"200 - 300 bodies a day are cremated here. Everyday. For 3,500 years."
Welcome to Varanasi. The holiest city in all of India when it comes to the Hindu religion. Which therefore makes it the holiest city in the entire world when it comes to the Hindu religion. It is one of the most continuously occupied (if not the most) city on the planet. Civilazation has been there since time immemorial... and for much of that time they have burned bodies in public view. Because it is believed that if you die in Varanasi, you will have escaped the cycle of death and rebirth and will reach Nirvana. Therefore there are many many people who take a final pilgrimage there and wait to die.
The Ghats are cement or stone stairs that line the riverbank, allowing access to the water at any level. The main section of the city has 3 km worth of them. Every 100 feet - 100 meters they will have a new name, and a different purpose. Some are for bathing. Some for ceremony. We watched a "putting the river to sleep" ceremony, that was held at sundown every night. We were on a rowboat, in a massive floatilla of boats all on top of each other. In addition, thousands watched from the ghats themselves. The ceremony involved lights and flames and drums and bells (Hindu's love the bells!). It was fascinating to be there and watch this event that happens every day. Some ghats are for boats, some for bathing animals. They are all for sleeping apparently, as when we walked back at 11pm there were some with dozens if not hundreds of people, I'm assuming homeless, who were sleeping on blankets spread out on the steps and flats of some of the Ghats.
My favorite was a tiny Ghat were my traveling companion Anna from Ukraine and I stumbled upon a couple guys playing guitar and another playing flute at 10 o'clock at night. It was a jam session, but was all Indian. They sang in Hindi. And just played for fun. We enjoyed the music and even danced a bit. It was great fun. And sort of strangely for India, they didn't ask for money. They just gave us a thumbs up while we danced and a wave when we walked off after half an hour.
And then there are the burning Ghats. One smaller one. And then the big one.
There are three large hospice buildings behind the burning Ghat where the dying are tended to by people of the untouchable caste. People who's fathers and grandfathers did the same thing. They care for the dying. And when death finally comes, they massage the corpse. As the women of the family performs ceremony's over it in the room. Then the untouchables bring the body to the river, shrowded in a cloth, and bathe it in the Ganges. It is then placed on a pile of wood (which has been stacked by another Untouchable whose only job is to prepare the fire). Then a male relative or two, who has had his head shaved and wears a loin cloth, will take dry grass to the eternal flame which burns in the temple above. This flame has burned for as long as anyone knows. It is tended to by a man who's job it is to keep that fire burning. As his father before him. And during the monsoon, when most of the Ghats are underwater, the fire is moved inside the temple and kept safe.
Once the grass ignites, the family member brings the fire to the pyre and ignites it. No gasoline, no fire starters, nothing but wood is used. And if you have more money you buy more expesive wood. (Sandalwood being the most expensive). Even the cheapest wood is 650 Rupees a Kilogram. And it takes 200 Kg to burn a body to ash and bone. THat's 45,000+ Rupees. Far more than most Indian families can afford. And yet somehow they do. By donation (we naturally were asked to give after we were shown around). Or by gifts from higher caste families. The wood is transported 600 km to the site.
Once the burn begins, it goes on for 2-3 hours.Over which time other bodies may be lit nearby. Because the Ghats are big. And they have multiple levels. The lowest level by the river is for the low caste people. There's a middle level for the middle castes. And up on a platform above is for the Brahman's, the highest caste. (During the monsoon, only the high caste level is above water. So everyone burns there. I guess mother nature has a way of balancing out humankind's need to make some people better and more important than others.). There's even a separate cage area designed for non-caste people. Like if I wanted to be burned there.
Watching a dead mans face covered with a shrowd, and then his body ignited in flames. And his feet sticking out of the fire. I thought of how strange it is, that that is what remains when we die... and it burns away just like everything else.
But not everyone gets to be burned. Children under 10 are still pure and innocent. They don't need the fires to burn away their sins and purify them. Pregnant women, because they have the pure child inside. Animals. No need to burn those. Lepers. Yep, specifically lepers. And cobra bite victims: These are put on a raft of banan tree logs and sent floating downstream, with a note that says how they die. Then someone farther down the river, maybe a shaman, will deal with the body when it floats into town.
Now the reason for this, is because the Cobra poison often puts people into a coma, where they appear dead. So over the course of time, they might come awake. Or a shaman might be able to revive them.
For the others who are not burned. They are tied to a stone slap. Rowed out to the middle of the river... and sunk. Which means, over time there are hundreds of thousands of bodies on the bottom of the Ganges right there. When the monsoon comes, maybe they are washed downstream... maybe they aren't. Either way, the bodies are there.
While we watched the Ghat from afar. 3 or 4 fires burning bright. A man came over to the shade we were under with a tiny baby wrapped in a white cloth. I could see the outline of it's little arms. It's tiny legs. I watched them tied the body to a 2 foot long slab of slate. He pulled out the birth certificate... the child only lived one day. He took his baby on a rowboat out to the middle of the river and with no pause dropped it in. They rowed back, he paid the boatman and walked away. I didn't see a single tear...
... which is why there are no women present. Or so I was told: Women are too emotional. They cry too much and it is believed that the soul will see this sadness and carry it into Nirvana or the next life. So the guide we had said "With men there are no tears. No sadness."
I said "There is definitely sadness. They just aren't showing it."
And this points to something about Indian society that you may or may not have picked up on in these emails or in your own experience. It's the fact that Indian society is incredibly sexist. I know that's a judgement. But it's also an observation. Women here are so suppressed it's hard not to get a little pissed off about it. If you're a woman in most Indian families. You have two potentials in life: To be a good homemaker, and a mother. If you can't do those things, you are broken. You are shunned. And in extreme cases of "Wife Burning" you will be burned alive. I'm not kidding. In some villages, if you are inadequate in your womanly responsabilities (Homemaking, cooking, bearing a son...) the husband or his parents might throw gasoline on you and burn you alive. This happens. And is almost never prosecuted.
In 2012 there were 285,000 violent crimes charged in India. 250,000 of them were against women.
The good news is things are changing. As women become more educated, they learn there is more than can do in life than take care of their husbands and raise kids. Not that there is anything wrong with these goals, as long as you choose them. At least in my opinion.
Which brings up arranged marriages. Yes. They are very common. I've met multiple men (and a woman or two) who says their parents will or have arranged their marriage and they will accept it because that is how it's done. And they don't say it with any resistance. Even if they haven't met the partner yet. Or if they have and they aren't head over heels about the girl (or guy). Men marry at 27-30. Women marry at 21-24. There are so many rules guiding this it's something a non-Indian will probably never understand.
Which brings us to India in general. My friends, this is a baffling country. At times beautiful. At others so strange that I've never been to anyplace like it. Now, to be fair, this is why I wanted to come to India. The social rules, safety rules (ha ha!), religious rules, beliefs, culture is so strange compared to our "western" beliefs, it is constantly challenging and fascinating. The fact that the place even works at all, almost defies belief. But yet it does.
As an American, India is something that we just don't learn that much about. Yeah, we know the basics. Hindu. Yoga. "Sprituality" (Whatever that means here...) But the amount of history here is mindblowing. The amount of emperors, and counquorers, armies and leaders. Religions and influences is staggering. I have only tapped the surface, and am sure I never will get very deep. Because it goes deep. Deep as the waters of the Ganges with a million bodies beneath the surface, and dead cows floating by, and people swimming and bathing in it all day long. It's holy waters pure and safe from what science tells us is there. The ashes and big bones are spread in the water and float downstream or into the mud. No one thinks this is weird... because it's not. To an Indian.
Religious beliefs and stories and myths are like that. To the believer it makes total sense. To the open minded observer, it serves good purpose. To the zealot or the radical it serves as fuel to fight.
And then there are places where all these beliefs and religions are side by side in harmony. One of those places is Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania.
Another of those places is Kerala state, in the south of India.
Welcome to Varanasi. The holiest city in all of India when it comes to the Hindu religion. Which therefore makes it the holiest city in the entire world when it comes to the Hindu religion. It is one of the most continuously occupied (if not the most) city on the planet. Civilazation has been there since time immemorial... and for much of that time they have burned bodies in public view. Because it is believed that if you die in Varanasi, you will have escaped the cycle of death and rebirth and will reach Nirvana. Therefore there are many many people who take a final pilgrimage there and wait to die.
The Ghats are cement or stone stairs that line the riverbank, allowing access to the water at any level. The main section of the city has 3 km worth of them. Every 100 feet - 100 meters they will have a new name, and a different purpose. Some are for bathing. Some for ceremony. We watched a "putting the river to sleep" ceremony, that was held at sundown every night. We were on a rowboat, in a massive floatilla of boats all on top of each other. In addition, thousands watched from the ghats themselves. The ceremony involved lights and flames and drums and bells (Hindu's love the bells!). It was fascinating to be there and watch this event that happens every day. Some ghats are for boats, some for bathing animals. They are all for sleeping apparently, as when we walked back at 11pm there were some with dozens if not hundreds of people, I'm assuming homeless, who were sleeping on blankets spread out on the steps and flats of some of the Ghats.
My favorite was a tiny Ghat were my traveling companion Anna from Ukraine and I stumbled upon a couple guys playing guitar and another playing flute at 10 o'clock at night. It was a jam session, but was all Indian. They sang in Hindi. And just played for fun. We enjoyed the music and even danced a bit. It was great fun. And sort of strangely for India, they didn't ask for money. They just gave us a thumbs up while we danced and a wave when we walked off after half an hour.
And then there are the burning Ghats. One smaller one. And then the big one.
There are three large hospice buildings behind the burning Ghat where the dying are tended to by people of the untouchable caste. People who's fathers and grandfathers did the same thing. They care for the dying. And when death finally comes, they massage the corpse. As the women of the family performs ceremony's over it in the room. Then the untouchables bring the body to the river, shrowded in a cloth, and bathe it in the Ganges. It is then placed on a pile of wood (which has been stacked by another Untouchable whose only job is to prepare the fire). Then a male relative or two, who has had his head shaved and wears a loin cloth, will take dry grass to the eternal flame which burns in the temple above. This flame has burned for as long as anyone knows. It is tended to by a man who's job it is to keep that fire burning. As his father before him. And during the monsoon, when most of the Ghats are underwater, the fire is moved inside the temple and kept safe.
Once the grass ignites, the family member brings the fire to the pyre and ignites it. No gasoline, no fire starters, nothing but wood is used. And if you have more money you buy more expesive wood. (Sandalwood being the most expensive). Even the cheapest wood is 650 Rupees a Kilogram. And it takes 200 Kg to burn a body to ash and bone. THat's 45,000+ Rupees. Far more than most Indian families can afford. And yet somehow they do. By donation (we naturally were asked to give after we were shown around). Or by gifts from higher caste families. The wood is transported 600 km to the site.
Once the burn begins, it goes on for 2-3 hours.Over which time other bodies may be lit nearby. Because the Ghats are big. And they have multiple levels. The lowest level by the river is for the low caste people. There's a middle level for the middle castes. And up on a platform above is for the Brahman's, the highest caste. (During the monsoon, only the high caste level is above water. So everyone burns there. I guess mother nature has a way of balancing out humankind's need to make some people better and more important than others.). There's even a separate cage area designed for non-caste people. Like if I wanted to be burned there.
Watching a dead mans face covered with a shrowd, and then his body ignited in flames. And his feet sticking out of the fire. I thought of how strange it is, that that is what remains when we die... and it burns away just like everything else.
But not everyone gets to be burned. Children under 10 are still pure and innocent. They don't need the fires to burn away their sins and purify them. Pregnant women, because they have the pure child inside. Animals. No need to burn those. Lepers. Yep, specifically lepers. And cobra bite victims: These are put on a raft of banan tree logs and sent floating downstream, with a note that says how they die. Then someone farther down the river, maybe a shaman, will deal with the body when it floats into town.
Now the reason for this, is because the Cobra poison often puts people into a coma, where they appear dead. So over the course of time, they might come awake. Or a shaman might be able to revive them.
For the others who are not burned. They are tied to a stone slap. Rowed out to the middle of the river... and sunk. Which means, over time there are hundreds of thousands of bodies on the bottom of the Ganges right there. When the monsoon comes, maybe they are washed downstream... maybe they aren't. Either way, the bodies are there.
While we watched the Ghat from afar. 3 or 4 fires burning bright. A man came over to the shade we were under with a tiny baby wrapped in a white cloth. I could see the outline of it's little arms. It's tiny legs. I watched them tied the body to a 2 foot long slab of slate. He pulled out the birth certificate... the child only lived one day. He took his baby on a rowboat out to the middle of the river and with no pause dropped it in. They rowed back, he paid the boatman and walked away. I didn't see a single tear...
... which is why there are no women present. Or so I was told: Women are too emotional. They cry too much and it is believed that the soul will see this sadness and carry it into Nirvana or the next life. So the guide we had said "With men there are no tears. No sadness."
I said "There is definitely sadness. They just aren't showing it."
And this points to something about Indian society that you may or may not have picked up on in these emails or in your own experience. It's the fact that Indian society is incredibly sexist. I know that's a judgement. But it's also an observation. Women here are so suppressed it's hard not to get a little pissed off about it. If you're a woman in most Indian families. You have two potentials in life: To be a good homemaker, and a mother. If you can't do those things, you are broken. You are shunned. And in extreme cases of "Wife Burning" you will be burned alive. I'm not kidding. In some villages, if you are inadequate in your womanly responsabilities (Homemaking, cooking, bearing a son...) the husband or his parents might throw gasoline on you and burn you alive. This happens. And is almost never prosecuted.
In 2012 there were 285,000 violent crimes charged in India. 250,000 of them were against women.
The good news is things are changing. As women become more educated, they learn there is more than can do in life than take care of their husbands and raise kids. Not that there is anything wrong with these goals, as long as you choose them. At least in my opinion.
Which brings up arranged marriages. Yes. They are very common. I've met multiple men (and a woman or two) who says their parents will or have arranged their marriage and they will accept it because that is how it's done. And they don't say it with any resistance. Even if they haven't met the partner yet. Or if they have and they aren't head over heels about the girl (or guy). Men marry at 27-30. Women marry at 21-24. There are so many rules guiding this it's something a non-Indian will probably never understand.
Which brings us to India in general. My friends, this is a baffling country. At times beautiful. At others so strange that I've never been to anyplace like it. Now, to be fair, this is why I wanted to come to India. The social rules, safety rules (ha ha!), religious rules, beliefs, culture is so strange compared to our "western" beliefs, it is constantly challenging and fascinating. The fact that the place even works at all, almost defies belief. But yet it does.
As an American, India is something that we just don't learn that much about. Yeah, we know the basics. Hindu. Yoga. "Sprituality" (Whatever that means here...) But the amount of history here is mindblowing. The amount of emperors, and counquorers, armies and leaders. Religions and influences is staggering. I have only tapped the surface, and am sure I never will get very deep. Because it goes deep. Deep as the waters of the Ganges with a million bodies beneath the surface, and dead cows floating by, and people swimming and bathing in it all day long. It's holy waters pure and safe from what science tells us is there. The ashes and big bones are spread in the water and float downstream or into the mud. No one thinks this is weird... because it's not. To an Indian.
Religious beliefs and stories and myths are like that. To the believer it makes total sense. To the open minded observer, it serves good purpose. To the zealot or the radical it serves as fuel to fight.
And then there are places where all these beliefs and religions are side by side in harmony. One of those places is Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania.
Another of those places is Kerala state, in the south of India.
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