Pashupatinath Temple & Bagmati River
At Pashupatinath Temple on the banks of the holy Bagmati river thousands of Hindus pilgrimage to everyday to perform traditional funeral & cremation rituals. It feels like a very peaceful but also active place with all the incense, hanging of flowers, and people busy performing their rituals by the water. For Hindus there is an extensive ritual of touching & washing the body, adorning it with certain objects, cremating it in the open and then pushing the ashes into the holy river so that the soul can move on to the afterlife.
There was a beautiful sense of community and team work here as the women hurry around to put up lovely strings of marigold flowers across the holy river.
Body waiting to be cremated
these rooms are here for people to come when they are dying so that they can be near the holy river at the time of their passing. The door is kept open when someone is in there so the spirit can get out easily. Our guide told us that you only get one week in there, so if you don't die in that week then you have to give the room up for the next person! there's no messing around with these guys.
Once the bodies are cremated they are pushed into the holy river.
What I found interesting was the amount of kids playing in the river right where all the burnt bodies were being pushed into the water. It was just so normal for them.
