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CREMATION OF BODY BY THE RIVER NEAR THE PASHUPATINATH TEMPLE |
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by Meena Pandey | 02-10-2019 23:15
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Cremation has become a more popular alternative to burial. However, cremation is not without an impact on the environment and as a result 'Green Burials' are now looked into as a further alternative. Pashupatinath temple is a huge structure that looms over the banks of the Bagmati river, which ultimately joins the holy river Ganges. Hindu cremation ceremonies take place here on an industrial scale. When someone in Kathmandu dies, the body is purified, cleaned and prepared at Pashupatinath. It is then wrapped in cloth and placed on a stone block next to the river. Pieces of wood are stacked under, around and on the body. Straw is also spread over the body before it is lit on fire. It is deemed that 60% of the dead Hindu bodies in Nepal is buried near the bank of the Bagmati river in Pashupatinath temple located 5km Northeast of Kathmandu.Nepalese Hindu people who breathed their last in the foreign land when brought back to Nepal for post-life rituals,they are also cremated by the riverbank of pashupatinath river.Despite being clogged with garbage and black with pollution, the fetid Bagmati River is actually an extremely sacred river; Pashupatinath is the Nepali equivalent of Varanasi on the sacred River Ganges. The cremation ghats along the Bagmati are the city's most important location for open-air cremations. Inevitably this is the most interesting aspect to Pashupatinath and it’s a powerful place to contemplate notions of death and mortality. Needless to say, this is a private time for relatives to grieve and tourists intruding with cameras is not appropriate. Traditionally cremations in Nepal are performed with open pyres. These cremations are fluid public events organized and managed by relatives, local communities and ritual specialists. Traditional cremation practices are full of cosmological, eschatological and soteriological significance. The main purpose of the cremation practice is to purify and free the soul from the body of the deceased in order to secure a rebirth in another realm, render the soul a safe journey to heaven, and to turn the soul into a benign ancestor instead of a haunting ghost. However it is not ecofriendly has the ash and remaining of woods and bodies are thrown in the river. Throwing of these sorts of wastages adds pollutants to the water every day. Thus ,though Bagmati river carries a lot of religious and spiritual It has been clogged with garbage along with the dead body’s ashes, firewood ashes. For the complete burial of the dead body, about 500 kg of woods is required as for the result the massive amount of forest is cleared. Similarly, the smoke is produced during the burying of the body which adds particulate as well as the harmful gases in the air.It is realized that burying of dead body is hazardous to the environment and the immediate burying was not able to be done due to the large amount of bodies to be burnt .Thus the realization of electric crematorium was brought into concept. On the 24th of January 2016, Pashupati Area Development Trust inaugurated the first functioning modern electric crematorium in Nepal at the traditional cremation site near the Pashupatinath temple, at the holy river Bagmati, 5 km northeast of Kathmandu. The main incentive for Pashupati Area Development Trust to establish an electric crematorium was to diminish river pollution, carbon dioxide emission and to curb deforestation. How do Hindus in Nepal continue, compromise and adapt their traditional cremation practice in the modern indoor electric crematorium? The aim of modern electric crematorium is to explore the continuity, changes and challenges to traditional Hindu cremation practice at Pashupati area. |
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18 Comments
Hello Meena didi,
Hope you are doing great,
Thank you so much for your informative report,
Keep writing,
Hope to read more from you,
Green Cheers,
Bindu
Posted 18-07-2021 20:54
Hello meena
I hope you are doing well!
Nice report
Keep writing
Thank you so much for this report!
Looking forward to reading some more reports.
Green cheers!
Best regards
Hema
Posted 19-03-2020 11:40
Greetings meena
I hope you are doing well
Thank you so much for this great report
I hope to read more from you!
Green cheers
Regards
Ishma
Posted 17-03-2020 12:26
Hello meena
I hope you are doing well.
Thank you so much for this report.
Green cheers
Regards
Sus
Posted 07-03-2020 18:51
Hello meena
I hope you are doing well.
Thank you so much for this report.
Green cheers
Regards
Sus
Posted 07-03-2020 18:48
Hello meena
I hope you are doing well
Thank you so much for this report
Regards
Sus
Posted 01-03-2020 10:29
Hello meena
I hope you are doing well
Thank you so much for this report.
Regards
Sus
Posted 01-03-2020 01:48
The fact that customs across cultures can give insight into mitigating the climate crisis is fascinating to say the least, thanks for sharing.
Posted 21-02-2020 05:40
Thank you Tula raj.
Posted 05-10-2019 01:12
Great to read the report.
Keep writing.
Posted 05-10-2019 01:01
Thank you Preeti!!!
Posted 04-10-2019 12:50
Hello didi
This issue may seem normal but is actually contributing to pollution
For this to solve ,awareness is a must
Thank you didi for raising this issue
Posted 04-10-2019 12:11
Thank you Sandhya!!!
Posted 03-10-2019 12:33
Hello meena,
I do hope you are fine there and doing great with your works,
This is one of the best alternative to reduce the use of woods, reduce air pollution and reduce the time,
Thanks for sharing this informative reports with us.
Keep writing,
Green Cheers,
Yours,
Sandhya
Posted 03-10-2019 01:59
Thank you @Dhakal.
Posted 03-10-2019 01:59
Thanks for report @pandey
Posted 03-10-2019 01:58
Thank you so much Prakriti!!!
Posted 03-10-2019 01:51
Hello Meena
Yes through this way of cremation there might be less chance of air pollution
Thank you so much for sharing this
Regards
Prakriti Ghimire
Posted 03-10-2019 01:10