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 visiting the ghats - so many memories float with the Ganges .................................................................................   .................................................................................  a cow prepares for her final float - funerals for all holy cow ... her dead body floats in the river Ganges Whilst we sit at the riverside in Benares, watching the cow (and a few other things) slowly pass by, a boy from the nearby chai shop scoops some water from the river, prepares a cup of tea and offers it to us. |
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Varanasi has the finest religious river frontage in India, with miles of ghats (steps) for bathing; shrines, temples, and palaces rise tier on tier from the bank. Over a million pilgrims visit each year; many hope to die there in old age.
The burning ghats.
The bigger of the two is Manikarnika,
the other is Harishchandra.
The former hosts up to 200 cremations each day. The process is efficient and businesslike. Above the ghats are huge stacks of wood; the family of the deceased, according to their means, buys one of many funeral packages on offer, including a certain quantity of wood, sandalwood sawdust, ghee, other ritualistic paraphernalia, and a priest's services.
Orderlies set up the pyre, the body is placed on it, the priest chants and performs the rituals, ghee is poured on, and the pyre is set alight, as the men of the family watch (women stay at home). If the fire doesn't catch on well, more ghee and sawdust are added. If a family can't afford enough wood, as is not uncommon, the body is burned in stages: middle part first, while the head and legs stick out, to be pushed in deftly by a pole after the middle part collapses.
A few hours later, the ashes and bits of bones are gathered by the eldest son or a senior male of the family and consigned to the waters, where "untouchables" stand with wire nettings to dredge up the ash and mud, hoping for a gold tooth or nose ring that may have survived the fire (pieces of jewelry may be left on the deceased by the family). Not all who die are cremated -- children under five, lepers, sadhus, pregnant women, and snake-bite victims are offered directly to the river.
source : www.shunya.net
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. PHOTO ALBULM - Benares
INDEX for my trips in Japan
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ghats Benares-
the Ganga washing away
devotees' sins
Sunil Uniyal
kigo hotline 2008
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. KIGO - Visiting graves in Japan
. The India Saijiki
Read my Haiku Archives
My Daruma Museum Japan
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