Understanding Maha Shivaratri at Pashupatinath Temple
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I remember being at university and traveling vicariously through couchsurfers that stayed at our apartment. There was one gentleman who had recently been to Varanasi in India. He described a city where the dead are carefully carried to the sacred Ganges and burnt in an open air cremation for all to witness. At the time, this was shocking news. I couldn't imagine bodies being burnt - in public - in centuries-old funeral rituals. And I'm sure many of you can understand that feeling. But here I am, some ten or so years later, and things have changed a bit.
About a week ago, we made it to Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu to celebrate Maha Shivaratri. Shivaratri is a super important holiday in Hinduism. This year, over a million people gathered at Pashupatinath to worship Lord Shiva. One of the things the temple is best-known for is its public cremation ceremonies. Those who are cremated here take their last journey, via their own ashes, to one of the holiest places in the world - for the Bagmati River ultimately flows into the Ganges.
The origins of the holiday differ a bit - from the day that Shiva drank a poison that had surfaced in the ocean (which is what turned him blue... cool, right?), to the day that he married his wife Parvati, to the day he performs the heavenly dance of creation, preservation and destruction.
Hundreds of holy Sadhus, or highly-regarded wanderers throughout Nepal and India, can be seen in the temple on this day. Many are ornately dressed, with ash covering their bodies (it represents the ultimate truth that all bodies turn to ash in the end, and death is the finality of life and the sum of all things) and brightly painted bodies honoring Shiva's heavenly dance.
We had read about the crowds and also been encouraged NOT to attend by well-meaning Nepalis who thought it might be a bit too busy for us. We braced ourselves for total insanity. When we arrived around 7am, we were like 'wow, this really isn't so bad.' Come 3pm, and the streets surrounding the temple were jam-packed with bodies. It was like a sea of humans hurtling themselves down the road and over fences into the complex. The temple itself is so large, though, that once we made it inside (and we'd learned a secret forest entrance that morning that you can see in the video), you can easily find spots to get a little space. And once you've got a little space, you can delight in some of the best people watching there is.
Days like this are what make Nepal an amazing country. Nothing quite like standing in an ancient holy area (the earliest evidence of the temple is 400 A.D.) with hundreds of thousands of worshipers honoring a god from a religion you are fascinated by (and trying to unravel the mysteries of.)
