Saturday, March 15, 2008

Strange Picture of the Day

Because my connection is super slow today, you only get this picture, but it has a twist. This is the river canal behind Patalpuri gurdwara in Kirtapur Sahib, district Anandpur. It is a historical gurdwara associated with the cremation of one of the Sikh gurus. Supposedly, the bones of his that were not turned to ash in the fire were placed here in the river. Thus, the scene when I arrived was that of pilgrims carrying shopping bags full of, you guessed it, bones. They walk out to the edge of this above-water dock, and empty the plastic bag of bones into the pile in the water (most actually just throw the bag in the water, which is plain wrong, even if not sacrilegious). It's still a very peaceful scene, and of course, my host reminded me, Sikhism does not support superstitions like this one.
Note the pile of bones you can make out in the murky water...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

A most unusual boneyard.