BurningMan, India Style - Part 4

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=usubtxr.a111vikv&Uy=arkqbf&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=1Varanasi (Thursday, Sept. 7)

Temple Burn Day has passed, AND the BurningMan Exodus, AND the First Day Back to Work... Here in India, the Ganga still rises and the winds whip through Varanasi. Each day we keep our fingers crossed that we can put our plan into action, and each day we wait. One of our new friends, Alex, built a Mini-Man out of Nag Champa Incense sticks, but had to burn it ahead of us as he was heading back home. Two others of our group have also departed. Today we awoke... still air. We had some finishing touches to take care of - Buying flowers + offerings to fill the basket with and basting the Man with another coat of oil to ensure he burns well. We also learned that not only is tonight a full moon, but there'll also be a partial lunar eclipse! Seems pretty auspicious that the timing has worked out like this...

Burn Night -
We started final preparations around 5:30PM and 45 min. later we're stepping aboard a boat with one of our new friends, Claudia, that had been around for the construction of "The Man" + build-up to the burn. Our boatmen, Jaganath + Pakaloo rowed us up-river, past several ghats where Indians asked what we were doing - Puja? This one for the Ganga? What God is this? All the while, The Man stood upright between us, face to face, arms raised. We'd adorned his neck with a garland of marigolds as is typical here for offering to the Gods and on bodies before they're burned.

We reached a spot where the current was calm and we could assemble it all in the river - One woven basket wrapped in heavily waxed cloth for waterproofing; One "Man" constructed of pine + heavily basted in mustard oil for flammable; One bag of sand to stabilize the base + act as a ballast; Four guy wires to ceate a tripod for added support; One bag of wood shavings sprinkled with extra oil for fuel; One bag mixed flowers; One bag puffed rice prasad (Indian offering); Five sticks incense; One golden Ganesh emblem (A logo we've come to use for our Garage Mahal camp). Man stable. Craft not sinking. YES! Having not been able to test any of this before we were hugely excited at this first success. NOW to get the torch lit... Not so easy with the breeze, but we did.

We took a quiet moment for reflection. Even our boatmen were into it. It was BEAUTIFUL, the full moon reflecting magnificently on the Ganga as we attempted to set him alight. Operative word, attempted. We tried, and we tried. This we HAD tried beforehand, but now the breeze was working against us. We were faced with a "Man" who wouldn't light and no fuel available to us. After several minutes our torch was beginning to burn out and Jaganath had the excellent suggestion of throwing on an old shirt, that we'd only JUST brought to carry our sand because it's bag was ripping. Thank God, Shiva, Krishna + Lord's Hanuman + Ganesh - It WORKED! Soon "The Man" was flaming mightily as we floated alongside. An arm fell first and the head shortly after. We gathered the pieces from the Ganga and added them back to the basket. Other bits were falling down sparking the wood shavings below. We were ecstatic - He BURNED! And what a backdrop with the full moon!

A crew of people were waiting + watching back at the guest house for us to float by. Our flame was MUCH larger than all the typical evening banana-leaf candles that are cast out so we figured they'd HAVE to be able to see us and possibly from aways off. Now, the whole basket was aflame and we guessed that'd be the last of it. Instead, the sand dropped out and it just kept burning. We realized later that the heavily wax-soaked fabric had acted as a kind of candle with wick, so it burned, and burned, and burned... well beyond the point that seemed possible. We watched as it drifted farther + farther away, a flaming red glow on the Ganga waters, until finally, the sacred river took our offering.

The boat was in front of the guest house and everyone was clapping and cheering. We were incredulous... Could it really have worked out so well?! Claudia was joyous and thanked us profusely for sharing this special moment with her. She GOT it. Another converted burner :) We were able to share the message with many quality people, most of who've never heard of BurningMan. I feel very blessed that we've been given this opportunity to expand the experience and we're excited about future burn possibilities as we're abroad. Nothing can compare to the week in Black Rock City, but until we can return, we see possibilities for a bigger + better (if that's possible) regional burn next year. Do I hear Burningman... Laos?

Here's a "link" to more photos from our Burn