March 8, 2015, Sunday, Khajuraho temples and Kashi in Varanasi

Busy day!  We are off early to see the famous Khajuraho temples with an excellent guide.  We only have a couple hours, however.

Lakshi temple

We start with the Lakshi temple and are able to visit one more panch ayatan before we were off to the Eastern section which is Jain.  There are 89 total temples in the area, built over a period of a hundred years, a thousand years ago.  Yes, 1,000 years ago!  

The base of the temples is marble.  The upper areas with the carvings are sandstone, but a much harder sandstone found anywhere else they say.  The detail of the dresses, the eyes, the fingers and expressions on the faces amazes me.  I cannnot believe this art has lasted in such pristine condition for so long.  People must have touched the sculprures which over time usually spoils them.  They have carefully cleaned them, which is an ongoing process.  But you can see the expression in the eyes, the delicate lacy dresses.  No other ruins I have ever seen can compare.  We are visiting the temples we saw at last nights sound and light show.

The detail is amazing.  And it hasn't deteriorated.

yes, we were there photo

The temples in the East area, Jain.

After a quick lunch and bags out, we are off again to the airport to fly to Varanasi.  Our bags had to be weighed before we left.  Only 15 kilos allowed per person.  

At the airport, OAT took care of the bags and security.  The security is interesting.  We must have a paper tag on each item we carry onto the plane.  We go through security by sex.  Women are "frisked" in a curtained area.  The bags are stamped after they come out of the screening machine.  Your boarding pass is examined multiple times.  The bags are examined to see if they are stamped before walking on the tarmac to the plane.  One time a bag was not stamped.  I was detained while everyone else passed by.  Then the guard motioned to me to just put it in my other bag and go.

Varanasi is like Vatican City or Mecca to Hindus.  It is on the Ganges River.  After getting our rooms, we meet again by 5:00pm to make our way to Kashi, the area on the Ganges that is sacred.  We go by bus part of the way, but the streets are blocked and narrower and we take a bicycle taxi for quite awhile into this busy area.  40,000 pilgrims come into this city every day.   Every Hindi wants to visit Kashi at least once in their lifetime.

on the way to Kashi

We make our way through a narrow alley walking single file and finally reach an opening where we see the ghat and the river.  Boats, people, vendors, dogs, saffron umbrellas under which are priests, pilgrims, tourists.  We get into a motor boat and make our way downstream to see the cremation area.  This is where every hindu would like to be cremated because it can be lit by the eternal fire first lit by Vishnu.  But this is very expensive.  They cremate bodies 24 hours a day here.  There were 5 or 6 fires we saw. You are not supposed to take photos.  I did not take my camera at all.  Our special guide explained all the ritual behind the cremation and we got to see all the stages in one area or another.  Then we went back upriver and placed a paper bowl filled with flowers and a lit candle into the river as a remembrance of our own.  We then went among all the boats along the shore, 10 deep or so, and watched the ritual performed every evening on these steps which is of thanksgiving.  There were two stages as you wish.  Ours had 7 young brahmin priests who spread out along the ghat and waved candles and smoke into the air in all directions as someone behind a screen sang.  The last song was to put the river, Mother Ganges, to sleep.

Our boat motored to an area where the bus could pick us up.  David bought a bottle of Ganga water for Ramesh.  They told us that all Hindus revere the Ganga river.

Then we all went out to Pizza Hut for dinner.

OAT brochure:
After breakfast at our hotel, we visit the east and west temple complexes that the Chandelas constructed.  The erotic stone carvings here have come to symbolize the important role of love and prone energy in Hindu thought.  British archaeologists excavated these intricate stone carvings during clonal times, when they scandalized post-Victorian english sensibilities.  We have time for lunch before transferring to the airport for our 40 minute flight to Varanasi, the holiest of Hindu cities.  Known as Benares during British times, Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world, with a written history dating back more than 4,000 years.  It has an intense, almost palpable atmosphere of spiritual devotion, a feeling of an unending religious festival.  Hundreds of temples propitiate the thousands of deities in the Hindu pantheon.  Pilgrims from every part of this vast nation crowd the narrow streets and the riverside ghats.
We will witness the aorta (thanksgiving) ceremony on the Ganges.  As the day comes to a close, we'll travel to the bathing ghats located alongside the sacred River Ganges.  People flock in large numbers every day to bathe and worship in the temples built beside the riverbank.  Feel the timelessness of Varanasi as the sun sets and as the temple priests perform arty, the sacred light ceremony, on the banks of Mother Ganga.  This is best viewed while having a boat ride on the river.  After the puja ceremony is complete, dinner will be on your own.