Varanasi
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2008
1
21
125
Trip End
Dec 20, 2008
Varanasi,
India
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Just arrived at Varanasi 3h ago. not much to say except that it is huge and with little streets so crowded that even the rickshaws can not go inside the old town. Not point having a map in town, everybody get lost within 10 min anyway.
First few minutes out and I realised that my hostel is at the main burning ghats so 2 min later I was looking at dead bodies being burnt one after another. Depending of the wood, sometimes they don't burn completely before they put the remains in the river and it was quite disturbing when I had half a child's head staring at me while the fire was consuming it.
A quick note on the burnings:
People need to be incinerated to be purified except the priests, infants, pregnant women and people beaten by a cobra, already pured. These categories are dealt with the "Man bites dog" way: the body is attached to a heavy rock and thrown in the Ganges.
The other people are burnt: the poors in a crematorium for 500 Rs (no possibility to throw the ashes in the holy river), the less poor families pay 3,000 Rs to see the body burn on cheap wood during 3h, with the risk to see remaining body parts not burnt when it is time to throw everything in the Ganges. The other families can choose the wood quality and will pay up to 50,000 Rs.
I also went for the boat along the Ghats at dusk and then at dawn. It is amazing and you can feel the strong spirituality surrounding you and being on a boat on the mystic Ganges is something too.
Went to see a concert the evening with Anne and Jerome, a French couple with whom I spent some time at Varanasi It was really good with an impressive dance performed.
