| |
Set
in a hospice for the dying and on “the ghats of Varanasi”, India’s
religious heart, Ganges: River to Heaven follows four families
drawn by Varanasi’s holy promise of freedom from reincarnation for their
loved ones. In Varanasi the power of Ganga, the Hindu mother – goddess of the
Ganges, is considered strongest. Each dawn she calls her children to the ghats,
the steps leading down to the water’s edge. The young and strong purify
themselves in Ganga’s polluted waves. The old and the infirm, too weak for
rituals, wait for death. In time, Ganga may carry their souls, released from
the bondage of reincarnation, to heaven. Their bodies, as ash afloat her crests
or as flesh submerged in her depths, return to the river.
|
|
