Pashupatinath and Dead Bodies

Ok, enough about sicknesses...I'll tell you about a place I went to this weekend that has quite a lot of interesting Hindu culture and facts intertwined within it's crumbling walls.

Three other volunteers and myself took a taxi to Pashupatinath in Kathamandu on Saturday afternoon. Pashupatinath is Nepal's most important Hindu temple and stands on the banks of the holy Bagmati River (to quote Lonely Planet). Now, don't let the word "holy" deceive you. This is by far the most disgusting excuse for a river I have ever seen (I hope I am not struck down by Shiva for saying this). It has stagnant, gray, murky water and there is litter piled from it's shallow depths to forming little islands on the waters surface...so dense in fact that cows and dogs were walking aimlessly about on them. The stench was almost intolerable and as I was staring at the nasty water, I saw what looked like a bunch of raindrops indenting its surface everywhere. I looked up but felt no rain. Looking back, I realized they weren't raindrops on the water's surface, but bubbles! Apparently, lots of little bacteria and other revolting organisms were releasing foul gases from the unimaginably disgusting depths of the holy Bagmati River.

Lined up along the river bank were a series of evenly spaced stone platforms; about maybe 8 feet by 6 feet in size. These were the platforms that the bodies were burned before the ashes were stirred into the Bagmati River (yet another ingredient to add to its delightful stew). We looked to our left, up the river, and saw a bunch of people gathered around a large, human-sized lump covered with a red blanket on a bamboo-like stretcher, tilted at an angle on the river bank so the feet were only inches from the water. It was someone who had passed away and whose ceremony would begin once all of the relatives had arrived. The ceremony involves a lot of detailed rituals that probably vary from family to family and caste to caste, but for the most part, they almost always involve pouring water from the Bagmati into the mouth of the deceased. This is to, unbelievably, purify the body and soul. Some people do come to Pashupatinath before they actually pass on, because it gives them comfort to die here. And sometimes those people perform this "cleansing" ritual before they die, which in turn, makes them die sooner. No surprise there.

We spent an hour wandering around the grounds, fending off eager tour guides looking to make a hundred rupees or two by throwing facts and information at us, were openly stared at by every Nepali around (which is quite normal) and lounging on benches over-looking the whole scene. Here were some other facts we acquired about this holy temple:

1. Husbands and wives sometimes come to bathe in the Bagmati River (something I think could be a valid challenge on Fear Factor) because doing so ensures their connection together into the after-life and for all eternity. As Zach, another volunteer pointed out, you had to really want to spend eternity with your wife to do that. I pointed out the same went for wanting to be with your husband. It was a sacrifice either way.

2. It costs approximately 5,000 rupees to be burned at Pashupatinath, and it wasn't even until 2001 that the lowest caste was allowed to be burned there.

3. The highest burning platform upstream is reserved for the Kings, and lower castes/people are burned sequentially further and further down the river.

4. Buddhists may also be burned at Pashupatinath, but a Buddhist and Hindu many not be burned on the same day.

Anyway, it was a lot of thoughts about death for one afternoon, and the four of us left for Thamel tired and somber. Luckily, there were plenty of other volunteers around that night in Thamel to have a good dinner with and give us some laughs.