01 December 2006

My Buddhist pilgrimage



A 30 min auto rickshaw ride away from Varanasi is the town of Sarnath, one of the four most important pilgrimage sites in Buddhism. This stupa marks the spot where The Buddha preached his first sermon.



I stayed at the Tibetan monastery.



And ate my meals at this Tibetan restaurant.



Tibetan food - Momos (steamed dumplings) and Thankuth (soup). Momos are delicious, especially with lots of chili powder.

The best part about Sarnath is that staying at the monastery, the peacefulness of my surroundings and the town, and the Tibetan food made it feel like I had left India for a little while.



The next stop on my pilgrimage was Bodhgaya, the most important site in Buddhism. The Mahabodi Temple sits next to the spot where, under the original Bodhi tree, Buddha achieved enlightenment.



This is the replacement Bodhi tree, it was grown from a cutting of the tree I saw in Sri Lanka, which itself was a cutting from the original Bodhi tree.



I didn't come here to sit under a tree all day.



I wanted to buy the full Buddhist monk outfit, but I would look silly wearing it without shaving my head first, so I didn't do it.



Indian Airlines - Gaya to Yangon. A true pilgrimage flight, the only reason this route exists once a week to and from the tiny military airport at Gaya is to give pilgrims from Myanmar the chance to conveniently visit Bodhgaya.



Pilgrims from Myanmar line up to go home.

28 November 2006

Delhi, Agra, Varanasi

In Delhi I stayed in the backpackers ghetto near the New Delhi train station. Unfortunately the local Sikhs also picked the same street for their procession celebrating Nanak Jayanti, the birthday of their founder Guru Nanak. This meant a huge traffic jam all around the area. I wanted to take an autorickshaw to do my sightseeing but by the time I had walked past all the traffic I couldn't find one to take me. I ended up walking the 4km or so all the way to the Jama Mosque. The walk through the streets of Old Delhi was a very interesting one, across train tracks that aren't meant to be crossed, through bazaars, and past many temples. The last time I was here with Regina we took taxis and autorickshaws from tourist site to tourist site and saw all the sights but didn't really see the city. I realize now that you don't know anything about a city until you've walked it. I decided to walk back as well and took a different route through more bazaars and interesting areas.




When I got back the procession was still going on. Here they are doing what they are famous for, giving out food.(Actually this man is probably a Hindu hired for the event.) This turned the entire street into a jam packed filty disgusting mess, and I had to walk through it to get to my hotel. The worst part though was the sweepers who came ahead of the different parts of the procession sweeping all the trash into the crowd that lined the road and also sweeping dust and dirt into the air for everyone to breath in.






Groups of serious looking Sikhs likes these made up the main parts of the procession.


From Delhi my next stop was Agra where I wanted to visit some friends I had made on my previous trip.



This is Adil, who owns a carpet store/internet cafe. I spent two days here, the first one meeting all of his friends and going to some interesting places. My visit would have also included some great home cooked food but the first day I had no appetite. The second day I spent resting and going to the toilet, my lack of appetite was just a forwarning of getting very sick from either something I ate in Delhi or the food served on the train to Agra. Someone tried to explain to me that it was because I wasn't used to the spicy food here. I said no, that it was actually because I wasn't used to food that contains generous portions of fecal matter.
In looking back on the different times food has made me sick (4) I am happy to report that it has always been from resturants. One of them was a really dodgy restuarant, but food from street vendors has never been the culprit.



From Agra I made a quick trip to Varanasi to see the Ghats that line the Ganges River.