Page 28 - india

A celebration of life and death taking place on the burning
ghats on the Ganges river. It’s expensive to be cremated in
these ghats. Wood in India is an expensive and rare com-
modity. The dead are laid out wrapped in bright fabrics on
bamboo litters waiting their turn for the fire.

gossip they may have missed, to have anoth- most have a specific function. Five of the the Mir ghat leads to a temple for Nepalese
er wash and just to sit and watch the world ghats – Asi, Dasaswamedh, Barnasangam, worshippers; and others have special pow-
go by. Darkness falls, the lights come on, and Panchganga and Maikarnika – are the spe- ers, such as the Somewar ghat, which is par-
slowly people drift off to bed – a lot of them cial ghats where Hindu pilgrims must bathe ticularly good at healing diseases.
sleeping on the ghats themselves – before each day, in that order; other ghats are where Easily the most infamous ghats are Jal-
Varanasi finally falls silent, if you ignore the the Muslims hang out with their little skull sain and Harishchandra, at least as far as
thousands of noisily territorial dogs that caps; others are used by the dhobi-wallahs to westerners are concerned, for these are the
plague urban India. thrash the clothes they've got to wash, made burning ghats where cremations take place.
easier by the flat rocks positioned at regular
Each ghat has its function beyond being a intervals just in the water; yet another is for Varanasi isn't just a city with lots of ghats
social centre. There are over one hundred Jain worshippers, while the ascetics hang and temples, it's a seriously holy place, so
ghats in Varanasi, and while some of them out at the Dandi ghat, no doubt discussing holy in fact that dying and having your body
are crumbling and obviously not much use, dumped in the Ganges here is so auspicious
how long it is since they had a good meal;

28 Wine Dine & Travel Spring 2014