Thread: Varanasi

Yes. I spent a few days there during the three years I lived in India.

Me mate spent 6 months there.

We had to disown him when he came back.

Had only turned into a fokin' Krusty eh.

visited there twice, 1984 and 1992. its was a filthy shithole but addictively fascinating.

we saw cars with corpses tied to their roofracks struggling down the thronged narrow lanes leading to the burning ghats, which were like a vision from hell.
dogs were roaming around pulling burning arms and legs from the pyres and eating them.








skinny old people were dying in the streets near the river and there were corpses floating down the river, and people bathing and drinking the filthy water as part of their ritual.

it was like being in a 15th century charnel house.

^Good description. I was there in 1984 as well.

Did Hieronymus Bosch ever visit there?

Never went to Varanasi but travelled around India for 6 months it's a big place with lots to see and do. Sure was a culture shock when they opened the door of the plane in Bombay and it smelt like all 20 million of them had just farted at once, maybe more than once? I enjoyed it though, once I got my head around the abject poverty, was only 18 and first time abroad and solo travelling, on the way to the hotel the taxi driver sold me a tolla of hashish as a way of welcoming the young BLD to his country, turns out I paid way way over the odds, was a good smoke though as I used to love a puff then. Thanks for bringing on a few memories ent. I would love to go back and see what has changed after a 30 something year gap, Mrs BLD wants to go have a look to but I reckon she wouldn't handle it, and probably neither would I. I shat like a duck the 6 months I was there and I was young and healthy, probably kill me now. Certainly wouldn't take me nippers there, perhaps Sri Lanka? A sort of India lite ?

thats a great video in ents opening post, really captures the 15th century atmosphere.

looks pretty much the same as in 1984.

Originally Posted by taxexile

dogs were roaming around pulling burning arms and legs from the pyres and eating them.

Bollix, pal.

You've never watched a cremation on the Ganga at Varanasi.

Each funeral pyre's attended by a man who disposes of all of the ashes, looking for gold teeth from the burnt remains, and I can assure you that dogs get nowhere near enough to a cremation to pull out burning limbs.

What doesn't get completely burned gets dumped in the river, the fish eat that, and if the occasional half burnt corpse washes up to the river bank further down stream, they'll tuck in too.

Generally speaking, the corpse is almost totally consumed by fire, apart from some hard bones, such as ankles, sometimes skulls and pelvis bones.. and teeth.

Sadhus and other holy men aren't cremated, neither are pregnant women or lepers, but a stone is tied around their bodies and the corpse is taken out to the middle of the Ganga and dumped.

What's the difference between the worms eating you in a western burial or fish or dogs doing the job,... other than how one feels about it?

Out of sight, out of mind, eh?

^ Anything special happen to pregnant lepers?

No, same deal...

Lord Hanuman attends.

Bollix, pal.

You've never watched a cremation on the Ganga at Varanasi.

i know what i watched, and that was dogs, aggressive dogs, looking for and finding scraps to eat amongst the roasting flesh.

some sights just cannot be unseen.





it was a primitive horror show, devoid of respect or dignity.

seems to be a lot of images of dogs eating corpses

https://www.google.co.th/search?q=do...sAQIJQ&dpr=1.1

[QUOTE=taxexile;3444361]

[/IMG]it was a primitive horror show, devoid of respect or dignity.

Funerals are for the living, not the dead.

The dead don't care.

Originally Posted by Chico

seems to be a lot of images of dogs eating corpses

Yup, dogs will do that, but none of the corpses are cremated remains, rather those of proscribed individuals dumped in the Ganga then washed up to shore.

Some people are so poor that they can't afford the wood for a cremation, so give the copse to Mother Ganga to dispose of.

We all turn to compost,.....in the end.

it costs nothing to treat the corpse, living and breathing until a few hours previously, with some degree of dignity.

what i saw in varanasi was a nothing more than a butchers shop as public spectacle, but instead of animals, it was humans. skulls popping, limbs extending and contracting in the flames, fiery explosions as accumulated abdominal gases were ignited, it was gruesome....... but it was hard to pull myself away and leave.

[QUOTE=taxexile;3444361]

some sights just cannot be unseen.



.

The guy is carrying a basket of smoking ash etc scraped up from the last cremation he was attending, before the next cremation on the site.

No evidence of unburnt cadavre, just ash, dirt, charcoal, maybe the odd bit of bone, which will be washed in the river to look for gold in the remains, then given over to mother Ganga.

Mind blowing place, just like the whole of India itself.
Boom Bolenat.
Full Power.

Watched a documentary on another Indian burial place, some tribe have the long standing practice of putting the corpse in a temple that open for vultures to fly in and feast on the dead.
The Indians there thought it was normal to feed vultures, problem was the vultures started dying from some mysterious disease that they had caught from dead corpses.
Anyway some Farang as usual comes along and solves the mystery disease.

The Parsis do....or rather did, until drugs in cattle killed most of India's vulture who used to eat the human corpses inside large, tall circular enclosures...like short towers.

Originally Posted by taxexile

,,and there were corpses floating down the river, and people bathing and drinking the filthy water as part of their ritual.

spent a few days there. fascinating place.

India is one place I've never wanted to visit,I won't even fly Air India.

When I was a backpacker the stories of Travelling around just but me off.

I have been there several times. The most fascinating place on Earth.
I would not be a backpacker!
We stayed in palaces & ate the best food available.