When I stepped out onto the little hotel balcony along the river Ganges to see what was being BBQ'd, I was looking right at a huge stack of burning wood with a shrouded body on the top. Ah, so that what the BBQ tang in the air is.
Varanasi India, is one of the oldest continually inhabited place on earth, and the holiest places in India. Hindu pilgrims come to the ghats(steps) lining the River Ganges here to wash away a lifetime of sins in the sacred waters, or to cremate their loved ones on open wood fires. Apparently, expiring here offers moksha (liberation from the cycle of birth and death). This was very comforting as I thought I might be dying with food poisoning in the hotel. There are a number of hospices next to the burning Ghats, and people travel from all over India to die here.
As the Lonely Planet Guide says… "Brace yourself. You're about to enter one of the most blindingly colorful, unrelentingly chaotic and unapologetically indiscreet places on earth. Varanasi takes no prisoners."
Most Ghats are used for bathing, but there are also "burning Ghats (funeral pyres)", where bodies are cremated openly in public. The River is a fascinating mixture of people who come for ritual bathing, washing clothes, massage, playing cricket, and washing their buffaloes. Every detail of life and death is out in the open. Men playing cards, women socializing, boys flying kites, men urinating just about anywhere, Sadus meditating, monkeys running around the rooftops and along power lines, cow, goats, and dogs wandering around the crowds of pilgrims.
Photos
https://photos.app.goo.gl/hEoWFacrvzWzWjE36
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