On Friday, April 14th, we said good-bye to Shanjiv and his family. Then, along with two of the other volunteers, we climbed into the back of a truck which took us over the bumpy gravel road to the Chitwan Airport. With memories of the long, rough bus ride still fresh in our minds, we decided to fly back to Kathmandu.
Once inside the small airport, we went through an elaborate process somehow related to checking in and having our bags searched. With no x-ray machines, it was a long drawn out procedure.
Our Yeti Airlines flight was supposed to leave at 10:45am. About two hours later, the old propellered plane finally took off. Less than an hour later Jueun and I, along with two of the others, arrived back in Kathmandu.
The next day we went to Pashupatinath Temple. It is Nepal’s most important Hindu temple on the banks of the holy Bagmati River. It is considered the equivalent of Varanasi on the Ganges River in India and its existence dates back to 400 A.D.
It is said that Pashupatinath temple is so blessed that if you are cremated in its premises, you will again take birth as a human, regardless of the sins you have committed in your lifetime. So, a number of elderly people visit this place to spend the last few weeks of their lives in the area.
It's interesting how when the 2015 earthquake hit Nepal, it destroyed most of the nearby structures and turned surrounding buildings into dust. Pashupatinath temple was left undamaged and devotees claim it as a sign of its divine power.
Every day on the bank of this river, open air cremations take place. The eldest son of the deceased shaves his head and completes the rites. Although, obviously odd to us, instead of appearing grisly, the ceremony actually seemed quite serene.
We sat on the other side of the river and watched as bodies were wrapped and laid along the river bank for the ceremony before being placed on wooden pyres. Then they were then set ablaze as fire and smoke rose from the ghats.
Hindu people believe that the cremation ceremony isn’t just a means to dispose of a body, but it is the union of the soul with the universal spirit. After everything is burned the ashes are simply swept into the holy river.
While we were there we witnessed a few of these cremation ceremonies. It was quite amazing and not as disturbing as we had imagined.
Obviously it was a strange experience watching bodies being burned; however, after reading a little about the practice and learning the spiritual importance of the ceremony we were left with a better understanding. This Hindu practice is considered a great honour; especially at Pashupatinath Temple and according to their belief, by burning the body you are essentially setting the spirit free.
It is a certainly a powerful place to sit and contemplate notions like culture, religion, death and mortality. Although we had mixed feeling about going to Pashupatinath, we are glad that we did and we ended up spending most of the day there.
The next day, we spent our time in Thamel picking up a few items we needed for the next leg of our trip. We knew we wound need warm coats for our time in Tibet and we also went to a pharmacy to pick up some pills for our time around the higher altitudes of the Himalayas.
On Monday, April 17th, we headed back to Kathmandu airport and waited to board our flight to Lhasa, Tibet.
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