It is interesting here for sure. One of my past posts spoke of the “masks” we wear. Though the following photos do not represent the same types of masks I spoke of in my last post, they are masks just the same.
The word Sadhu is a Sanskrit term that means “good man”. Sadhus are people who have chosen to live on the edge of society in order to focus on their spiritual practice. The base of this word is supposed to mean to let good happen. It was interesting walking through this area and having these Sadhus beckon you over to get your photo taken with them.. for a small price.
The Sadhus lifestyle does vary from place to place. Some live in caves or huts in remote areas, some live in Ashrams or temples in large cities while other Sadhus roam from place to place throughout their lives. The Sadhus of Pashupati seem to live in this area and depend upon the photo taking of tourists and the brotherhood of each other. I have visited Pashupati several times and for the most part I see what appears to be the same group each visit.
Regardless of the “masks” they wear or their actual purpose. They leave a lasting and haunting impression. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Bored on a Saturday afternoon? What do you think of doing? I’m sure the first thing you thought of was NOT to go watch a cremation..in a stadium setting..surrounded by hundreds of people you don’t really know. Or maybe that is the first thing you thought of….
During my first visit to Pashupati, I was amazed at the colors, the sounds and the smell of the area. Pashupati is a Hindu temple on the banks of the Bagmati River. Every day families can be found with their deceased to this edge of the river here to be cremated. It is my understanding that after the cremation, the ashes are buried nearby the temple area.
Many westerners however, visit simply to witness the open air cremation ceremony. During my first visit, every area available was being used. This past weekend I had a guest in town and we decided to visit the area. There is a part of me that felt it was a little disrespectful to watch people cremate their family members but it is such an interesting cultural experience. Only Hindus are allowed in the temple area so you are really watching from across the river and are not interfering with the process.
People who have money are able to hold their ceremony in a very central spot right on the water. There appears to be only one cremation at a time happening in this area. The ceremony is well attended and the body is strewn with beautiful flowers.
People without money are cremated in a more crowded area with similar fanfare but a little less grand in style.
We stood on the opposite banks for some time watching the process as well as watching the people who were watching the process.
This was not the first cremation I had seen in Nepal. When I first arrived, circumstances brought me very close to a cremation in a very different location. It was interesting how all of life went on around the cremation area. There was a woman washing her laundry in a doorway behind me while children played ball and animals ate grass very near the cremation site. When the body was placed on the stand and wood and flower were placed on the body, the children stopped playing ball for just a minute and stood about 4 feet from the body. They watched the process for about five minutes and then went back to playing ball. It was amazing and interesting how death played a role in their every day lives and how close this culture is to death in comparison to my own. It was odd and comforting all at the same time. It was very natural.
Every culture around the world has their own way of dealing with death. One is not better than the other and it’s all what you grew up with. Still it is very interesting to me. A few more way for you to think about.
The way we grieve, commemorate, and dispose of our dead varies greatly from culture to culture, but some traditions really take funerals to the next level of macabre. Here are 10 of the most bizarre death rituals the world has ever known.
1. Endocannibalism
For some cultures, the best way to honor the dead is by eating them. Referred to as “endocannibalism” by stuffy anthropologists, these “feasts of the dead” are a way to forge a permanent connection between the living and the recently deceased. It’s also a cathartic way to express the loathing and fear associated with death and its tragic aftermath. Some anthropologists have suggested that endocannibalism is something the dead would have expected from the living — a final gesture of goodwill to the tribe and family. Though no longer practiced (at least not that we know of), cultures who engaged in endocannibalism included the Melanesians of Papua New Guinea and the Wari people of Brazil.
2. Tibetan Buddhist Celestial Burials
But why nourish yourself with the flesh of the recently deceased when you can use it to feed wild animals? Such is the thinking of Tibetan Buddhists practice ritual dissection, or “Sky Burials” — the tradition of chopping up the dead into small pieces and giving the remains to animals, particularly birds. Sometimes the body is left intact — which is not a problem for advantageous vultures. While this may seem undignified and even a bit disgusting, the ritual makes complete sense from a Buddhist perspective. Buddhists have no desire to preserve or commemorate a dead body, something that is seen as an empty vessel. Moreover, in tune with their respect for all life, Buddhists see it as only fitting that one’s final act (even if committed in proxy) is to have their remains used to sustain the life of another living creature; and in fact, the ritual is seen as a gesture of compassion and charity. Today,over 80% of Tibetan Buddhists choose sky burial, a ritual that has been observed for thousands of years.
3. Suspended Burials
The mysterious Bo people of the Hemp Pond Valley in Southwest China’s Gongxian County flourished for millennia before they were massacred by the Ming Dynasty over five centuries ago. Today, the Bo are almost completely forgotten, save for the dramatic hanging coffins they have left behind — a haunting array of wooden caskets that extend from the rock face to a height of almost 300 feet. Located just above the Crab Stream, the 160 coffins were placed along the cliffs and within natural caves, with some resting on wooden posts that extend out from the cliffside. The precipice itself features many murals that are painted with bright cinnabar red colors, many of which depict the lives of the Bo people. Today, the locals refer to the long-lost civilization by such names as “Sons of the Cliffs” and “Subjugators of the Sky.” But why they interred their dead in this way remains a complete mystery.
4. Sati
Though now (mercifully) banned in India, Sati was a funerary practice in whichrecently widowed women immolated themselves on their husband’s funeral pyre. The custom was seen as a voluntary act, but there were many instances in which women were forced to commit Sati — sometimes even dragged against their will to the fire. No one is certain how the ritual got started, but one suggestion is that it was introduced to prevent wives from killing their wealthy husbands (typically with poison) and marry their real lovers. Another possibility is that it was seen as a way for a husband and wife to enter into the afterlife together so that they could thwart opportunistic female angels. Interestingly, India was not the first and only culture to adopt the tradition. Other ancient societies that practiced something similar to Sati included the Egyptians, Greeks, Goths, and Scythians.
5. The Viking Funeral
Hindi women clearly had it tough — but so did the slave girls of Viking noblemen. According to the historic account of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a 10th century Arab Muslim writer, the ritual following the death of a chieftain was exceptionally brutal. Once dead, a chieftain’s body was put into a temporary grave for ten days while new clothes were being prepared for him. During this time, one of his slave girls would “volunteer” to join him in the afterlife; she was then guarded day and night and given copious amounts of intoxicating drinks. Once the cremation ceremony got started, the girl went from tent to tent to have sex with every man in the village. As the men were having sex with her — or what today we woud call “rape” — they would say, “Tell your master that I did this because of my love for him.” Following this, the girl was taken to a tent where she had sex with six Viking men, was strangled to death with rope, and finally stabbed by a village matriarch. And for the coup de grace, the bodies of the chieftain and slave girl were place onboard a wooden ship that was set alight. The Vikings did this to ensure that the slave girl would serve her master in the afterlife, while the sexual rites were a way to transform the chieftain’s life force.
6. Ritual Finger Amputation
As if the death of a loved one wasn’t traumatic enough, the Dani people of West Papua, New Guinea also had to cut off their own fingers. This seemingly severe and incomprehensible ritual applied to any woman related to the deceased, as well as any children. The practice was done to both gratify and drive away the spirits, while also providing a way to use physical pain as an expression of sorrow and suffering. To perform the amputation, fingers were tied tightly with string and then cut off with an axe. The leftover piece was then dried and burned to ashes or stored in a special place. The ritual is now banned in New Guinea, but (as this image shows) the effects of the practice can still be seen in some of the older members of the community.
7. Famadihana
The Malagasy people of Madagascar have clearly never heard the phrase, “Rest in peace.” In an effort to hasten decomposition — what’s seen as an crucial step in the ongoing process of getting the spirits of the dead into the afterlife — the Malagasy dig up the remains of their relatives and rewrap them in fresh cloth. Afterward, the Malagasy then dance with the corpses around the tomb to live music. Called Famadihana, or “Turning of the Bones,” the ritual has been around for three centuries — one that the local Christian churches are doing their best to stamp out.
8. Mortuary Totem Poles
Totem poles are a fixture of the American Northwest and the Haida people, but there’s more to these icons than meets the eye. Normally, the remains of a deceased Haida were thrown into a mass pit where they were scavenged by animals. But the series of events following the death of a chief, shaman, or warrior were considerably more intricate. In those cases, the body would be crushed to a pulp with clubs so that it could fit into a small wooden box the size of a suitcase. Following that, the box would be placed atop a special mortuary totem pole in front of the deceased’s longhouse where the icons acted as guardians for the spirits’ journey to the afterlife. Visiting missionaries were often taken aback by the practice, mostly on account of the lingering smell.
9. Australian Aboriginal Mortuary Rites
The best part of an Aboriginal death ritual is that family members get to keep a souvenir afterward — namely the bones of the deceased. Following the demise of a family member, the body was placed atop a raised platform and covered with leaves and branches where it was left to decompose — a process that often took months. In some cases, the liquid from the decaying corpse was collected and rubbed over the bodies of young men to pass on the good qualities of the deceased person. After, the bones were retrieved and painted with red ochre. The bones were then either placed in cave or inside a hollowed out log. And in some cases they would be worn by relatives for up to a year. Some tribes also refused to utter the name of the deceased and completely disregarded any property they left behind. The entire ritual was way to ensure that the ego component of the deceased’s spirit didn’t get too comfortable hanging out with the living.
10. The Zoroastrian Funeral
Zoroastrians have a thing with dead bodies, what they see as something that defiles everything it touches, whether it be the ground, clothes, people — and even fire. The funeral gets off to a rousing start by having the corpse cleansed in unconsecrated bull’s urine (which can only be done by a specially trained member of the community). Once “clean,” the corpse is laid in linen and visited twice by the “Sagdid” — a dog that can cast away evil spirits. After mourners visit the corpse (touching is strictly forbidden), it is placed on top of the Dhakma, or “Tower of Silence,” where the Zoroastrians remove the clothes using tools (the clothes are later disposed of as they’ve been defiled). Following this, the body is quickly devoured by vultures. The entire ritual is done in this way to ensure the minimal amount of harm and injury to the living.
Just a random video I like to close off this post.
Shadow is the obstruction of light. Shadows appear to me to be of supreme importance in perspective, because, without them opaque and solid bodies will be ill defined; that which is contained within their outlines and their boundaries themselves will be ill-understood unless they are shown against a background of a different tone from themselves.
Leonardo da Vinci
“Actually, I do happen to resemble a hallucination. Kindly note my silhouette in the moonlight.” The cat climbed into the shaft of moonlight and wanted to keep talking but was asked to be quiet. “Very well, I shall be silent,” he replied, “I shall be a silent hallucination.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
While taking some guests through different areas of Kathmandu we got split up while touring through Patan Durbar Square. We had agreed that if we did lose each other on this visit we would meet up in the main entrance of the square. Of course we got separated. As I wound my way through the back roads I ran into this two person dance team. What a treat. I hope you enjoy.
Dance is the hidden language
of the soul
of the body. ~~Martha Graham
The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs. ~~Charles Baudelaire
Other posts that represent dance from Where’s your Backpack’s weekly travel theme: Dance and Daily Post Theme : Moved by Music
Monkeys are superior to men in this: when a monkey looks into a mirror, he sees a monkey. ~~Malcolm de Chazal
Dogs are my favorite pet. However, monkeys are my favorite animal. There is something so whimsical, intelligent and just plain intimidating about them. During a recent visit to Pashupati in Kathmandu, I could NOT stop taking photos of them.
Contrary to general belief, humans imitate apes more than the reverse. The sight of monkeys or apes induces an irresistible urge in people to jump up and down, exaggeratedly scratch themselves and holler in a way that must make the primates wonder how this otherwise so intelligent species has come to depend on such inferior means of communication. ~~Frans de Waal
So like humans and yet so different.
We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special. ~~Stephen Hawking
I hope you enjoy these photos.
Other Animal’s in Blog though Cee’s Photo Challenge Animals
rfljenksy - Practicing Simplicity 