India - The holy city of Varanasi

[Jimbojack]

Thank you everyone for the comments on my previous posts here, I'm very glad you find them interesting. Here is another series from my last trip, this time from India.

One of the holiest cities in India, Varanasi (also known as Benares or Kashi) is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh along the banks of the Ganges river. It is thought that the name was derived from the Varuna and Assi rivers that flow into the Ganges near the city. Being a holy city, it receives more then 1,000,000 pilgrims every year. Hindus come to bathe in the Ganges believing that the water has the power to wash their sins away. It is believed that dying in the city will release a person's soul from the endless cycle of birth and rebirth. It is also a big attraction for foreign tourists wanting to get a glimpse of Hindu beliefs and rituals, or even to study Hinduism themselves. Many families bring the bodies of their recently deceased relatives to be burned in the ghats next to the Ganges.

Some Indians claim that it is one of the oldest inhabited city in the world (founded around 3,000 B.C.), but Aleppo and Damascus in Syria are at least 1,000 years older (founded around 4,300 B.C.). Still, it's amazing to be walking through a city that has been continuously inhabited for this long (5,000 years!). Mark Twain once mentioned Varanasi in his writing "Benares is older than history, older then tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together"

I won't write that much about it here, Wikipedia has a nice page about Varanasi if you'd like to read more


Sunrise on the Ganges

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Life in the ghats along the Ganges

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A couple of portraits

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Statue of the goddess Kali. Notice the characteristic stuck-out red tongue and the necklace made from severed human heads. I will soon write a lot more about her on my page about Kolkata (Calcutta), named after the goddess.

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Cow resting in the middle of a busy street

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Small street

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Varanasi (along with certain other parts of India & Nepal) is a hippie paradise, as such, there is no shortage of drugs. Walking along the Ganges one morning, a man tried to sell me some hashish (advertised as being "good shit"). I politely declined and jokingly asked him if I could take a photo, to my surprise he agreed as long as his face was not visible. Often these guys work together with the police, right after buying it the police will approach the buyer and find the drugs, they then threaten to arrest them but settle on a large bribe. Foreigners regularly fall for this scam. Here is his merchandise:

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Every night there is a Hindu blessing ceremony performed along the river, here are some photos of it

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Various other photos from the city

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Barbers working along the river bank

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Rainy morning photos from my last day in the city

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Because the city is considered to be very holy, many people bring the bodies of their deceased relatives to be burned at one of the funeral ghats along the Ganges. The ghats operate 24 hours a day, consuming massive amounts of wood that has to be brought in from very remote locations in some cases. There are many different kinds of wood, drastically ranging in price. The men working there are experts, knowing exactly how much wood and ghee (clarified butter) to use in order to completely burn a human body. The body is first brought by relatives to the Ganges and is ceremonially washed before being wrapped in funerary sheets and placed on the wooden pyre. For an average adult the whole process takes about 4 hours. Photography in the funerary ghats is strictly prohibited, I was able to take some photos from a rooftop of a nearby building

Stockpiles of wood used for the burning

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Funerary ghats

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Body laying down near one of the wood pyres waiting to be burned

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The remains of one of the pyres, at this point only a few bones are left

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Another body being taken to the river to be cleansed

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A funerary pyre being ignited, the body is usually wrapped in a sheet at this point

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Once again I hope you enjoy this series of photos. Everything I've posted here from my last trip can be seen in full (I allways leave photos out from the forums, there are usually too many to post) on my page for this trip located here: http://jimbojack.com/South_Asia.htm

[OsirisPhoto]

Lovely series. Brings back fond memories of the place :lust

One of the most 'in your face' places in the world! :D

Many thanks for sharing.

[schmoo]

Phillip, thank you for sharing such a unique view into this culture. I'm not sure what else to say... i'm a bit disturbed, a bit entranced, and definitely interested. Your artistic take on so many of the portraits is also amazing. I can only imagine the sounds and scents of this city is just as cacophanous as it looks.

Thank you! :thumb

[sarahcsu]

Wonderful :thumb

[Awais Yaqub]

Amazing !
Loved the series looks like Nat Geo at its best :clap

[david-low]

Really many thanks for sharing and the narratives. Very nice series and good learning experiences for me thru the photos.

[rpcrowe]

Your images bring this viewer right into India!

[Arvan]

woah! what a trip! and gosh what a bunch of photos.

It´s so nice to see the culture so " right up in your face "

Big thanx it was a pleasure to read and look at this! :clap:clap

[Richard]

Wonderful and fascinating. :clap:clap:clap

Regards,

[swintonphoto]

Very thought provoking.

[nixter]

very nice!

[Tango]

WOW. btw imo, you have a few potential photos of the year in there!

[javierplumey]

Wonderful set of pics. Thanks for sharing.

[Krasniewski]

I've never really wanted to visit that part of the world...

...until now.

Very well done! I love especially the way you catch people.

[anwmn1]

Freakin' Awesome stuff!!

There is some very high quality photos in that bunch and some great information to go with them.

Thanks for posting!! :clap