Varanasi, India

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March 3, 2008

VARANASI, India

We arrived in Varanasi tonight for our visit.

Varanasi is a very special place for Hindus and is a very important cultural centre. With its location on the Ganges River ( The Mother River for all Hindus ) Varanasi is a point of pilgrimage for all Hindus in the world to visit at least once and, for a lot, the place they want to be when they die. Many people move here for that reason . To die here! Apparently you get a direct pass to wherever you want to go if you die in Varanasi.

After our check in to our hotel we took a “once in a lifetime” rickshaw ride, with our Varanasi guide, through a few kilometers of the city to witness the nightly Hindu prayer sessions on the banks of the River Ganges . We thought it was an adventure taking a “ Cyclo” ride in Vietnam but that was nothing compared to this experience. We had a great time !! You would not believe the unbelievable traffic. ( Bicycle Rickshaws, Bicycles, Cars, Busses, local market pedestrian traffic, cows and more cows, and a few thousand people going for prayers )

There are literally thousands of people every night that attend this religious spectacle. ( and a few thousand more tourists to watch ). It is a very important thing for Hindus and people come from around the world to come to these prayers to be cleansed of their sins by the River Ganges. The people also buy a very small floating basket with flowers and a candle that is lit and the whole thing is set in the Ganges River to float with the current. (Another part of the prayer and cleansing procedure ). The prayer sessions are about an hour and the trip there and back is about an hour each way ( a few kilometers ). This was a very interesting experience for us and I am sure a lot more interesting for a Hindu.

The sights, sounds, smells of the market food and spices, the smoke from the street side cooking, the cows ( and their particular smells ), fresh chicken ( really fresh - LIVE ), the smell of the incense and ceremonial fires, and the general overall unbelievable hustle and bustle of the city at night made for a very interesting evening.

March 4, 2008

Up before the chickens this morning for a short drive back to the river and a walk through the local morning market to catch our row boat ride to view the morning activities on the River Ganges. As this is the most important river for the Hindus, the devout go everyday to have a dip in the river to cleanse themselves. (Physically and spiritually) There are literally thousands of people, at sunrise or earlier, that go to the river and go for a dip. There are also hundreds of small boats of Hindus and tourists on the river to witness the event.

This river is also the most sacred place to be cremated and the funeral fires are burning day and night on this portion of the river bank. They basically make a big pile of wood and put the deceased on the top and burn it all down to ashes that are then put into the river.

Everything is going on at once on the river. The commercial washer men are washing clothes in the river( and hang up to dry ), the devout are bathing, the people are preparing bodies to be cremated, the religious leaders are offering prayers, the ever present hawkers are selling their wares to the tourists, and the tourists gawking and all side by side.

Our small boat docked close to one of the cremation sites and we walked back through the market area and past a few hundred temples of various sizes. There are over 2500 temples in Varanasi.

After a good breakfast we did a short city tour and visited some of the most important Hindu Temples and a very famous Buddhist site, Sarnath, where Buddha is said to have made his first sermon. Varanasi has become known as the root place of Buddhism. The place Buddha “reached enlightenment” is about 30 KM away from Varanasai. As Alice and I have already “ reached enlightenment” we did not visit that town.

The interesting thing is that Varanasi is one of the most important places for the Buddhists as well as the Hindus. Apparently Buddha was a Hindu.
Our guide in Varanasi was very good at explaining the religious part of the tour to give us a better understanding of how they think.

All in All a very interesting couple of days and a “must see” for anyone coming to India.

We actually get a morning off tomorrow and then catch an afternoon flight to Delhi for another chapter in our adventure in India.

( And I’ll bet some more temples and forts !! )

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