City of Burning Dead People? Varanasi, India (Copy)
India is a beast. It’s so massive and filled with various sub-cultures, cities, and rural areas altogether.
Is it worth going to in the overwhelming entirety of it?
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My Intel
There are ways to do India coherently. While I can’t recommend the backpacker way of traversing this monolith for health and safety reasons, I recommend places that I think provide a great essential quip of the country.
Varanasi in the north of the country is one of those realms for me. It’s really remarkable.
(Cover image by Sehajpal Singh)
Varanasi. Image by Sehajpal Singh
Why Varanasi?
The city is peculiar and a subtle of the celestial, strangely central to the activity of burning the deceased. With over 84 ghats around the holy Ganges river, it’s an unusual place of ongoing morgue activity. Funeral pyres perpetually burn on the waters. And the rivers that mark this space are considered holy in singular entities as well as their meeting cross points. They’re pilgrimage sites and their own sort of meccas, these waters have seen an abundance of evolution.
Varanasi is also filled with stupendous temples and is known as a location of scholarly integrity, and cultural intrigue in classical music and Indian dance as well.
However, its spiritual rituals central to the processes around death are what it’s most notorious for.
Varanasi, common hazy air. Image by Matteo Giovanardi
By Indians themselves, the city is considered a holy site amidst the country taking into account the Hindu understanding and practices of death and post-death. It’s known as the spiritual capital of the country, drawing those inclined towards the spiritual from all over the globe and all over India as well.
Records recognize that Varanasi has been longer inhabited than many places on the globe. My favorite photographer, Kenro Izu, made an entire publication of work central to the process of reaching the light that Indians go through in ultimately finding hospice in the city.
One of the most interesting things, in addition to the pyres, is Ganga Aarti, which is a ritual that occurs every morning on the river. It’s a ceremony that offers prayers to the river which is itself considered alive, a holy aspect of what makes the city thrive. This ritual includes chanting, incense burning, and fire.
Local Guide: Rudraksh Holidays
If it’s your first time in India, I recommend hiring a local day guide. Rudraksh Holidays is who I’ve traveled with a couple of times and touring via an informed local makes the visitations around Varanasi educational and easy. This provides otherwise unknown insight into why particular acts are performed and the myths and legends of Hinduism that they’re carried out.
There is an enthusiasm for experiencing cities from their waters, and Varanasi is no different. There is something ethereal about being on a boat in the waters here. Smokiness abound with the scent of smoke and spices, the river gives further meaning into what life and death and the two intertwined means.
River Ganges, Varanasi. Image by Sergio Capuzzimati
Where to Stay? Taj Ganges
Taj Ganges is one of, if not the most, comfortable choice in Varanasi. With sizable rooms, the Taj provides reliable amenities as well as reliable restaurant food, a bigger and more comfortable hotel amidst the options in the city.
Vishwanash Temple, Banaras University, Varanasi. Image by Aditya Raj
*Safety tip
Only drink bottled water in India! This also includes using bottled water to brush your teeth.
Additionally, if you’re walking in thongs or flip-flops, consider a small scrub brush because feet tend to get dirty with walking and taking shoes off to enter and exit temples.
Bottom line
Varanasi is a one-of-a-kind impression of India. Its city displays how rooted it is with its spirituality in the altogether environment, architecture, air, and daily on-goings. There are a few places worldwide like it. You’ll see rituals of bathing a river at dawn, nightly candle ceremonies, and insight into post-death practices of the same. Varanasi is one of those impressive Earthen places and the most unusual place in the country of India.
