Varanasi
A whirlwind of winding alleys, people always in a hurry, almost every corner reaks of urine, and yet there they are the Holy Ganges. The ganges are a sacred river that the hindus belive will wash away all their sin, after the cremation of the deceased, the bones and ashes are thrown in.
However, in the past thousands of uncremated bodies were thrown into the Ganges during cholera epidemics, spreading the disease. Even today, holy men, pregnant women, people with leprosy or chicken pox, people who had been bitten by snakes, people who had committed suicide, the poor, and children under 5 are not cremated at the ghats but are floated free to decompose in the waters. In addition, those who can not afford the large amount of wood needed to incinerate the entire body, leave behind a lot of half burned body yet they dump half cremated dead bodies into it.
They float lit butter candles and flowers to send a prayer on the water, they somehow wash their clothes in it, and last of all they bathe in it. It is the color of grey brown. It is one of the top 5 polluted rivers in the world, due to the fact of what dies in it, or goes in dead, and the massive amounts of garbage put into it."According to official standards, water safe for bathing should not contain more than 500 faecal coliforms per 100ml, yet upstream of Varanasi's ghats the river water already contains 120 times as much, 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml;
After passing through Varanasi, and receiving 32 streams of raw sewage from the city, the concentration of faecal coliforms in the river's waters rises from 60,000 to 1.5 million, with observed peak values of 100 million per 100 ml. Drinking and bathing in its waters therefore carries a high risk of infection"
CRAZY! Yet these waters seem to still be holy and great enough to bathe in??? I don't understand.
Varanasi is still one of my favorite cities though, even through its crazy dirty chaos it has a sence of love and compassion.
A whirlwind of winding alleys, people always in a hurry, almost every corner reaks of urine, and yet there they are the Holy Ganges. The ganges are a sacred river that the hindus belive will wash away all their sin, after the cremation of the deceased, the bones and ashes are thrown in.
However, in the past thousands of uncremated bodies were thrown into the Ganges during cholera epidemics, spreading the disease. Even today, holy men, pregnant women, people with leprosy or chicken pox, people who had been bitten by snakes, people who had committed suicide, the poor, and children under 5 are not cremated at the ghats but are floated free to decompose in the waters. In addition, those who can not afford the large amount of wood needed to incinerate the entire body, leave behind a lot of half burned body yet they dump half cremated dead bodies into it.
They float lit butter candles and flowers to send a prayer on the water, they somehow wash their clothes in it, and last of all they bathe in it. It is the color of grey brown. It is one of the top 5 polluted rivers in the world, due to the fact of what dies in it, or goes in dead, and the massive amounts of garbage put into it."According to official standards, water safe for bathing should not contain more than 500 faecal coliforms per 100ml, yet upstream of Varanasi's ghats the river water already contains 120 times as much, 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml;
After passing through Varanasi, and receiving 32 streams of raw sewage from the city, the concentration of faecal coliforms in the river's waters rises from 60,000 to 1.5 million, with observed peak values of 100 million per 100 ml. Drinking and bathing in its waters therefore carries a high risk of infection"
CRAZY! Yet these waters seem to still be holy and great enough to bathe in??? I don't understand.
Varanasi is still one of my favorite cities though, even through its crazy dirty chaos it has a sence of love and compassion.
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