Burning bodies down by the river ganges is a normal daily occurrence in this mad place called Varanasi.
In this holy river and city, it is deemed as a great event at the end of one’s life to be cremated and into the river you go.
So the body is carried through the backstreets on a wooden type stretcher by a crowd, dipped in the dirty, yet holy waters of the ganges river, then tossed on a wooden fire, burned for a while until “well done” and beyond, remains which are hopefully ashen by now are thrown into the river, or if any limbs left unburned, these get tossed in. I kid you not!
But this is not so bad, honest!
Walking passed the burning ghat while the cremations are ongoing you can smell the flesh burning. I was heaving constantly, yet curious with this important religious belief.
Oh the joys of travelling 🙂
into the strange 
We usually do not take pics of cremation grounds.
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hi mukul, thanks for the input. our journey is very much about sharing practices, beliefs and customs that we discover with our followers, so that we can learn from each other
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During the cremation you will witness families that are grieving. I have seen tourists take pics and find it so insensitive. All ancient religions burn the dead as the body must return to the 5 elements it was created from . The soul rejoins the Supreme being.
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That is exactly why this photo was taken from a distance, but we also noted same as yourself.
Can you shed some light on why people throw rubbish and dirt into the holy river?
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That question needs to be directed to those who throw rubbish.
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just hoping you would have an opinion to share, but its ok I understand your comment
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this is one of the many challenges of the internet in making swift judgements, as you also share on your blog many interesting stories and information. like the camels with swastika tatoos on them, which many people would consider animal abuse and others in western world would consider offence at the swastika itself not understanding its deep origins before hitler got hold it and used it to lead the holocaust during world war 2 and the slaughter of many people. thanks for your thoughts.
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No wonder you been so quiet.
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its the great chinese firewall that has been restricting access to outside internet…but 🙂
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Very interesting… different ways people deal. All in very different ways – each to his own I guess. Thanks for sharing
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