Nepal's FLAMING BODIES of Pashupatinath Temple | Kathmandu

Welcome back to Kathmandu. Good morning sir. And we are headed out to check out some other historical cultural sites. Pashupatinath Temple, Buddha Nath Stupa. Going to be a full day of culture and adventure here in Kathmandu, Nepal. We just took a taxi from Tamil to Pashupatinath area. And originally he wanted, we offered him two, he wanted six. We settled on three, a hundred rupees which is three dollars. So cut the price in half. We ended up giving him 400 because he told us about some of the landmarks on the drive. We asked him a couple questions, he was a really cool guy. So four bucks for about a 20-minute taxi ride to Pashupatinath. So the burning of the bodies here at Pashupatinath Temple follows somewhat of a caste system. The wealthier families are burned further up the river, closer to the temple. And as you move further downstream, you have each caste has its own spot to burn their loved ones. And it's said that the family members are not allowed to cry. If they cry, then it prevents the soul from reaching heaven. If the bodies are burned here at Pashupatinath Temple, they do not get reincarnated because the belief is that Lord Shiva, first of all the bodies are washed in the river, it cleanses the karma. And then Lord Shiva sends them directly to Nirvana. And that is one of the main reasons why this is a very holy place, a very sacred place where they want to be cremated, and where people want to burn their loved ones. And when they're done burning, they push the bodies into the river. There was a man further downstream looking for gold in the river, like from teeth and stuff like that. And it's rumored that the women take longer to burn, about three and a half hours, where a man will take two and a half hours to burn. And the family must stay the entire time while they're burned. The loved ones must wear white for 13 days after the cremation, after the death of their loved one. Exploring these Shiva Lingam temples, they are fertility temples. And you can see evidence of the earthquake in 2015 cracked here. And so these are in pretty good shape. There was another building, the kitchen of the temple on the other side of the river there was completely destroyed. So not as lucky as these Shiva Lingam here. Most likely these were protected by Lord Shiva, I would say. He's not a fan of the kitchen though. So this statue of Lord Shiva is from the 7th or 8th century. It's really old. And there's several of them along this wall here. And when Genghis Khan came and invaded Nepal in the 14th century, the Nepali people, in order to preserve these relics and prevent Genghis Khan from destroying them or stealing them, they scraped up the mud from the land and they packed it in there to cover these, to protect them from Genghis Khan. Really interesting idea. Fascinating. We're lucky that they were able to preserve it so that we can see this thing. So here at Pashupatinath temple, you can see on both sides of the river, that side they're burning the dead bodies. There's a death. And on this side, there's the fertility temples of Shiva, the Shiva Lingam. So it's life and death, the opposing forces on each side of the river. So the main temple over there, you're not allowed to go in unless you're Hindu. Hindus only allowed in the temple. I mean, I tried, but they didn't believe me. So no entry for non-Hindus in the main temple, but plenty to explore around the outskirts here. It's a cultural wonderland full of ancient statues and temples. It's absolutely beautiful here. So we saw some Sadhus or some holy men. You'll see these guys, they're dressed all in orange. And they're actually not real Sadhus. The ones you'll find here are what they call Hollywood Sadhus. They dress up almost like you'd see in Times Square, like guys dressing up like Spider-Man. And then you pay five bucks to take a picture with them. Same thing here. They're just dressed up in a costume to take pictures with tourists. And you give them a little money, they demand more. I took a picture with a couple guys, they were demanding like 2,000 rupees, which is like 20 bucks. So just keep that in mind. Typically, it's like 50 to 100 rupees. But keep in mind, any true spiritual person is not going to demand money from you. And most Sadhus will let you take a picture with them for free. True Sadhus, true holy men, you'll find in Nepal and India, they won't beg for anything, not even food, even if they haven't eaten in a month.