Cows and Old People

We finally got to sleep in... Getting up at 10:30 was nice for a change.

Today we started out by driving around to a few of the local temples. We saw one that was dedicated to the "terrible" form of Shiva. The whole thing was a was a beautiful deep red colour. Another temple we saw was only built in the 60s, but was spacious on the inside and all of its walls were covered in lines and lines of poetry.

The third temple we saw was overrun with monkeys. The pillars there were covered in fresh orange paint that looked like it was applied on a daily basis. Kate loved the monkeys and a group of three boys loved Kate. The came up to say an enthusiastic hello and she took their picture.

The last temple we saw was New Vishwanath Temple. I had asked repeatedly to go to Vishwanath temple, and out driver assured us we would go there. It wasn't until we got to the "new" temple that we realized we had been duped. The sunset there was beautiful, however.

After a lot of arguing and dismissing 100 excuses of why we should not go to Vishwanath temple, we finally convinced the driver to take us there. Once downtown, we could see why he wanted to avoid the place. Right now is heavy tourist season for Indians (not for foreigners) and that means a LOT of pilgrims come to the Ganges river to bathe and pray.

Our driver parked at a movie theatre and we navigated through the narrow crowded winding streets of Varanasi to get to this temple. Once we finally made it to the temple it was too dark to see anything so we had dinner and excellent and cheap dinner at a local restaurant and headed to the waterfront.

Varanisi is a holy city on the holy Gange river. The bank of the river in the city is covered in ghats, which are stairs and terraces that lead down to the river's edge. Most are used for bathing in the sacred water, but a few, including the one we visited, are used for cremation.

As soon as we neared the water a noisy procession cut us off from a side alley with a body wrapped and on a stretcher. A man with a bundle of kindling followed behind along with the family or teh deceased.

The ghat itself was covered with people sitting and waiting. There were groups of women and children in some areas, and we later learned that only the men go to watch their loved one cremated which takes about three hours.

Druing our visit about five people tried to con us into thinking we had come to a place where only family could go and demanded a donation for our transgression. We clearly were allowed to be where we were because of the clear signage in English and the fact that some of the waiting family members offered a place for us to sit down and shared some cookies. We had read in the guidebook not to take photos and we kept our cameras hidden in our bags.

Kate and I did not actually watch a cremation, but we were lucky to see a ritual to the river by a group of holy men. They waved a variety of brass lamps over the water to the ringing of bells that sounded like the clanging of pots. One of the lamps looked like a five layered cake and another looked like the lamp Aladdin rubs. Both lamps produced bright flames the stood out vividly in the darkness of the evening.

Once the ringing stopped, the chanting began. The men chanted in harmony varying between 3 or 4 parts. It was repetitive, but with the fire, the evening air and the smoke drifting from the cremations, it was tranquil. Neither Kate nor I knew what was really happening in front of us, but neither of us spoke nor diverted our attention from what we saw.

Every one hears of how in India the cows run freely in the street to do whatever they wish, and this is certainly true. On our way back to the car, we saw a few interesting interactions between the cows and the pilgrims. As we stood up from watching the ceremony, we saw a cow shift toward a man sleeping on the steps. The cow started slowly licking the man's face causing him to wake up. The man, who was much less startled than I would have been, gently shewed the holy animal way and went back to sleep.

Nearly back at the car, and a few cows later (I think I stepped in a cow patty on the way), another older person felt the free reign of a cow. She apparently wasn't looking beside her, and a slowly moving cow didn't bother to stop, instead bumping her in the rear end and onto the ground. It's amazing to see how much respect and lack of indignation both these people had toward the offending cows.