After work one night last week we took a taxi out to Pashupatinath Temple to the cremation ghats. The temple site beside tthe holy Bagmati river with cremations occurring all day. We arrived as the sun was setting and walked along the water where only fire and ash remained on the ghats as loved ones looked on. We watched as one family carried a body in front of a cremation ghat, threw his clothes into the water, and said a few prayers after each member of the mourning family took hand fulls of water from the river and bathed the body about to be cremated. The logs were then laid, and the body was placed on top before the fire was lit. We sat in silence for a long time across the river as the ceremony unfolded. Very powerful experience!
The rest of the week left us saying good bye to a few great friends. The Dutch physio, Thea, went back to Holland (I have no idea what we would have done without her), and the Belgian physios were on their way to India before Elise goes back to Belgium to find a job and Severine returns to her job at a private physio clinic in the South of France (tough life). I hope to visit them all some day! … And who knows maybe they can hook me up with a physio job when I’m done. I think I could handle the South of France for a little while.
Phil Sheppard 