The century-old temples in this village south of India celebrate the anniversary of the Vijayanagar Empire with a folklore festival of elephants and brimming with color and life.

Is held each year in November, invariably between 3 and 5, but this time the Hampi Hampi Utsav and Festival has been postponed to January 2010 to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the enthronement of Sri Krishnadevaraya, King more splendid than ever had the Vijayanagar kingdom that between 1336 and 1565, lit the last great empire that saw India to the arrival of the British.

Hampi, a small village now in the southern state of Karnataka, was the epicenter of this powerful alliance of Hindu villages with army achievement organizadísimo stops the advance of the Muslims, then masters of almost the entire north of the subcontinent. The Vijayanagar also extolled the literature and the arts, and became immensely rich through trade in textiles, gemstones, spices and merchandise Arabian princes and regents were brought from the ports of the Indian and to China.

From this wealth, for 15 miles around the village are scattered the ruins of hundreds of temples that Unesco was pleased to recognize more than twenty years as a World Heritage Site. And in some of the shrines that have come in better shape to take place today where many of the celebrations of this festival which every year attracts thousands of visitors and pilgrims from across the south.

On this occasion, its ‘great days’ will be the 27th, 28th and 29th January, with dance, theater, music, puppetry, fireworks, crafts, horse soldiers in their dress imperial pomp and processions of decorated elephants that conspire to recreate the grandeur of the Vijayanagar empire in an extravagant setting that brims with life and bustle and monumental this dusty little village on the river Tungabadra.

Visitors come to be so many that the guest-house hosting for the year to the thousands of foreigners who come to Hampi to house are not at all. So, at night, thousands of families to literally track installed for a few days inside the main temples, providing a spectacle almost more amazing than that during the day have given their unconditional renowned artists each year joined in the celebrations of the festival.

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With the steady growth of passengers in recent years has realized the importance of protecting nature and their communities so that the changes are not due to the loss of the attractive qualities that the work can be sustained over time and beneficial to the environment. In the early days of the twentieth century, the boom of tourism, who just entering the wealthier classes, was based on the concept that what was important was the money that left the visitor, regardless of whether prey animals local and safaris in Africa or if members of the community working in conditions of slavery and servitude. The profits did not generate any benefit to the environment and its inhabitants and the consequences were seeing through time as dire. Fortunately at present, to take awareness of the importance of maintaining a healthy environment, tourism also agrees to the changes, redesigning new concepts and ways of practicing this actividad.Nace and ecotourism, which aims to implement a sustainable tourism , friend of the environment, which addresses the needs of the communities where it is carried out and that is profitable económicamente.

Since the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism is to “reduce the negative effects of tourism on environment and cultural heritage while also maximizing the benefits of tourism in promoting sustainable development. “To achieve this goal must be to think of a tourism plan to help maintain and enhance biological and cultural diversity, using resources in the form criteria, reducing consumption and waste. It should be noted that the existence of a wilderness area or an interesting ecosystem diversity do not ensure the success of an ecotourism enterprise. It must therefore have the means and procedures to minimize the impact that visitors can have on the environment, thereby sustaining their activity over time. While the regulation and implementation of appropriate standards and to control them by part of the local community are important, ultimately the success of ecotourism depends on the tourists’ awareness of their importance and to make travel in a responsible way, trying to respect the environment and the community that they get to keep their qualities.