Life and Death: The Burning Ghats of Varanasi

Namaste again! And welcome to India (we're cheating now, "hello" is the same in Nepali and Hindi). Katy and I are on to our sixth country.....trading the fresh mountain air and amazing views for probably the dirtiest city I have ever seen and a river that smells like a squat toilet....we are in Varanasi :)

As negative as that last sentence sounds, I don't mean it like that. Truth be told, seeing the life that surrounds the highly contaminated Ganges River was one of the things I was most anticipating when starting this trip.....and it definitely did not disappoint.

Streets of Varanas

A brief history lesson: Varanasi (roughly 600 km southwest of Kathmandu, where we were in Nepal) is considered to be one of the holiest cities in India.  What's so special about it?  Hindus believe that their god Shiva (the creator) chose this city as his home, and when you combine that with the fact that the holy Ganges River (Mother Ganga, if you will) flows right through it, you end up with the top place for pilgrimages in the country.  It is believed that if you die in the city of Varanasi, you are freed from the endless cycle of samsara (death and rebirth) that dominates the Hindu religion. To die in the city AND be creamated along the banks of the Ganga is the ultimate blessing, and people come from all over India striving for this outcome.  As a result, there is a large population of old, sick, poor people around the city, especially right near the river, as this has become a sort of waiting place when life doesn't offer much else.

Autorickshaw, our main form of transport through India

Main street in our area of Varanasi

So what was our experience in Varanasi like? 

Amazing.

This city is moving, emotional, incredible, full of history and tradition...and definitely gave me the gentle reminder that i needed to have a little faith in strangers as I make my way across this globe.

Katy and I started off exploring the great Mother Ganga within the first few hours of our arrival in Varanasi. After being dropped by our taxi in a central location and then following "some guy" (literally...we got out of our cab and he was standing there and insisted that he show us to our hotel....and we really had no other option) through a maze of galis (narrow lanes that make up the city, not big enough for even an auto rickshaw to fit through), we found our guesthouse and dropped off our things. We then headed straight down to the ghats.

What is a ghat, you may ask? Basically, a ghat is a building along the banks of the river with steps leading down to the river. In high season, the steps are underwater and you can only get from ghat to ghat by boat. However, we are in low season...therefore the steps are filled everyday with people bathing, performing ceremonies, and paying their respects to the Ganga. Many people may use the term ghat to refer specifically to the bathing places along the river, or even the burning places along the river.

One of the ghats

So back to our first night....Katy and I were both in awe as we strolled along the river. The scene was exactly as I had pictured: thousands of people crowded along the river: bathing, drinking, praying....colors galore between the saris of the women and the tikas painted on the foreheads of nearly everyone around us.  There were groups of people prepping for the nightly ceremony performed by the Brahmans (the highest caste people in Hindu religion)...and we were in for a treat, as it was Sunday and the biggest crowd gathers on Sundays to observe the tribute to the Ganga.  We were hounded by boatmen offering us a sunset ride along the river..and ignored all but one small man named Vinay.  Vinay simply asked us our names and where we were from as we were walking by (in perfect English, I may add)...and our friendship was born :)  We ended up spending the next 3 days being shown around this magical city by him; our relationship transforming from tour guide:tourist to friend over time. We ended up on Vinay's friends boat to observe the burning ghat and the Brahman ceremony...with a full narration of the importance of everything as we went along.

Awaiting the nightly ceremony

Making a living along the Ganges

Our new friend

My candle, lit for good karma

Pics from the nightly Brahman ceremony (thousands of people were there to watch on the steps and from boats in the river): 

 

 

 

 

As we clearly hadn't gotten enough of the Ganges the night before, we got up very early the next morning to take a sunrise boat ride on the river and observe the daily bathing ritual that many Hindus practice....these photos are some of my favorites:

After breakfast, we spent the rest of the morning with Vinay as well as he showed us the four main temples in Varanasi (details to be saved for a later blog post if time).  

Around Varanasi

But the most intriguing and moving part of this day was what hapenned in the evening.  Katy and I strolled back down along the Ganga around 5pm, in order to catch an up close glimpse of Manikarnika ghat, the largest burning ghat along the river.  Burning ghat literally means that bodies are creamated here...and at this ghat in particular, hundreds of bodies are burned all day, every day. At any one time, there are up to eight or so fires going. 

Let me paint a picture for you (out of respect, photos are obviously not allowed here):
At the top of the hill sits the eternal fire of Shiva. According to legend, this fire has been burning for over 3500 years. Each cremation fire is "started" using Shiva's eternal fire....no gasoline, matches, etc are used. The hill leads down to the river with about four levels of burning occurring as it descends.  Where in this vertical order you are burned depends on the caste that you come from...and there is a separate area for the Brahmans (the highest caste) to be burned.   At any time I was near Manikarnika, there were at least six fires going strong.  The areas around the fires are filled with the families of the deceased, mostly dressed in white.  Cows and dogs mosey  about the ashes, and in the lanes on the sides of the ghats, there is a constant stream of bodies, covered in red, yellow, and orange robes, being carried down to the Ganga for their final bath before burning.

As Katy and I approached the burning ghat, we were met by an old Indian man in traditional clothing asking us to please not take pictures.  We replied that we had no intention of taking photographs and were simply wandering around. He thanked us and started explaining the process of the cremation...and both of us were immediately drawn in. 

Here is what we learned (forewarning: a little graphic if you are not comfortable reading about death):

There is a very specific process to honor the dead who are burned in Varanasi.  To begin with, each family has to pay for the wood that it will take to burn their loved one (roughly 260 kg per body).  We were not able to clarify if the bodies are held in the family's home or near the burning ghat, but the body is held somewhere until there is space available.

When it is time for the body to be burned, the body is wrapped in white clothes and then any colorful robes that the family can afford to give as a funeral gift (always either red, yellow, or organge- the holy colors). While chanting a Hindu mantra, four of the male family members carry the body through the city and down past the ghats to the Ganges for its final bath and then bring it back up near the fire. The family members (usually only male, women are considered too emotional to be present for the cremation) walk around the body five times, representing the five Hindu elements (water, air, fire, sky, and earth).  The fire is then started by the eldest male in the family. The relatives stay present for the burning and each body takes between 2-3 hours to burn. At the end of each burning, the literal strongest parts of a man and woman's body are left (chest and hips, respectively).  These parts, along with the ashes are collected and dumped into the Ganges.  The man who started the fire then takes a clay pot filled with holy water from the Ganges and dumps it on the fire, over his left shoulder, with his back facing away from the fire. It is believed that if you face the fire while extinguishing it, the person's ghost will follow you.
And minutes later, this cycle is repeated with another body.

It was a pretty surreal experience to observe. Katy and I observed with our unofficial guide for about 45 minutes and then spent an hour or so on the nearby steps just watching life (death?) go by....we wondered whether or not most Westerners (who, as a whole, are not nearly as open about death) would be able to stomach watching this process. We both agreed that since life and death is a very real part of our daily lives at work, we think it is a little easier for us to observe these types of rituals that are never displayed so openly at home.

There are certain people that are not burned and they include children under 13, pregnant women (children are considered inoccent and would have no reason to not go to heaven, and pregnant women are carrying the innocent), people with leprosy or chicken pox, and people who have been bitten by snakes. Many poor families can also not afford to cremate the deceased. In these above cases, bodies are usually wrapped in cloth with heavy stones and sunk to the bottom of the Ganges. In high season, it is not uncommon to see corpses floating in the river.  This brings me back to my reference to the Ganges being a truly disgusting body of water.....Lonely Planet says that the last count of the Ganges showed 1.5 million fecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml of water....the rate for safe bathing water is less than 500.  However, suggesting to anyone n Varanasi that the water of the great Mother Ganga is anything but purfiying will get you thrown IN the river.  We even were speaking with one lady on the train from Allahabad (and traveling in AC1, the highest train class- so definitely a wealthy woman) and mentioned that the Ganges water might make us sick if we were to drink it, etc- and she looked at us like we had three heads.   We will just keep our thoughts to ourselves.....(and ourselves OUT of the Ganges).

More ghats

 I'd say that novel sums up my time in Varanasi.....next up: The Taj Mahal, on to Rajasthan to see Jaipur (the "Pink City), and hopefully a tiger! at Ranthambore, and then to Delhi!!!