Tuesday April 29, 2014
Our train was to leave Varanasi at 6:20 pm so, as the Indians say, "what to do?" The hotel manager suggested a trip to Saranath. Apparently Varanasi is not just significant to Hindus and Janes. Buddah began preaching. To this day there is a Buddhist community living in the area. 
Seems a shame to leave the quiet seclusion of our clean hotel courtyard but leave we must.
Once more through the shady narrow lanes.
And out onto the very noisy and very hot streets of Varanasi.
We are travelling again.
And into the taxi cab of one smiley chap named Dawari or as we called him "don't worry".
Through the usual traffic snarls.
To Saranath. Chaukhandi Stupa. Built around the 4th or 5th century to mark the probable place where Buddha met his 5 mates after his "enlightenment". It is always impressive to see very old buildings especially as these days nothing is built to last.
We have seen a stupa or 2 in our travels in places like Myanmar and Vietnam. The thing that always strikes me about these religious edifices is that the don't really do anything to help the people. You generally cannot even enter them for a little shade as they are solid lumps of stuff. Their sole purpose is to remind the people that something happened here.
Our driver confirms the presence of at least 2 of his fingers.
Another stupa......
Beautifully decorated.
The rest of the buildings are a collection of 20th century temples built and donated by various Buddhist monks from around the world. Perhaps some sort of pilgrimage.
Flowers for Buddhas birthday.
Village wares.
The religious iconography business is pretty busy in this country. Sadly gap for this guy though business is drops off when JWs come through. He had posters and pictures for sale of the whole collection, all the Hindu gods that have striking resemblance to modern cartoon superheros, Buddhas and Jesus and Mary.
This is a replica of the Buddha statues that the Taliban infamously blew up in the 90s.
Over the past few days we have tried on numerous occasions to share some good news and Jehovah's name with people we met that spoke English. We quickly realised that there was NOTHING we could say to Hindus that got through. This is partly due to their limited education opportunities. Our self appointed Buddhist tour guide was much the same. The closest inkling of reason came when we explained that our God Jehovah created the flowers, the trees, the earth and universe. We asked him if he believed in evolution which he did. "So you believe that everything came from nothing?" He smiled and tried to pretend that the question didn't happen.
Every taxi, tuk tuk driver and guide will inevitably take you to a place of business in the hopes that you will need some trinket or inflated marble dining table... This day was no exception.
Interesting to see the silk weavers.
He is using a punch card type of pattern. But we are not looking for any souvenirs that we will have to put on our backs to bring home.
This man is weaving a silk pattern from memory.
Lloydnalex.
Prepared on the train to Jaipur.
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment