"Older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." - Varanasi, March 20
"Older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." Mark Twain on Varanasi.
Today I saw the river another way. The sunrise instead of the sunset. We walked towards the river with pilgrims who were chanting. It was a completely different feel than the night before. The shops were closed, just the newspaper hawkers were out, and people were quietly making their way towards the Ganges.
We took a boat out to watch the sun come up and to see the devoted bathing in the river. It is remarkable to see these people submerging in and drinking this water. While I acknowledge that the river is sacred and central to religious beliefs...it is also a scummy, dirty, chemical-infested river of nastiness. I'm talking condoms, garbage, plastic bags, and unidentified debris.
Still. It somehow doesn't lose its allure.
As we drifted by the crematorium ghat, we saw families bringing two dead bodies down to the water. They were wrapped in brilliantly colored cloth and attached to a stretcher. The men splashed water onto the body, symbolically helping the dead person drink from the Ganges. We also saw a man throwing ashes into the river this morning, perhaps from one of the bodies that had been burned last night.
After breakfast, we traveled just north of Varanasi to see Sarnath, a place of Buddhist pilgrimage. This is the place where, in around 530 BC, Buddha gave his first sermon. The actual spot is marked by the Dhamekh stupa. A stupa is a mound-like structure that contains Buddhist relics, often the ashes of the deceased, that Buddhists use as a place for meditation. I saw people slowly and deliberately walking around the stupa, as well as attaching a white thread and then walking it around the stupa. These were obviously forms of meditation.
Today I saw the river another way. The sunrise instead of the sunset. We walked towards the river with pilgrims who were chanting. It was a completely different feel than the night before. The shops were closed, just the newspaper hawkers were out, and people were quietly making their way towards the Ganges.
We took a boat out to watch the sun come up and to see the devoted bathing in the river. It is remarkable to see these people submerging in and drinking this water. While I acknowledge that the river is sacred and central to religious beliefs...it is also a scummy, dirty, chemical-infested river of nastiness. I'm talking condoms, garbage, plastic bags, and unidentified debris.
Still. It somehow doesn't lose its allure.
As we drifted by the crematorium ghat, we saw families bringing two dead bodies down to the water. They were wrapped in brilliantly colored cloth and attached to a stretcher. The men splashed water onto the body, symbolically helping the dead person drink from the Ganges. We also saw a man throwing ashes into the river this morning, perhaps from one of the bodies that had been burned last night.
After breakfast, we traveled just north of Varanasi to see Sarnath, a place of Buddhist pilgrimage. This is the place where, in around 530 BC, Buddha gave his first sermon. The actual spot is marked by the Dhamekh stupa. A stupa is a mound-like structure that contains Buddhist relics, often the ashes of the deceased, that Buddhists use as a place for meditation. I saw people slowly and deliberately walking around the stupa, as well as attaching a white thread and then walking it around the stupa. These were obviously forms of meditation.
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