Travel Photo 307419

Mar 2, 2023 6:10am

We sat by the funeral ghat in the blistering heat and watched a ceremony. The body, draped in cloth of gold and orange and adorned in flowers, is first carried to the waters edge on a bamboo stretcher, where it is washed by the male family members. No women are allowed in the funeral that. From there it is set upon a huge pile of wood, various rituals and chants take place and then it’s set alight - right there in front of us, for all to see. It takes approximately 3 hours for the body to be fully consumed, and then the ashes are emptied into The Ganges. Across the 3 funeral ghats of Varanasi, 350 bodies a day are burnt and the fires burn, day and night.