Life, Death and everything in Between.

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Varanasi holds itself as the most holiest of holy cities throughout India. For those of you who don't know much about Varanasi, also known as Baranas, and Ganga (by nickname)- it is the city of gods where the water from the himalayas fluently reaches the city's famous ganges. The city itself is similar to northern cities in India- small laneways, crumbling buildings and endless amounts of garbage polluting the streets. But what makes this city unique is an ever present feeling of something greater than yourself and something intangible, a feeling that cannot be explained.

It needs to be explained: the Ganges is a river, this river provides the people of Varanasi with so many purposes. The water is supposed to be the purest (coming from the himalayas) and the notion behind it is for purification of the body and sins. Ganga is used for cleaning laundry, washing the body, cremating bodies, and where the sacred cow can lay to rest (we later witnessed a dead cow floating up the river). To us this makes no sense at all and would probably cause sickness), but to locals this is part of the everyday norm.

An early morning took took ride into the city found us at the banks of the ganges and pursuing a boat ride in early morning thick fog, so thick we could barely see sister boats and their companions in front. From the view of the ganges, one cannot help but notice the concrete buildings all levelling one over another and it is incredible to think how these structures were built years ago. As the sun began to rise a beautiful pink reflection brought some colour to the bank side.

We finish our boat ride with our professional 8 year old guide and decide to walk the 2 km walk of the various ghats that line up the ganges. As we close in on our destination we come to the central burning ghat in Varanasi which cremates all religions of people (the others only burn specific religions). I cant help but notice the fog is still thick and heavy and an eery feeling of quiet looms around us. As we continue to walk I notice the ghat is full of dogs and as one begins to howl all are included.. Quickly enough we leave and find breakfast.

I then feel as though I really want to go back and see the burning ghat again. Well we were in luck! As the fog had lifted and the people of Varanasi had began their days routine, we were fortunate enough to see all the stages of an Hindu death ceremony.

After the death of a man he is wrapped in white, and a woman in red. At this last stage in the burial process woman are not permitted into the ghat to withn ess the burning for the fear of crying. This was believed to hinder the spirit from enetering the afterlife. The body is purified by bathing in the ganges and all sons place water in the deceased mouth. After the body is dried, the eldest son then walks around the body 5 times to respresent earth, wind, fire, water and god with an eternal flame and eventually lights the body.



Watching all of this take place in front of my eyes was really overwhelming and bizarre. In western worlds death is something that is kept very private and here it is very much public and celebrated. I catch the smell of sandalwood and geer as the body begins to burn and am so intrigue.. everything has a purpose and nothing is done without precision. It should be noted, that when we came back all the dogs were still there but as they began burning they all lay flat on the ground silently. But most of all what really blew my mind through all of this was that while we were witnessing a cremation, we were also witnessing, a man bathing, a man brishing his teeth, and men washing laundry. Very confusingly contradicting.

That's the beauty of Varanasi though.. Life, death and everything in between.

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