Dear Everyone
This afternoon we made a trip into one of the most sacred places in the
Hindu world, Pashupatinath, a complex of temples, shrines, cremation ghats, and
a "Hospice House" on the Bagmati River. Non-Hindus cannot
visit the temples, but we could peek into the many Shiva shrines and watch from
across the river the families caring for the dying and the rituals for the
dead. Not my usual Monday afternoon.
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| Mourners gather to wait together near the small shrines below the Hospice House and on the steps along the sacred Bagmati River in Pashupatinath |
The first picture in "Read More," shows more about what's happening on the right of this image
the people on the left side of the blue half-circle
with the image of Shiva with water flowing out of his head, there were groups
of people singing/chanting and the occasional blast of a conch shell came form
that area as well. The building on the left of the blue Shiva image
is the "Hospice House" where the dying are cared for. When
someone is very close to death, they are brought out and laid with their feet
in the river, which is considered to assure them of a good rebirth.
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| The scene below the temple and hospice house at Pashupatinath |
A woman draped in a light yellow cloth is resting on a slab with her feet
in the water. To her left is a fellow in a checked shirt that was tending to
her and might have been her eldest son, the family member charged with
overseeing his parents’ end of life processes. There are also "professionals"
in the area to help and the man in the cream colored shirt and pants and grey
vest was helping Mr. Checkered Shirt. The group of women in red to
his left apparently was her friends and relatives. They were crying
and came with bags of marigold garlands to place on her body when she died.
To the left and perpendicular to the woman with her feet in the water is
someone who has already died and is covered with a red cloth and a yellow
cloth. This person was carried up to the ladder-like bier and carried
to the cremation area off to the left on this same side of the river by four
barefoot "pall bearers." There his/her body was
transferred to a carefully laid stack of
very large pieces of firewood and mourners laid yellow cloth, marigold
garlands, red ribbons, and bright yellow packages. Young men (sons?)
unwrapped the feet and pressed their foreheads to them. When all was
ready, the eldest son was given a torch lit by one of the helpers, and he
tearfully -- I could hear his sobs and groans across the river where I sat -- walked
around the cremation pyre with it twice, and then set it under the wood under
the dead person's torso. The helper then rearranged some of the
yellow packages and went to the river to dip some bundles of grass into the water. He
then untied the bundles and laid the grass on top of the yellow cloth and
package and garlands. The fire began to smoke. Meanwhile
the mourners, nearly all men, watched the preparations quietly. I'm
not sure if the tradition is that the mourners stay until a certain point in
the cremation process or until it is over, but I was summoned form my observation spot to climb a steep
hill and admire the scores of Shiva Shrines atop that hill.
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| The cremation ghats for non-Brahmins at Pashpatinath are across the bridge and down stream from the temple and the hospice house shown in the previous image. You might notice the modern buildings of Kathmandu in the background. |
Each Shiva Shrine has a particular layout with a lingam symbolizing the
male and female inside each one and a Nandi, a sacred bull and Shiva's official
vehicle, is on the west side of each shrine.
There was some writing on this adorable Nanadi's left side in the
scarlet and yellow pigments that decorated him. I asked Jawane's daughter Benita
to translate it for me, and she said it meant "Om Namah Shivaya." This is a mantra I’d chanted in yoga class,
so I was surprised and pleased to recognize it.
As to its meaning, I cite the great
authority on Sanskrit mantras, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of EAT, PRAY, LOVE who
wrote in that scholarly tome that it meant “I honor the divinity within me.” Maybe
so.
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| A beautifully decorated statue of Nandi sits on the west side of a shiva temple at Pashupatinath. |
In the manifestation of Pashupatinath, Shiva is considered the protector
of the animals. He is doing a great job
with the numerous dogs and abundant monkeys at this site. The shrines reminded
me of the cemetery La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, which is probably blasphemy in
both the Christian and Hindu faiths. I leave you with a particularly adorable
Nandi who had been nicely decorated in a puja recently.
Namaste, love, and hugs from Boudha, where all the monks wear maroon, all
the women have nose rings (well, not really), and all the school children wear
neckties (yup, both the boys and girls).
Marian
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