Nepal earthquake: ‘The holy place where the dead are reborn’

Nearly 500 cremations have taken place at Pashupatinath Temple since the earthquake. All are watched by a cast of thousands.

Bodies are hauled to Pashupatinath Temple. Less than 24 hours have passed since the last breath in some cases.

The flesh and bones are lumped on burning firewood. It takes four hours to cremate a man. Three hours for a woman. Not so long for a child.

Nearly 500 cremations have taken place at Pashupatinath since Saturday’s earthquake. All cremations are public. All are watched by a cast of thousands on the banks of the Bagmati River. Public burnings. They’re shockingly inoffensive.

Hindus are already here to worship. Tourists are here to gawk. Families are sending one of their own to the afterlife.

GALLERY: Devastation in Nepal

“Death is the only truth of life,” says a Pashupatinath guide called Ramesh. “There have been more children die than adults and this is very sad. Children cannot protect themselves in an earthquake. They don’t know what to do.

“Many children have had their bodies brought here in the last three days. It’s very sad, very sad but we cannot be angry. We have to accept what we cannot control.”

Cows, monkeys and dogs roam the grounds — the sacred animals.

The ashes are placed in the river that runs through the heart of the temple grounds and will eventually reach India and the great Ganges.

“When we have cremation, we have reincarnation,” says Ramesh. “People want to come here in death because this is a holy place. We believe this temple is where you see the dead being born in a new life. When we die, we burn and we are destroyed. But when we are destroyed in the flesh, the spirit can be anything again. It’s very open for people to see because death is not private and ­secret here. Everybody has to die. They die when they are very young. They die when they are very old. The cremation is done quickly. We try to do it on the same day. We believe the spirit has to have the chance for reincarnation as soon as possible.

“When a person dies, in a hospital or house or wherever, the family comes here straight away to begin burning the wood. The body is brought here and laid on top of the wood. In Nepal, a lot of people have died in the earthquake and their bodies have been brought here to burn. There are cremations all day and night.”

All you can do is pray, Ramesh says. You ask him, pray to whom? The god who did this?

“Sometimes it is really difficult to know why this has happened,” he says. “I think this is happening everywhere in the world with earthquakes and tsunamis and many people killed. There are lots of natural disasters. I think this is the cycle of life because now in the world, there’s a bigger population.

“Maybe there should be less population and this is a natural way to destroy what has to be destroyed. We cannot be angry about what we cannot understand.

“That is why all religions come here to be cremated. We believe for Hindus, Buddhists and Christians, the spirit goes to the same place. We believe that when we die, anyone can burn.”