In Tianzhu, most Tianzhu believers cherish four major joys throughout their lives: worshiping Lord Shiva, taking holy baths in the Ganges and drinking the holy water of the Ganges, making friends with saints and living in the holy city of Varanasi. After their death, I hope to scatter my ashes in the Ganges River.
And because of the peculiarity of the Ganges River, there are many words about the Ganges River in Buddhism, such as the number of sands in the Ganges River. Although Buddhism has lost its roots in Tianzhu, Tianzhu is the birthplace of Buddhism after all, and there are many Buddhist methods. There are many artifacts left behind, so monks like Zhou Yu and others sometimes want to travel around Tianzhu to see if they have a chance to find one or two of these Buddhist relics.
When Zhou Yu came to Tianzhu, he knew the Buddhist allusions, so on his first day in Tianzhu, he came to the bank of the Ganges River, known as the Holy River of Tianzhu, to take a look at the holy river described in the Buddhist scriptures.
But when Zhou Yu arrived at the so-called holy river in Tianzhu, he felt nauseated. Fortunately, Zhou Yu reacted quickly and adjusted his inner breath, otherwise he would have been vomited on the first day in Tianzhu.
Because as soon as Zhou Yu came to the bank of the so-called holy river in Tianzhu, an extremely disgusting smell hit his face. This smell was burnt with the stench of sex, which made people unbearable. Zhou Yu was here After forcing myself to endure it for a long time, I suppressed the disgusting feeling in my chest.
However, when Zhou Yu carefully observed this sacred river in Tianzhu, which is famous in the world, he could no longer bear it and hurriedly found a place to vomit, which almost destroyed his heart, liver, and lungs. He vomited it out. If Zhou Yu hadn't carried various medicines with him, Zhou Yu would have vomited out his gall water.
But when Zhou Yu looked back, he saw that for the convenience of walking in Tianzhu, after entering Tianzhu, he deliberately joined a tour group from China. When Zhou Yu saw his temporary group friends, they His appearance at that time was far worse than Zhou Yu's.
When Zhou Yu chatted with those people before they came to the Ganges River, these people all praised themselves as bold and mentally strong people. It was said that they could watch this heavy-flavored movie and eat. However, those few people I also vomited and my face turned gray and my eyes were blurred.
"You asked Zhou Yu and the others what they saw. This time Zhou Yu and the others saw several upper-chested people with dark skin, messy hair, and bearded people bathing in the shallow water on the bank of the Ganges River.
Originally, there was nothing wrong with bathing in this river. Who hadn¡¯t bathed in this river earlier? But taking a bath is a bath, but you have to choose a place to do it, but the place they chose is so special that people will never forget it once they see it.
The place they chose to bathe was on a specially planned riverbank like steps on the edge of the Ganges. There was a huge stone platform less than fifty meters away from the place where they bathed. The smoke was billowing, as if something was burning.
Zhou Yu looked through the thick black smoke. Zhou Yu clearly saw a scorched human hand in the thick smoke and orange-red firelight, stretching straight upward. It was clearly burning a human body.
And these people were bathing next to the cremation table. It would be fine if that was all, but the Ganges water they used for bathing was really dirty. It didn't take monks like Zhou Yu to use their Dharma eyes to see it, but ordinary people could use their naked eyes to see it. As can be seen.
The water of the Ganges River is extremely turbid and is gray-green in color. There are a lot of debris floating on the water of the Ganges River. The water of the Ganges River slaps against the river bank, producing a lot of foam. These foams do not disperse, but instead gather in the bathers' heads. body,
And Zhou Yu and the others also discovered that there was a swollen and deformed floating corpse that had been soaked in the Ganges River floating next to the bather. However, the bather did not hesitate and continued to bathe there. How could this happen? Don't let Zhou Yu and the others feel sick.
At the same time, Zhou Yu and the others also discovered that on both sides of the Ganges River, there were corpses washed ashore from the Ganges River from time to time. Some of these corpses were still intact and looked like an old man, while others were already rotten. It was in a state of disrepair, and even more so was a few missing human skeletons.
A large number of scavengers gathered there, feasting on corpses. A crow held a human eyeball in its mouth, and two dogs actually bit each other for a human hand.
Seeing this scene, no wonder Zhou Yu and the others vomited so much. Zhou Yu and the others had never seen this kind of scene before, but it was in a TV movie after all. They all knew it was fake, but suddenly they saw who it was really. Can't stand it.
After asking the local tour guide, Zhou Yu and the others learned that Tianzhu believers scatter the ashes of the deceased on the river, believing that the deceased will directly ascend to heaven. Crematories for burning the deceased have been established in many places on the banks of the Ganges. Some people will specially Come to the Ganges to wash away your own sins, including those of the elderly.??
There is a huge difference between local nobles and poor people. In the process of incineration, the nobles used sandalwood to burn the corpses, while the poor used kerosene to burn the corpses. The smell was very different.
Maybe it¡¯s because we place all our hopes on the afterlife, so we can be so passive and calm about the sufferings in this life. On the banks of the Ganges, there are many old people waiting to die. They are hungry, cold, and filthy, but they endure it silently, without fighting, crying, or complaining. They just wait to die on the banks of the Ganges. Because according to tradition, they can be cremated for free and realize their wish of dumping their ashes into the Ganges River.
However, this is a solution that the poor have no choice. More people are still willing to go to the corpse burning pits by the river. This place is often called "manika"
"nikaghat". Rich people will use white sandalwood, stack the firewood, and put the body on top. If it is a woman, it is usually wrapped in a colorful sari and decorated with white flowers.
The saree also needs to be soaked in Ganges water to purify the body. Then pour oil with spices and start burning for nearly three hours, until the deceased is finally reduced to ashes. During the burning process, the relatives of the deceased kept chanting "ramnamsatyaahai", which means "the name of the god".
In order to have a better afterlife, the ashes are mostly scattered by family members into the "holy river" by hand. This process usually takes place at night, accompanied by an atmospheric ritual performance, and people on the shore and boats in the river come close to it.
The dazzling candlelight and swirling smoke combined with the old priest's hoarse singing voice and the rhythm of strings of copper bells make the ancient Ganges look even more desolate and mysterious. Of course, not everyone is eligible for cremation. The bodies of children under five years old, people without money, and those who committed suicide are directly released into the Ganges River, or the bodies are tied with stones and sunk directly. Enter the Ganges.