Sand Sculpture Museum Mysore

This blog is a continuation of my Kabini blog series. After bidding adieu to Kabini's Bison resort (blog link), we hopped onto KSRTC bus fro H D Kote and reached Mysore. But we had almost 3 hours to board our train to Bangalore. Thanks to the travel blogger in me, I had listed down some must visit places in Mysore in which Sand Museum seemed interesting. So we came out of Mysore KSRTC bus stand and hopped onto an auto to visit India's first Sand Sculpture museum. 

Mysore is a cultural hub of Karnataka famous for some incredible attractions like Mysore Palace, Zoo, Brindavan gardens, KRS dam, Chamundi hills and many more. While during my earlier visits I have seen all these famous touristy places, this Sand museum was completely new and unheard of. So I was super excited to visit this.

 

This museum is located on the way to Chamundi hills. Hence if interested you can stop by while returning from Chamundi hills to view the interesting sculptures here.

 

We reached sand museum in less than 20 minutes from the bus stand. Our auto driver was kind enough to tell us to leave our baggages in his auto so that we can explore the museum hassle free and he would drop us back to Mysore railway station once done. So we thanked him and got into the museum.

We took tickets and we were charged Rs. 60 per person. Timings – 8:30 am to 6:30 pm.

 

This is India’s First Sand Sculpture Museum. This was conceptualized by M N Gowri who is an MFA (Sculpture) graduate Masters in Fine Arts. This museum was built using 115 truckloads of sieved construction sand which took almost 5 months to create these huge 150 sand sculptures with 16 themes and these themes primarily focus on Mysore heritage, religion, public awareness, history, mythology, education and emotions.

 

We got inside the museum and started our walk observing these sand sculptures. As you enter, you will be welcomed by 15 feet high sand sculpture of Lord Ganesha. From here there are clear arrow marks which will guide you to take a walk along the interesting sculptures of Krishna and Arjuna (Kurukshetra War), Santa Claus, Wild life, Laughing Buddha, Dussehra Procession, The Zodiac Wheel, Disney Land and many more.

Lord Ganesha

Devi Chamundeshwari

You will find a wall with all the awards Gowri has got due to this stupendous work she has done.

One complete walk of the museum takes around 20-30 minutes but it’s totally worth it since you will be amazed to see the creativity and precision with which each theme has been created.

There are some shops also inside the museum premises like handmade jewelry, craft works, toys etc.

There is also a small refreshment center in case you want to sip some tea or juice.

We then hopped onto our auto and drove towards Railway station. We also wanted to see Rail museum which is right outside Mysore Railway station. Unfortunately since it was Tuesday,  it was closed. So we then crossed the road and entered A2B(Adyar Anand Bhavan) for lunch.

A2B is the best place to have lunch since it’s the only restaurant so close to the railway station. Simply loved the food here.

After a wholesome lunch, we then walked towards the station.

This time while we were entering the station, we saw some more interesting artworks at the station. There is an interesting sculpture depicting Journey “Jeevana Ondu Payana” (Life is a journey). This installation consists of 6 statues representing travelers in various postures.

I was mesmerized with the artistic work on the walls while entering the platform too.

While waiting for our train at the platform, I was sitting there with a satisfaction of yet another successful trip in which we got to see so many things beyond what we had originally planned. Thanks to the city of Mysore for gifting us with such interesting varieties of unexplored gems and making our holiday a memorable one. 

Other blogs in the series

H D Kote - Exploring Kabini's Hidden Gem 

Kabini - Experience luxury amidst wilderness at Bison Resort