Today was truly an amazing day. We started out early in Khajuraho and went to the temples there that date from the 9th century. These temples were lost for hundreds of years, covered over by jungle growth. They were rediscovered in the 19th century, having been buried for almost a thousand years. There are a cluster of Hindu temples in the Western side of Khahurajo and then in the Eastern part of the town are Jain and Buddhist temples. The Hindu temples are simply amazing structures, made of sandstone with millions of figures carved on the temples on all sides, many of them depicting erotic scenes from the Kama Sutra. They are truly the most amazing ancient erotica you could ever imagine, leaving very little to the imagination! Inside the temples are the statues of the deities of the Hindu religion. When the Muslims ruled India, they defaced the statues of the deities and many of the carvings on these temples which de-consecrated them so that the temples are no longer able to be used as active temples. Hindus consecrate their images of their deities and after that ceremony, the "statue" is believed to be divine. If the statue is defaced in any way, they believe the divinity has left. We toured the temples for several hours as it was absolutely fascinating to see the erotica everywhere on these buildings. Only in Hinduism will you find such a full and complete embrace of human sexuality and sexual pleasure as something that is to be celebrated as a gift of the divine and as a way to experience the divine.
At all of these famous sites, we are bombarded by hawkers the minute we get off our bus. They are trying to sell trinkets and souvenirs and you have to just keep walking, very fast, making no eye contact and responding to no one and even then its hard to get them to back off. Our guides have made it a practice to invite some of them to come near the bus when we are ready to leave and the guides negotiate the prices of the items and we choose what we want to buy. Mandeep, our trip leader, calls it the "bus bazaar." This morning, the bus bazaar was an experience of organized chaos! There were so many hawkers pushing their way to the door of the bus, its a wonder anything got done!!
After the temples we returned to our hotel for lunch and then went to the airport to fly to Varanasi. Its a short flight and the plane was half empty so it was quite comfortable. Then we drove to our hotel, checked in and left to go to the Ganges river for evening ceremonies. Varanasi is the holiest city for Hindus, a place of pilgrimage to which millions of Hindus come every day. It is like Mecca for Muslims. It is also believed that if you die by the banks of the Ganges you will attain immediate "moksha" which is the Hindu version of salvation, meaning you won't have to be reborn again and again. To be cremated by the Ganges river is a very special and holy thing for Hindus. The city is teeming with pilgrims who come for the various religious ceremonies that take place throughout the day, and with those who have come to bury their dead. When we got down to the river area, we had to get off the bus and walk about 10 minutes down to the ghat, where we were able to board our boat. We were again swarmed by young children selling the candles that are lighted every evening and set afloat on the river at the conclusion of the aarti ceremony. Its really very trying to walk through these crowded streets with these children literally swarming around you. We were very glad to get on the boat. We sailed down the Ganges for a bit, and stopped first at the place where the cremations are taking place. That was a powerful sight to see. We counted 18 funeral pyres burning while we were there. Hindus cremate their dead within hours of death. The eldest son in the family is responsible for dealing with the cremation rites. The body is brought to the Ganges river, having been bathed and placed on a bamboo platform. It is then brought down to the river's edge and washed again in the Ganges water and then placed on the funeral pyre. The son and other male relatives stay with the body until it is fully cremated, which takes about 3 hours. It is a profoundly moving sight to see all the funeral pyres burning as the families stand by watching. Our boat then moved on down the river a bit more for the evening aarti ceremony, which is a daily ceremony where fires are lit and offered to the river, which is considered to be a holy God for Hindus. There were a total of 12 priests (one group of 5 and one group of 7) doing the aarti ritual which begins with blowing a conch shell and then all the devotees begin ringing bells and chanting as the priests chant (in Sanskrit) and incense is burned and the priests offer prayers in all four directions. The ceremony takes about 35 minutes. Words cannot describe what it is like to see this ceremony - thousands of pilgrims gathered on the banks of the river and, like our group, out on boats on the river, chanting, bells ringing, candelabras that look like Christmas trees from a distance (they are in a tree shape to symbolize the tree of life) which the priests wave around in a particular ritual fashion. When the ceremony is over, all the devotees light small ghee candles that sit in a little boat made from leaves, surrounded by flowers and then put the floating candles onto the river, making a wish and saying a prayer as they let the candle into the water. Its incredibly beautiful to see the shimmering candles floating on the river. Our guides had candles for us so we were able to participate in that part of the ceremony. It was really magical.
Pics today include a couple of shots of the erotic carvings at Khajuraho and some shots from our river cruise this evening, including a shot by the funeral pyres and some shots from the aarti ceremony. They are not very good as my camera isn't great in the dark, but hopefully it will give a little flavor of the experience!
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