home ) lying under the cover of a cloth. It was told that Pope John Paul visited the shrine during his visit to Madras, whose statue is also installed on the top of the hill.

William Lambton’s statue, ( who was the person who started the trigonometrical survey of India )  is under the banyan tree and the same was installed during the year 2011.

LOCATION OF THE SHRINE :    CLICK HERE 

WILLIAM LAMBTON

Apart from the Mother Mary’s Shrine, there is a statue of William Lambton unveiled in the year 2011.

The details of this statue are ..

Lieutenant Colonel William Lambton, FRS was a soldier, Surveyor, and geographer. He began a triangular survey in 1800 CE for 2 years., was later called as Trigonometrical Survey of India. His initial survey was to measure the length of a degree of an arc of the meridian, so as to establish the shape of the earth and support a larger-scale trigonometrical survey across the width of the peninsula of India from Madras. He continued northwards and died in Maharashtra. He was succeeded by his assistant George Everest, which was approved by Clive.

Madras baseline began in the year 1802 CE and was expected to be completed in 5 years, but it took 70 years to complete the project till Mount Everest. It was told that the three points of the triangular are St Thomas Mount, Pallavaram, and Race Course.  

To be Continued…..