Shopping in Puri

Grand Avenue, Puri's broad main street is lined with shopping options. Shops and stalls that sell rudraksha (holy seeds) and sandalwood beads, Ayurvedic cures and the images of Lord Jagannath.

Another local speciality is the amazing "religious maps" of Puri where the pilgrimage sites are traditionally represented with a conch shell made up of seven concentric layers. Otherwise soap -stone, seashell, pattachitras and palm leaf paintings, horn work, woodcarvings and solapith work can be purchased from the government run emporia and shops in Puri. Down the road towards the railway station is Sudarshan workshop, one of the few traditional stone carvers' yards left in Puri. The sculptors and their apprentices seem more interested in pursuing their art than selling it to tourists, but if you are keen on buying a souvenir then go to the factory shop next door and purchase large religious icons carved out of khondalite, the multi-coloured stone used in the Sun temple at Konarak.