Varanasi

The city of Varanasi is on the left shore of the Ganges, distributed along the curved bank as though on the outside of the letter “C”. It is a holy place for Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains. The rather steeply down-cut left bank of the river is virtually completely stone-paved into long steps, or ghats.
The steps lead from the water’s edge up to a continuous line of impressive stone buildings, temples, guest houses, alleys, passageways and streets, and the number of steps exposed along the ghats depends on the level of the water in the river.

During our visit, the river water was quite low so the number of steps was great. At points along the upper steps and buildings, there were various marks of the high-water level from outstanding wet monsoon years, some 30-40 feet above the current water level. The implication of that degree of water level difference in an otherwise flat landscape is mind-boggling.

Along the ghats one can see all the activities of daily living of the local population and the thousands of pilgrims and tourists who come to visit this holy city.
From almost any vantage point along this bank one can see people bathing in the river to clean themselves, or to purify themselves, as well as those doing laundry, offering puja, washing cookware, gathering water, eating, playing, swimming, boating, fishing, chatting, selling wares, touting, making tea, strolling, gawking and overall, just being a tiny thread in the local fabric.
Throngs of people gather at several ghats where every evening Aarti is celebrated, a celebratory prayer and offering of floating candles to the river god. Not only that: at the “burning ghats”, the cotton shrouded
bodies of the recently dead are blessed and burned amid large funeral pyres, with family and other mourners keeping watch as the lowest caste workers handle the bodies and maintain the fire.  

 

On our first morning of awakening in Varanasi, we rose early and walked the several blocks to the river’s edge to take a sunrise boat ride along the ghats. Only five of our group of 12 decided to do this, and it was well worth the effort of getting up early.

As light rose in the sky, before dawn, the lower steps of the ghats were already occupied by people starting their daily watery routines, and as the sun itself popped up over the horizon, and lovely pinkish hue was cast over the scene.

That same day was also the day before Holi, an annual Hindu festival on the full moon of March. Along the streets of the town were tall piles of firewood, heaped and ready for lighting around 11pm, the most auspicious time as determined by Hindu priests. We were amazed to see that some of these were amazingly close to buildings or built right under electric wiring. We were all so glad that we had arranged to stay in Varanasi for Holi, but when our guide told us that it might be dangerous for us to go out in the evening during the celebrations (because we might be targeted for particularly harmful pranks), we all took his advice and stayed in.

Sadly we missed seeing the burning of the many street bonfires that night. 

Later that day, Dean and I shared a taxi with two other Intrepid tour members to go to Sarnath, a 20km drive. It is an important early Buddhist temple and monastery.





We were scheduled to spend two nights in Varanasi, but our guide informed us that we would leave the hotel at 11pm on the second night and drive through the night, cross the border into Nepal when it opened in the early morning, and arrive in Lumbini, birthplace of Buddha, in time to celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi. He and the travel company, Intrepid, were afraid (despite their name!) that it would be dangerous for us to travel during the day of Holi because of hoodlum behavior of the celebrants. We all felt that we should stay in Varanasi and participate in Holi… what better place to mark that festival than the most holy place along the Ganges? After much persuasion and the signing of consent forms, our tour leader arranged that we would stay in Varanasi that night and the following night, celebrate Holi in Varanasi, and then undertake a very long driving day the following day, passing through Lumbini and going to Chitwan National Park, a 14-hour driving day.

Yea! Holi in Varanasi!

(Once Suresh was convinced that we were staying, he took us to a shop where we all purchased very inexpensive white cotton pants and kurtas (called pyjamas here) so that we would not have to sacrifice any of our regular clothes to the ravages of the Holi celebration.)