India's millennium celebrations begin today at the site of the 1,000-year-old erotic temples of Khajuraho, known for embodying "passion in stone."
President K.R. Narayanan will inaugurate the year-long festivities, planned to culminate in a spectacular New Year's Eve party to see in 2000.
The 22 temples in Khajuraho, some 650 km south of New Delhi, were built between 953 and 1000 AD by rulers of the medieval Chandela dynasty.
Virtually unknown until the 1960s, the Hindu temples are covered with intricate carvings of battles, gods, goddesses and, most famously, thousands of small figurines engaged in almost every conceivable form of human sexual activity.
The erotic carvings are one of India's top tourist attractions, pulling in 650 visitors a day.
The tourism has resulted in some damage to the temples, which have otherwise survived remarkably intact over the centuries, largely because of their remote location which saved them from the worst ravages of Muslim invaders.
Expert opinion is divided as to the motivation behind the sexual carvings. Some have suggested a monumental sex manual for Brahmin adolescents, while others see their origins in the cult of Tantrism, wherein gratification of the baser instincts is one way to blot out the evils of the world.
Perhaps the most accepted theory is that the carvings represent a joyous celebration of all aspects of life, and it is this angle that is being pushed in the Khajuraho millennium celebrations, which officials hope will give a boost to India's ailing tourism industry.
Khajuraho's remoteness remains an obstacle to further tourist growth. For Mr Ashok Kumar Soni, who heads the state-run archaeological survey, the natural barriers to tourism are a blessing. He wants the number of visitors to each temple limited to 50 at a time, to prevent damage to the floors and to stop visitors handling the carvings.