VARANASI, INDIA GALLERY
September - October, 2006
September - October, 2006
| LIVE. LOVE. BE. DO. SING. TRAVEL. CREATE. WRITE. FLOW. RECEIVE. GIVE. THANK. INSPIRE. SIT. LEAP. MOVE. GROW. LISTEN. SHARE. LOOK. SEE. ENCOURAGE. ENDEAVOR. THRIVE. SHINE. SPIRIT. GO. |
Quite simply, Varanasi is one of my favorite places on Earth.
As the holy city of Hinduism, and one of the world's oldest constantly inhabited cities, Varanasi is the India of books and postcards.
Naked saddhus (wandering ascetic holy men) roam the streets and alleys in abundance, often covered in the ashes of the dead.
Temples and classical music roll like clouds through the streets. Narrow alleyways congest with cows, motorcycles and pedestrians,
as they wind their way through the heart of the Old City.
As a backdrop to all of this beautiful madness, Varanasi is set upon the epic and sweeping Ganges river, with the majestic
desert-scape beach that lies beyond it. It is like something from a gritty, historical fairy tail, come alive before your eyes.
Along the ghats (steps) that line the city-side of the river, human corpses burn in public, wafting the fumes of death into nearby hotels
and the faces passers-by. In the river itself, thousands of bones and corpses line the bottom, ceremoniously dumped into the water
on a daily basis for many, many years. While it may sound morbid, there is a strong, reverent sense of death in this city. Far from
being a depressing place, the constant reminder of the mortality we all share has a certain sobering and enlivening quality about it.
It is said that if one dies in Varanasi, one will receive moksha, or liberation from the cycle of life and death. In traditional Hinduism, it is
believed that one must cycle through several lives and do enough combined spiritual practice to become Enlightened, at which time,
there is no more reason to re-incarnate. Dying in Varanasi is like a free pass to Buddha-hood, allowing one to skip the spiritual
practice. It is said to be tantamount to an instant and direct experience of complete oneness with God.
Many devout Hindus also believe that if you bathe in the Ganges here, you will be cleansed of all sin. Whether or not this is true, it's
one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world and parasites saturate every drop.
As a consequence of all this, Varanasi is a city where people come to die, and to be re-born. It's the Hindu answer to Mecca.
When I arrived in 2005, I found for the first time, the India my heart had been searching for when I'd conceived the journey years before.
Mysteriously, the city has defied many of my attempts to photograph it. Most of the images from my first excursion were on a CD that
split in half after a lengthy Rajasthani bus ride. When I returned in 2006, I inadvertently mangled my brand new DSLR camera in
attempt to rid the sensor of unwanted dust spots.
Nonetheless, I did manage to capture some images before the worst damage was done.
These are the best of those few.
Images from Varanasi (2005) can also be seen in my North India gallery.
Back to slideshow.
As the holy city of Hinduism, and one of the world's oldest constantly inhabited cities, Varanasi is the India of books and postcards.
Naked saddhus (wandering ascetic holy men) roam the streets and alleys in abundance, often covered in the ashes of the dead.
Temples and classical music roll like clouds through the streets. Narrow alleyways congest with cows, motorcycles and pedestrians,
as they wind their way through the heart of the Old City.
As a backdrop to all of this beautiful madness, Varanasi is set upon the epic and sweeping Ganges river, with the majestic
desert-scape beach that lies beyond it. It is like something from a gritty, historical fairy tail, come alive before your eyes.
Along the ghats (steps) that line the city-side of the river, human corpses burn in public, wafting the fumes of death into nearby hotels
and the faces passers-by. In the river itself, thousands of bones and corpses line the bottom, ceremoniously dumped into the water
on a daily basis for many, many years. While it may sound morbid, there is a strong, reverent sense of death in this city. Far from
being a depressing place, the constant reminder of the mortality we all share has a certain sobering and enlivening quality about it.
It is said that if one dies in Varanasi, one will receive moksha, or liberation from the cycle of life and death. In traditional Hinduism, it is
believed that one must cycle through several lives and do enough combined spiritual practice to become Enlightened, at which time,
there is no more reason to re-incarnate. Dying in Varanasi is like a free pass to Buddha-hood, allowing one to skip the spiritual
practice. It is said to be tantamount to an instant and direct experience of complete oneness with God.
Many devout Hindus also believe that if you bathe in the Ganges here, you will be cleansed of all sin. Whether or not this is true, it's
one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world and parasites saturate every drop.
As a consequence of all this, Varanasi is a city where people come to die, and to be re-born. It's the Hindu answer to Mecca.
When I arrived in 2005, I found for the first time, the India my heart had been searching for when I'd conceived the journey years before.
Mysteriously, the city has defied many of my attempts to photograph it. Most of the images from my first excursion were on a CD that
split in half after a lengthy Rajasthani bus ride. When I returned in 2006, I inadvertently mangled my brand new DSLR camera in
attempt to rid the sensor of unwanted dust spots.
Nonetheless, I did manage to capture some images before the worst damage was done.
These are the best of those few.
Images from Varanasi (2005) can also be seen in my North India gallery.
Back to slideshow.
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
NAVIGATE:
 |
| All content and web design copyright © 2012 by Jeremiah Hill. All rights reserved. No content of this website may be copied or reproduced in any form without the express written consent of the author. |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
GALLERIES:
 |  |  |
GALLERIES:
| | |