Nepal. Pashupatinath
From the Buddhist center of Bodnath, we journeyed to the Hindu temple complex of Pashupatinath, considered the most important sacred temple of Shiva in the world. The complex spans both banks of the sacred Bagmati River. On the western bank lie the main temples. Access to the large temple courtyard is restricted to Hindus only. Adjacent to the temples is the Waiting Home, where the elderly come to spend their final weeks under the guidance of astrologers who pinpoint the moment of their death...
A good view of the main temples is seen from the opposite bank of the river...
Along the riverbanks, platforms for funeral pyres are situated; those at the feet of the main temples are for cremating higher castes, while slightly further away they are for lower castes. We observed the cremation of a deceased from a lower caste. Initially, the body was washed at a specially designated spot on the higher caste cremation ghats, then transported to the lower caste cremation ghat to continue the ceremony...
Settling on the opposite bank of the sacred river, we observed the continuation of the ceremony...
One pyre was slowly burning out, while on another platform a procession was just gathering...
The dry river, eagerly awaiting the monsoon season, provided a good opportunity for transporting unburnt logs...
The ceremony taking place at the opposite ghat involved relatives of the deceased circling the body, bidding farewell in accordance with special rituals... Afterward, one of the deceased's closest kin symbolically ignited the first flame...
Next, a procession staff member placed several more logs on the body and covered it with hay, ensuring a strong pyre was lit...
In several places within the temple grounds, we encountered local sadhus...
Some of them hid upon seeing a camera, fearing being photographed "for free"... But I managed :)... True sadhus do not ask for money for a photo; they simply sit and meditate, smoke, or read Sanskrit texts, and it's entirely up to you whether you donate or not. They are indifferent to and uninterested in the outside world as they seek liberation through their inner world... However, we only saw true sadhus perhaps in Varanasi; here, they were merely images that drew attention more for their eccentric appearance than their essence...
Pashupatinath was our final sightseeing stop before departing for other regions of Nepal. The next day, we set off for Chitwan National Park for an excursion through the Nepalese jungle, a Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forest...
To be continued... Chitwan
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