A Church or temple or synagogue is a holy place where people come to worship. One temple in India, thousands come to worship every day.
But the Karni Mata Temple in Rajasthan India is overrun by over 20,000 rats – and the human visitors don’t mind at all.
Rats, in many places, are thought of as pests, vermin, disease carrying rodents. But, at this temple the are fed, protected and even worshiped.
The rats roam freely within the temple. They can be found eating milk and grains from a huge metal bowl that is filled daily by the visitors.
Netting and grills have been installed to protect the rats from predators.
This is a very unusual holy place! The rats are an important part of the temple, and there is often a long line of people who come to visit the temple just to see the rodents.
As tourists flock to the temple each day, you can see rats interacting and playing with small children.
Visitors will feed the rodents candy and other sweets.
One visitor, Surender Sharma said that no one is concerned about disease. The area has no history of plague even though rats have been in the area for many years.
Sharma said people come to worship the rats as a god.
Even the food eaten by the rodents is considered holy. Sometimes the human visitors will eat the same food (even if a rat already took a bite)!
Brown and black rats are the most common – but seeing white rats is believed to bring blessing from God and good luck!