March 9, 2015, Monday, Varanasi

Early morning we were out on the boat again to see them waking up the Ganga river.  We motored past the Ghat area where people were shaving, bathing and

consulting the priests.  Later one of the ghats was being used for drying saris and towels, having been cleaned by dohbis.  The morning light was pink on the sights.  We were also immersed in the sounds and smells of life on the Ganga.  

descending the main ghat.  Pink tower is water treatment plant.

our boat

crowded ghat steps

men ritually bathing

Saris drying in the ghat

Women ritually bathing

Water bottles for holy Ganga water collection, flowers and other offerings.

ghat from the river

After breakfast we visit Gautama Buddha where Buddha preached his first sermon.  

We then visit the Sarnath Museum which houses the Ashoka Lion Capital, the National Emblem of India.  Four exquisite lion carvings facing N,S,E and W.  We are not allowed to photograph.  Here are housed some of the first statues of Buddha.  Apparently he didn't want his image to be worshipped but that only lasted 300 years.  The Chinese they say introduced the fat Buddha.  One of the hand gestures we saw can be duplicated by trying to untie a knot.

We go to the Bharat Mata, or Mother India temple which houses a stone relief map of the whole of India covering a large room.  You can see it is basically flat until Nepal, the rivers, and other mountains to the North.

We later go to a silk weaving workshop where they weave using tall looms and use patterns in with dots like player pianos.  They sell us a few scarfs.

Before our farewell dinner we are dressed in saris and the men in white kurtas andpajamas.  We were serenaded by a well known sitar artist and accompanied by a skilled drummer whose fingertips danced over the taut skin so fast it was a blur.