Pashupatinath Temple

Quite the experience! If you are in Nepal, this Hindu temple should be on your must-see list. I posted a picture on Instagram that many of you have seen, now let me explain the story. 

To start, at church I met two BYU students from California, Kate and Nicole. They have come to Nepal to explore love and relationships in different cultures. Check out their blog: http://www.aboutlove.space/ for some beautiful stories and pictures. Kate has previously been to Nepal working for CHOICE humanitarian, and she decided to come back with Nicole. Kate is studying Psychology and Nicole is a photography major, hence the awesome photo. (Thanks Nicole!) The three of us hit it off right away and made plans to go sight-seeing within the week. A couple days later, the three of us met outside the temple and embarked on this emotional, spiritual, comical adventure. 

Let me give you a quick briefing about this temple so you can better understand its significance. Pashupatinath is one of the most important Hindu temples in the world. It is located on the banks of the holy Bagmati river, which you will see in the pictures below. Only Hindus are allowed inside of the temple to worship Shiva. So the picture above is the only picture I have of the actual temple. Our wanna-be tour guide said that all worshipers must remove their shoes and anything else made of animal products before entering the temple. This is because Lord Shiva is represented in the temple as a huge golden cow and also as a 3 meter tall phallic symbol...this is all according to our tour guide, I did not see any of this because I couldn't go inside. (Not sure that I missed out by not being allowed to worship a giant penis though...) If you are interested in learning more about Hinduism, Lord Shiva, and all his many forms, I encourage you to. It is quite interesting and I certainly respect their beliefs, even if I find them strange. The important take-away is that this temple is incredibly spiritual and holy to Hindus. Now THAT, I can certainly understand, as temples in my religion are also very spiritual, holy houses of God. 

Outside of the temple there are funeral pyres where devotees can choose to be cremated. Kate, Nicole and I were granted the experience of witnessing a few funerals in progress. I don't know that I quite have words for it. Funerals are always an emotional affair, but it was also beautiful to see how these people honor their loved ones in death. I do not understand the symbolism and the meaning behind every action, but I will relate what I observed and what I felt as an outside observer.

First, bodies wrapped in bright orange cloth and draped in coins and flowers are lowered down to the river. The body's feet are washed in the river and grieving loved ones also come down to wash their feet and hands in the river. After they wash themselves, they would drip water on their loved one's feet and head. This ritual lasted about an hour and was the most emotional portion for me. Not only because when the head and feet were uncovered, it became very real that this was a body, but also because of the grieving women. The men remained stoic throughout this entire process, but the women were wailing and crying and often needed to be carried around being so consumed in their grief. 

This is a picture I snapped of the Bagmati River. My guidebook (Lonely Planet Nepal) explains the river as such, "Despite being clogged with garbage and black with pollution, the fetid Bagmati River is actually an extremely sacred river." I was mortified to see people washing their hands and faces with this water. There were even children swimming in the river, searching for coins that had fallen off the deceased. It is difficult for me to view something so filthy as sacred. If it is sacred, why would you throw trash into it? I don't understand, but nonetheless, that's the way it is.

After the washing is complete, the body is carried to the funeral pyre. At this point, the women all left and the men lined up. Each man took his turn honoring the deceased by bringing his head to the person's feet, placing flowers on the body, and washing the face, or maybe just sprinkling water on it. It was difficult to see, but there was a person that stood at the head and was continually pouring water that the men would wash their hands in. This took over an hour as men continually lined up, and I think some men went through multiple times.

  

 Once the line is ended, the drapes are removed from the body and the pyre built up. 

 The pyre is then lit and the body cremated. I don't know how long the body burns for, as it started pouring rain and we didn't stick around. However, I believe that once the body is finished burning, the ashes are released into the river. It was different than anything I have seen before and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to observe something so personal and sacred. 

I wasn't kidding about the rain.

The emotional roller coaster continues. After watching the funerals, and waiting out the rain, we found these holy men. These holy men are also business men. They know that tourists are fascinated by them and want to take pictures of them, so they expect some payment if you take their picture. It was a very modest fee, and we did the typical tourist thing, took tons of pictures, and received tikas and blessings from them. 

 Kate complimenting the man's long coiled beard while Nicole takes awesome pictures. 

We drew quite the crowd when, after Kate complimented his hair, the man took his dreads down and draped them around her. She handled it much better than I would have. We had a great laugh amidst her, "Oh, I am so getting diseases right now." 

Nicole snapped this picture of me and got many more incredible shots. but you will have to wait for those. They are on Nicole's camera and they are massive files, so e-mailing is a no-go. I'll get them soon and share in a future post.

Namaste.