The beginning of the end began on a hot day- or what we
formerly believed to be hot- in Jerusalem at noon on Sunday, April 28th.
The journey from Beit Shmuel to the Jordanian border by bus, from Israel to
Jordan by another bus, from the Israeli border in Jordan to the airport in
Amman via another bus, from Amman to Delhi by plane, and from Delhi to Varanasi
by another plane took a total of approximately 18 hours. We were all pooped,
but as we have done all year we ran on adrenaline throughout our first day in
India.
We began our final trip in what is considered the “oldest
continuously living city in the world.” (I added the word ‘continuously’ just
to be as clear as possible) Our guide told us that Varanasi dates back 3,000
years, and according to Hindu tradition it goes as far back as 8,000 years. We
spent our first afternoon in India learning about Buddhism and visiting a couple
of sites associated with the Buddha. Now for those of you who don’t know the
story of the Buddha here it is, told by me as briefly as possible. (And please
don’t hold me accountable for the accuracy of it, it took hearing it two times
in an Indian accent to get the gist of it.)
The Buddha was born while his mother was standing upright,
and right after he left the womb he walked seven steps.
His parents knew he was
special so they spoke to some sort of prophet and he told them that their baby
would either be a great emperor (or something like that) or he would be a
great, influential monk. His parents coddled him and gave him everything any
young man would ever want. He decided to leave the comfort of his palace one
day and was horrified by what he saw- an old man, a sick man, a dead person,
and a monk. Troubled by what he saw he searched for answers to life (or
something like that). He sat under a tree and meditated for 40 days (I think)
without eating or drinking, until he reached enlightenment.
I highly suggest you look up the story yourself if you’re
interested because as you can tell, I don’t know it very well.
To be totally honest I’m still not really sure what we saw
because I wasn’t used to the Indian accent yet and couldn’t understand our
guide, but as far as I know we visited the spot where the Buddha reached
enlightenment. We also saw a temple, with a mural of his life story on the
walls, where he preached his ideas to five disciples who spread them.
After that we went to a museum established in 1910 that
displayed Varanasi’s ancient history and civilizations. The centerpiece of the
museum (where we unfortunately weren’t allowed to take pictures) was a
sandstone statue with multiple images still used today in India- the statue is
even on every Rupee (Indian currency).
Before going to dinner we went to a Sari factory where we saw how they were made and we also had the chance to buy any one of their beautiful Sari's, scarves, or other textiles.
We ended our day with a real authentic Indian experience by
joining thousands of Hindus (and numerous tourists) on the Ganges River for a nightly religious
ceremony.
However, the most interesting part of the boat ride was witnessing
the cremation along the Ganges, which is the common practice in India. And as
side note all you see are large bonfires. The only reason we knew what they
were doing was because our guide told us not to take pictures while we floated
by.
The eerie scene was definitely a thought provoking way to
end the day, but it didn’t stop me from falling asleep the second my head hit
the pillow. We traveled throughout the night before and tomorrow we have to
wake up at 4:30 to go out on the Ganges again for sunrise. We have another
packed day that is expected to be one of the longest yet, especially because we’re
taking our first of three over night trains in India.
