Our last stop - the City of Varanasi. We’re here for a short stopover, but what a stop it was. This is the oldest and holiest city in India and is bursting with energy. We thought we’d seen crowds before, but Varanasi is as chaotic as anything you can imagine.
This city on the banks of the Ganges River is inhabited by about 3 million residents, not including cows and monkeys everywhere you look. In fact we were walking down an alley and passed by a cow on the way to devour his meal on trash that lies in the street awaiting pickup. This holy city doesn’t stop. It is hectic, but purposeful. Attached is a short video of our experience on the Ganges River.
The Ganges River is sacred to this community. People make a pilgrimage to bathe and purify themselves twice a day, everyday beginning at dawn and again at sunset in the river. It is one of the few cities in the world that has outdoor cremations, which we observed on our early morning boat ride in the river along the waterfront. Of course, this creates a polluted waterway, but this Hindu spiritual city thrives on this river.
Our guide showed us the Sarnath Museum which houses the artifacts of the holiest of locations for all Buddhists. It was here that Buddha found his inspiration and gave his first sermon. Buddhists from all over the world come here to pray to this site. We walked through the museum/park and absorbed the peaceful ambiance and the Buddha relics that were excavated, some over 2,000 years ago. It is where the Indians and the British discovered the buried remains that displayed some of the main teachings of Buddism and the original column with the statue of the 4 headed lion and the wheel of Buddhist knowledge on the top. Today this symbol represents the National emblem of India and is displayed in many capacities, including their paper currency.
The hotel here was a complete conundrum to the life in the city. It was one of the most elegant hotels we’ve stayed at. It really didn’t make sense considering the people here live on the barest of necessities. But the entire hotel staff is so proud of their jobs and work diligently to please tourists that they beam with pride being able to help you in any way they can.
As I said before, the most pleasant experience has been interacting with the Indian people, even the shop owners and workers in the bazaars and stores who say anything to try to convince you to buy their goods, but this is the pulse of the city and its life force. We have now completed our wonderful journey in the ancient and holy city of Varanasi, the spiritual center to Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. This has been a high point of our trip and something we have looked forward to. We have only to return to New Delhi and fly home.
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