“In India - for example, in Varanasi - the bodies of the dead are burned at the stake. In Russia, in addition to burial, there is cremation. Is it legal for us to carry out cremation not in the ovens of official institutions, but in nature, on firewood?” - asks The Village reader Ilya. With the help of a lawyer and funeral experts, we found the answer to this question.

Sergey Yakushin

Vice-President of the Union of Funeral Organizations and Crematoriums

The burial of the dead is regulated by the Federal Law “On Burial and Funeral Affairs.” In accordance with this law and sanitary requirements, the body of a deceased person must be buried, that is, the remains must be buried.

Here are some of the articles of law that relate to your question:

Article 3. “Burial”

This Federal Law defines burial as ritual actions for burying the body (remains) of a person after his death in accordance with customs and traditions that do not contradict sanitary and other requirements. Burial can be carried out by committing the body (remains) of the deceased to the earth (burial in a grave, crypt), fire (cremation followed by burial of an urn with ashes), water (burial in water in the manner determined by the regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation).

Article 4. “Burial places”

1. Burial places are plots of land allocated in accordance with ethical, sanitary and environmental requirements with cemeteries constructed on them for the burial of the bodies (remains) of the deceased, walls of grief for the burial of urns with the ashes of the deceased (ashes after the burning of the bodies (remains) of the deceased, hereinafter - ashes), crematoria for committing the bodies (remains) of the dead to fire, as well as other buildings and structures intended for the burial of the dead. Burial sites may refer to objects of cultural and historical significance.

Article 25. “Organization of funeral business”

1. The organization of funeral business is carried out by local government bodies. The burial of the deceased and the provision of burial services are carried out by specialized funeral services created by local government bodies.

Accordingly, it is definitely impossible to simply burn the body of a deceased person. Cremation of the deceased can only be carried out in crematoriums on the basis of a stamped death certificate issued by the civil registry office (federal law “On Civil Status”) by the funeral organization using specialists, equipment and in a specially designated place.

Press service of State Unitary Enterprise "Ritual Services"

You cannot cremate a deceased relative yourself.

To provide services for committing the dead to fire (cremation) in compliance with one or another burial rite, crematoriums are built on designated plots of land. The crematorium provides services for placing the body of the deceased (deceased) on fire, from accepting the coffin to issuing an urn with ashes, a certificate of cremation and a document for receiving ashes.

Russian legislation does not provide for any other structures for burying a body by burning it.

Olga Lukyanova

Theoretically, a person who wants to cremate a deceased relative on his own will fall under Article 244 of the Criminal Code (“Desecration of the bodies of the dead and their burial places”). The punishment in this case is a fine of up to 40 thousand rubles or in the amount of three months’ salary, or compulsory labor (120–180 hours), or correctional labor (up to a year), or arrest for three months.

And then, even if you think logically: what kind of madness is this?! To burn a body to ashes, a certain temperature is needed, combustion takes a long time... Yes, in India they burn bodies, and often half-burnt corpses float along the Ganges.

The Village thanks the editors of the Funeral Portal for their assistance in preparing the material.

ILLUSTRATION: Dasha Chertanova

Nowadays, when the world is seriously concerned about the problem of overpopulation, some people have begun to think about cremating their body after death. The Orthodox Church has its own point of view on this matter, and this will be discussed in the article.

Cremation today is in demand among people of different faiths, which is understandable, because this method of burial has its own advantages:

• the urn with ashes does not take up much space;
• the ashes are not toxic, like cadaveric poison;
• low cost of funeral;
• ease of moving the urn.

Representatives of different faiths have different opinions about burning the body after death. Supporters of Judaism and Islam are negative, since, according to their interpretations, the soul and body are inseparable, therefore, when the body is burned, the soul also burns. For Buddhists and Hindus, the option of committing the body to fire is a religious norm, since this is the only way to quickly free the soul from the body, which binds it even at the time of death.

For a long time, the Catholic Church did not give permission to cremate the dead, but softened its attitude towards this in the early 60s of the last century.

Orthodox priests are still extremely negative towards cremation, since, from their point of view, it damages the soul of the deceased. But a funeral service in a church is allowed in this case.

If after death the body in any case undergoes decomposition, then one can ask the question: what difference does it make in what form the remains of the deceased exist: in the form of a body buried in the ground, or in the form of ashes?

What do the priests say?

The priests comment on this point as follows: initially the body was given to man by God, and it was also the container of the soul, its temple. It, like the soul, is sacred, and a person has no right to decide how to dispose of it, even if he dies. In their opinion, cremation is an insult to God, who endowed this body with life.

However, there are exceptions. Some representatives of Orthodoxy may soften their attitude towards cremation of remains in cases where it is impossible to purchase a place in the cemetery or it is limited. Often a person would like to be buried in the same area as his relatives, but sanitary standards do not allow this. In this case, the only option is cremation.

It is important to listen to the opinion of the church, but you also need to realize that a single burial place is not a prerequisite for the soul to meet its loved ones in the afterlife. The spiritual world lives according to its own laws, different from earthly ones.

If people during life were united by a strong emotional connection, and even more so by faith, they will meet without problems in the afterlife, even if they are buried in different parts of the planet. And, on the contrary, if in life people did not feel sympathy for each other or did not agree on religious beliefs, a common burial place will not bring them closer in the next world.

The Church allows cremation, showing loyalty to those relatives of the deceased who are infirm or old. It is harder for them to care for several graves in different parts of the city than for one, in which cremated remains are buried along with traditional burial.

Sometimes relatives of the deceased ask the priest: is it possible to carry out cremation if the deceased himself bequeathed it? After all, this will be the fulfillment of the will of the deceased. Such decisions are not approved by the Church, and the clergy will be categorical in their request to bury the person’s body in accordance with religious canons. For them it is a sin to indulge the will of the deceased. It is also seen as a sin to scatter the ashes of the dust anywhere.

Nevertheless, if for some reason the cremation took place and there were regrets about this, the ministers of the Church do not recommend falling into despair, because nothing can be changed. God sees what happens in the heart of every person, and sincere repentance is an important quality of a true believer.

It is also important how a person was treated during life. And God, accepting people into the heavenly abode, is guided by the qualities of the soul, and not by what happened to the bodily shell.

Read also:

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• How to correctly inform a child about the death of a loved one - what can be done and what...

November 26th, 2012

ATTENTION! There are shocking photos. Viewing is not recommended for the impressionable!

Our planet is full of wonderful surprises from nature and ancient civilizations, full of beauty and sights, and you can also find quite unusual, strange, dark traditions and rituals. Although it should be noted that for us they are strange and scary, but for some it is their everyday life, this is their culture.

Each of the billion Hindus dreams of dying in Varanasi or burning their body here. The open air crematorium smokes 365 days a year and 24 hours a day. Hundreds of bodies from all over India and abroad come here every day, fly in and burn. The Hindus came up with a good religion - that when we give up, we don’t die for good. Vladimir Vysotsky instilled in us this basic knowledge about Hinduism to the chords of his guitar. He sang and enlightened: “If you live correctly, you will be happy in your next life, and if you are stupid like a tree, you will be born a baobab.”

Varanasi is an important religious site in the world of Hinduism, a center of pilgrimage for Hindus from all over the world, as ancient as Babylon or Thebes. Here, more strongly than anywhere else, the contradictions of human existence are manifested: life and death, hope and suffering, youth and old age, joy and despair, splendor and poverty. This is a city in which there is so much death and life at the same time. This is a city in which eternity and existence coexist. This is the best place to understand what India is like, its religion and culture.

In the religious geography of Hinduism, Varanasi is the center of the universe. One of the most sacred cities for Hindus serves as a kind of border between physical reality and the eternity of life. Here the gods descend to earth, and a mere mortal achieves bliss. It is a holy place to live and a blessed place to die. This is the best place to achieve bliss.

Varanasi's prominence in Hindu mythology is unparalleled. According to legend, the city was founded by the Hindu God Shiva several thousand years ago, making it one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the country. It is one of the seven holy cities of the Hindus. In many ways, he embodies the best and worst aspects of India, sometimes horrifying to foreign tourists. However, the scenes of pilgrims saying prayers in the rays of the rising sun by the Ganges River, with Hindu temples in the background, is one of the most impressive sights in the world. When traveling through northern India, try not to miss this ancient city.

Founded a thousand years before Christ, Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world. It was called by many epithets - “city of temples”, “sacred city of India”, “religious capital of India”, “city of lights”, “city of enlightenment” - and only very recently its official name, first mentioned in the Jataka - an ancient narrative, was restored Hindu literature. But many still continue to use the English name Benares, and pilgrims call it nothing more than Kashi - this is what the city was called for three thousand years.

The Hindu truly believes in the wanderings of the soul, which after death moves into other living beings. And he treats death in a kind of special way, but at the same time, in an ordinary way. For a Hindu, death is just one stage of samsara, or the endless game of birth and death. And an adherent of Hinduism also dreams of one day not being born. He strives for moksha - the completion of that very cycle of rebirth, along with which - for liberation and deliverance from the hardships of the material world. Moksha is practically synonymous with Buddhist nirvana: the highest state, the goal of human aspirations, a certain absolute.

For thousands of years, Varanasi has been a center of philosophy and theosophy, medicine and education. English writer Mark Twain, shocked by his visit to Varanasi, wrote: “Benares (the old name) is older than history, older than tradition, older even than the legends and looks twice as old as all of them put together.” Many famous and most revered Indian philosophers, poets, writers and musicians have resided in Varanasi. In this glorious city lived the classic of Hindi literature Kabir, the singer and writer Tulsidas wrote the epic poem Ramacharitamanas, which became one of the most famous works of literature in the Hindi language, and Buddha delivered his first sermon in Sarnath, just a few kilometers from Varanasi. Sung by myths and legends, sanctified by religion, it has always attracted a large number of pilgrims and believers since time immemorial.

Varanasi is located between Delhi and Kolkata on the western bank of the Ganges. Every Indian child who has listened to the stories of his parents knows that the Ganga is the largest and holiest of all the rivers in India. The main reason to visit Varanasi is, of course, to see the Ganges River. The significance of the river for Hindus is beyond description. It is one of the 20 largest rivers in the world. The Ganges River basin is the most densely populated in the world, with a population of over 400 million people. The Ganga is an important source of irrigation and communication for millions of Indians living along the riverbed. Since time immemorial she has been worshiped as the goddess Ganga. Historically, a number of capitals of former principalities were located on its banks.

The largest ghat in the city used for cremation is Manikarnika. About 200 bodies a day are cremated here, and funeral pyres burn day and night. Families bring here the dead who died of natural causes.

Hinduism has given those who practice it a method of guaranteed attainment of moksha. It is enough to die in sacred Varanasi (formerly Benares, Kashi - author's note) - and samsara ends. Moksha is coming. It is important to note that being cunning and throwing yourself under a car in this city is not an option. So you definitely won’t see moksha. Even if an Indian did not die in Varanasi, this city is still capable of influencing his further existence. If you cremate the body on the banks of the sacred Ganges River in this city, then the karma for the next life is cleared. So Hindus from all over India and the world come here to die and burn.

The Ganges embankment is the most party place in Varanasi. Here are the hermit sadhus smeared in soot: the real ones pray and meditate, the tourist ones pester with offers to be photographed for money. Disdainful European women are trying not to step into sewage, fat American women are filming themselves in front of everything, frightened Japanese are walking around with gauze bandages on their faces - they are saving themselves from infections. It's full of Rastafarians with dreadlocks, freaks, enlightened and pseudo-enlightened people, schizos and beggars, massage therapists and hashish dealers, artists and other people of every stripe in the world. The diversity of the crowd is incomparable.

Despite the abundance of visitors, it’s difficult to call this city a tourist city. Varanasi still has its own life, and tourists have absolutely nothing to do with it. Here is a corpse floating along the Ganges, a man nearby is washing and beating clothes on a stone, someone is brushing his teeth. Almost everyone swims with happy faces. “The Ganges is our mother. You tourists don’t understand. You laugh that we drink this water. But for us it is sacred,” the Hindus explain. And indeed, they drink and don’t get sick. Native microflora. Although the Discovery Channel, when making a film about Varanasi, submitted samples of this water for research. The laboratory's verdict is terrible - one drop will, if not kill a horse, then certainly cripple it. There is more nastiness in that drop than on the list of potentially dangerous infections in the country. But you forget about all this when you find yourself on the shore of burning people.

This is Manikarnika Ghat - the main crematorium of the city. There are bodies, bodies and more bodies everywhere. There are dozens of them waiting for their turn at the fire. Burning smoke, crackling firewood, a chorus of worried voices and the phrase endlessly ringing in the air: “Ram nam sagage.” A hand stuck out of the fire, a leg appeared, and now a head rolled. The workers, sweating and squinting from the heat, use bamboo sticks to turn over body parts emerging from the fire. I felt like I was on the set of some kind of horror movie. Reality disappears from under your feet.

Business on corpses

From the balconies of the “trump” hotels you can see the Ganges, and with it the smoke of funeral pyres. I didn’t want to smell this strange smell all day long, so I moved to a less fashionable area, and away from the corpses. “Friend, good camera! Do you want to film how people are burned?” - rarely, but you hear proposals from pesters. There is not a single law prohibiting the filming of funeral rites. But at the same time, there is not a single chance to take advantage of the absence of a ban. Selling pseudo-film permits is a business for the caste that controls cremation. Five to ten dollars for one click of the shutter, and a double is the same price.

It's impossible to cheat. I had to watch how tourists, out of ignorance, even just pointed the camera towards the fire and came under the most severe pressure of the crowd. These were no longer trades, but racketeering. There are special rates for journalists. The approach to each person is individual, but for a permit to work “in the zone” - up to 2000 euros, and for one photo card - up to a hundred dollars. Street brokers always clarified my profession and only then started bidding. And who am I? Amateur photography student! Landscapes, flowers and butterflies. You say this - and the price is immediately divine, 200 bucks. But there is no guarantee that with a “filka certificate” they will not end up being sent to hell. I continue my search and soon find the main one. “B-i-i-g boss,” they call him on the embankment.

Name is Sures. With a big belly and a leather vest, he proudly walks between the fires - supervising the staff, the sale of wood, and the collection of proceeds. I also introduce myself to him as a novice amateur photographer. “Okay, you have 200 dollars, and rent for a week,” Sures delighted, asked for 100 dollars in advance and showed a sample of the “permishin” - an A4 piece of paper with the inscription a la “I allow it. Boss.” I didn’t want to buy a piece of paper for two hundred greenbacks again. “To Varanasi City Hall,” I said to the tuk-tuk driver. The complex of two-story houses was very reminiscent of a Soviet-era sanatorium. People are fussing with papers and standing in lines.

And the small officials of the city administration, like ours, are sluggish - they spend a long time fiddling with each leaf. I killed half a day, collected a collection of autographs from the big shots of Varanasi and went to the police headquarters. Law enforcement officers offered to wait for the boss and treated him to tea. Made from clay pots, as if from a Ukrainian souvenir shop. After drinking tea, the policeman smashes the ice cream on the floor. It turns out that plastic is expensive and not environmentally friendly. But there is a lot of clay in the Ganges and it is free. At a street eatery, such a glass along with tea even cost me 5 rupees. For an Indian it’s even cheaper. A few hours later, an audience was held with the city police chief. I decided to make the most of the meeting and asked him for a business card. "I only have it in Hindi!" - the man laughed. “I offer an exchange. You tell me in Hindi, I tell you in Ukrainian,” I come up with. Now I have in my hands a whole stack of permits and a trump card - the business card of the main man in uniform in Varanasi.

Last refuge

Visitors stare in fear at the fires from afar. Well-wishers approach them and supposedly unselfishly initiate them into the history of Indian funeral traditions. "It takes 400 kilograms of firewood to make a fire. One kilogram costs 400-500 rupees (1 US dollar - 50 Indian rupees - author's note). Help the family of the deceased, donate money for at least a couple of kilograms. People spend their entire lives collecting money for the last "bonfire" - the excursion ends as standard. It sounds convincing, foreigners take out their wallets. And, without suspecting it, they pay for half the fire. After all, the real price of wood is from 4 rupees per kilo. In the evening I come to Manikarnika. Literally a minute later a man comes running and demands to explain how I dare to expose my lens in a sacred place.

When he sees the documents, he respectfully folds his hands to his chest, bows his head and says: “Welcome! You are our friend. Ask for help.” This is 43-year-old Kashi Baba from the highest caste of Brahmins. He has been overseeing the cremation process here for 17 years. He says work gives him crazy energy. Hindus really love this place - in the evenings men sit on the steps and stare at the fires for hours. “We all dream of dying in Varanasi and having our bodies cremated here,” they say something like this. Kashi Baba and I also sit down next to each other. It turns out that bodies began to be burned in this very place 3,500 years ago. Since the fire of the god Shiva was not lit here. It burns even now, it is monitored around the clock, every ritual fire is set on fire from it. Today, between 200 and 400 bodies are reduced to ashes here every day. And not only from all over India. Burning in Varanasi is the last wish of many immigrant Hindus and even some foreigners. Recently, for example, an elderly American was cremated.

Contrary to tourist fables, cremation is not very expensive. To burn a body, it will take 300-400 kilograms of wood and up to four hours of time. A kilogram of firewood - from 4 rupees. The entire funeral ceremony can start from 3-4 thousand rupees, or 60-80 dollars. But there is no maximum bar. Richer people add sandalwood to the fire for scent, a kilogram of which reaches up to $160. When the Maharaja died in Varanasi, his son ordered a fire made entirely of sandalwood, and scattered emeralds and rubies around. All of them rightfully went to the workers of Manikarnika - people from the Dom-Raja caste.

These are the lower class of people, the so-called untouchables. Their fate is unclean types of work, which includes burning corpses. Unlike other untouchables, the Dom-Raja caste has money, as even the element “raja” in the name hints at.

Every day these people clean the area, sift and wash through a sieve ash, coals and burnt soil. The task is to find the jewelry. Relatives do not have the right to remove them from the deceased. On the contrary, the boys of the raja house are informed that the deceased has, say, a gold chain, a diamond ring and three gold teeth. The workers will find and sell all this. At night there is a glow from fires over the Ganges. The best way to view it is from the roof of the central building, Manikarnika Ghat. “If you fall, you’ll fall straight into the fire. It’s convenient,” Kashi argues, while I stand on the canopy and take a panorama. Inside this building there is emptiness, darkness and walls smoked over decades.

I'll be honest - it's creepy. A wizened granny sits right on the floor, in the corner on the second floor. This is Daya Mai. She doesn’t remember her exact age - she says about 103 years old. Daya spent the last 45 of them in this very corner, in a building near the cremation bank. Waiting for death. He wants to die in Varanasi. This woman from Bihar first came here when her husband died. And soon she lost her son and also decided to die. I was in Varanasi for ten days, almost every day of which I met Daya Mai. Leaning on a stick, in the morning she would go out into the street, walk between the stacks of firewood, approach the Ganges and return to her corner again. And so for the 46th year in a row.

To burn or not to burn? Manikarnika is not the only cremation place in the city. Here they burn those who die a natural death. And a kilometer earlier, on Hari Chandra Ghat, the dead, suicides, and accident victims are being set on fire. Nearby is an electric crematorium where beggars who have not raised money for firewood are burned. Although usually in Varanasi even the poorest have no problems with funerals. Wood that did not burn out in previous fires is given free of charge to families who do not have enough firewood. In Varanasi, you can always raise money among locals and tourists. After all, helping the family of the deceased is good for karma. But in poor villages there are problems with cremation. There is no one to help. And a body symbolically burned and thrown into the Ganges is not uncommon.

In places where dams form in the sacred river, there is even a profession - collecting corpses. The men sail the boat and collect the bodies, even diving into the water if necessary. Nearby, a body tied to a large stone slab is being loaded into a boat. It turns out that not all bodies can be burned. It is forbidden to cremate sadhus, because they abandoned work, family, sex and civilization, devoting their lives to meditation. Children under 13 years of age are not burned, because it is believed that their bodies are like flowers. Accordingly, it is forbidden to set fire to pregnant women, because there are children inside. It is not possible to cremate a person with leprosy. All these categories of deceased are tied to a stone and drowned in the Ganges.

It is forbidden to cremate those killed by a cobra bite, which is not uncommon in India. It is believed that after the bite of this snake, it is not death, but coma. Therefore, a boat is made from a banana tree, where the body wrapped in film is placed. A sign with your name and home address is attached to it. And they set sail on the Ganges. Sadhus meditating on the shore try to catch such bodies and try to bring them back to life through meditation.

They say successful outcomes are not uncommon. “Four years ago, 300 meters from Manikarnika, a hermit caught and revived the body. The family was so happy that they wanted to make the sadhu rich. But he refused, because if he took even one rupee, he would lose all his power,” Kashi Baba told me. Animals are not yet burned, because they are symbols of the gods. But what shocked me most of all was the terrible custom that existed until relatively recently - sati. Widow burning. When a husband dies, the wife must burn in the same fire. This is not a myth or a legend. According to Kashi Baba, this phenomenon was common some 90 years ago.

According to textbooks, widow burning was banned in 1929. But episodes of sati still happen today. Women cry a lot, so they are forbidden to be near the fire. But literally at the beginning of 2009, an exception was made for a widow from Agra. She wanted to say goodbye to her husband for the last time and asked to come to the fire. I jumped there, and when the fire was already burning with might and main. They rescued the woman, but she was badly burned and died before the doctors arrived. She was cremated in the same pyre as her betrothed.

The other side of the Ganges

On the other bank of the Ganges from the bustling Varanasi there are deserted expanses. Tourists are not recommended to appear there, because sometimes the village shantrap shows aggression. On the opposite side of the Ganges, villagers wash clothes, and pilgrims are brought there to bathe. Among the sands, a lonely hut made of branches and straw catches your eye. There lives a hermit sadhu with the divine name Ganesh. A man in his 50s moved here from the jungle 16 months ago to perform the puja ritual - burning food in a fire. Like a sacrifice to the gods. He likes to say, with or without reason: “I don’t need money - I need my puja.” In a year and four months, he burned 1,100,000 coconuts and an impressive amount of oil, fruit and other products.

He conducts meditation courses in his hut, which is how he earns money for his puja. For a man from a hut who drinks water from the Ganges, he speaks great English, is well acquainted with the products of the National Geographic Channel and invites me to write down his mobile number. Previously, Ganesh had a normal life; he still occasionally calls back with his adult daughter and ex-wife: “One day I realized that I no longer wanted to live in the city, and I didn’t need a family. Now I’m in the jungle, in the forest, in the mountains or on the river bank.

I don’t need money - I need my puja." Contrary to the recommendations for visitors, I often swam to the other side of the Ganges to take a break from the endless noise and annoying crowds. Ganesh recognized me from afar, waved his hand and shouted: “Dima!” But even here , on the deserted shore of the other side of the Ganges, you can suddenly shudder. For example, seeing dogs tearing apart a human body washed ashore by the waves. See, shudder and remember - this is Varanasi, the “city of death.”

Chronology of the process

If a person died in Varanasi, he is burned 5-7 hours after death. The reason for the rush is the heat. The body is washed, massaged with a mixture of honey, yogurt and various oils and mantras are read. All this in order to open the 7 chakras. Then they wrap it in a large white sheet and decorative fabric. They are placed on a stretcher made of seven bamboo crossbars - also according to the number of chakras.

Family members carry the body to the Ganges and chant the mantra: “Ram nam sagage” - a call to ensure that everything is fine in the next life of this person. The stretcher is dipped into the Ganges. Then the face of the deceased is uncovered, and relatives pour water on it with their hands five times. One of the men of the family shaves his head and dresses in white clothes. If the father died, the eldest son does it, if the mother does it, the younger son does it, if the wife does it, the husband does it. He sets fire to the branches from the sacred fire and walks around the body with them five times. Therefore, the body goes into the five elements: water, earth, fire, air, heaven.

You can only light a fire naturally. If a woman has died, they do not completely burn her pelvis; if a man, they do not burn her rib. The shaved man lets this burnt part of his body into the Ganges and extinguishes the smoldering coals from a bucket over his left shoulder.

At one time, Varanasi was an academic center as well as a religious one. Many temples were built in the city, universities operated and magnificent libraries with texts from Vedic times were opened. However, much was destroyed by the Muslims. Hundreds of temples were destroyed, bonfires with priceless manuscripts burned day and night, and people, the bearers of priceless ancient culture and knowledge, were also destroyed. However, the spirit of the Eternal City could not be defeated. You can feel it even now by walking through the narrow streets of old Varanasi and going down to the ghats (stone steps) on the Ganges River. Ghats are one of the hallmarks of Varanasi (as well as any sacred city for Hindus), as well as an important sacred place for millions of believers. They serve both for ritual ablution and for burning the dead. In general, ghats are the most popular place for the residents of Varanasi - on these steps they burn corpses, laugh, pray, die, walk, make acquaintances, chat on the phone or just sit.

This city makes the strongest impression on travelers to India, despite the fact that Varanasi does not at all look like a “holiday for tourists”. Life in this sacred city is surprisingly tightly intertwined with death; It is believed that dying in Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges River, is very honorable. Therefore, thousands of sick and old Hindus flock to Varanasi from all over the country to meet their death here and free themselves from the hustle and bustle of life.

Not far from Varanasi is Sarnath, the place where Buddha preached. It is said that the tree growing in this place was planted from the seeds of the Bodhi tree, the same one under which the Buddha received self-realization.

The river embankment itself is a kind of huge temple, the service in which never stops - some pray, others meditate, others do yoga. The corpses of the dead are burned here. It is noteworthy that only the bodies of those who require ritual purification by fire are burned; and therefore the bodies of sacred animals (cows), monks, pregnant women are considered to have already been purified by suffering and, without being cremated, they are thrown into the Ganges. This is the main purpose of the ancient city of Varanasi - to give people the opportunity to free themselves from everything corruptible.

And yet, despite the mission that is incomprehensible, and even more so sad for non-Hindus, this city is a very real city with a population of one million. In the cramped and narrow streets you can hear the voices of people, music sounds, and the cries of merchants can be heard. There are shops everywhere where you can buy souvenirs from ancient vessels to saris embroidered with silver and gold.

The city, although it cannot be called clean, does not suffer as much from dirt and overcrowding as other Indian large cities - Bombay or Calcutta. However, for Europeans and Americans, the street of any Indian city resembles a giant anthill - there is a cacophony of horns, bicycle bells and shouts all around, and even on a rickshaw it turns out to be very difficult to squeeze through the narrow, albeit central streets.

Dead children under the age of 10, the bodies of pregnant women and smallpox patients are not cremated. A stone is tied to their body and thrown from a boat into the middle of the Ganges River. The same fate awaits those whose relatives cannot afford to buy enough wood. Cremation at the stake costs a lot of money and not everyone can afford it. Sometimes the purchased wood is not always enough for cremation, and then the half-burnt remains of the body are thrown into the river. It is quite common to see the charred remains of dead bodies floating in the river. An estimated 45,000 uncremated bodies are buried in the river bed each year, adding to the toxicity of already heavily polluted water. What shocks visiting Western tourists seems quite natural for Indians. Unlike Europe, where everything happens behind closed doors, in India every aspect of life is visible on the streets, be it cremation, washing clothes, bathing or cooking.

The Ganga River was somehow miraculously able to cleanse itself for many centuries. Until 100 years ago, germs such as cholera could not survive in its sacred waters. Unfortunately, today the Ganga is one of the five most polluted rivers in the world. First of all, due to toxic substances discharged by industrial enterprises along the river bed. The level of contamination by some microbes exceeds permissible levels by hundreds of times. Visiting tourists are struck by the complete lack of hygiene. Ashes of the dead, sewage effluent and offerings float past worshipers as they bathe and perform purification ceremonies in the water. From a medical perspective, bathing in water containing decomposing corpses carries the risk of infections with numerous diseases, including hepatitis. It's a miracle that so many people take a dip and drink the water every day without feeling any harm. Some tourists even join the pilgrims.

Numerous cities located on the Ganges also contribute to the pollution of the river. A report by the Central Pollution Control Board found that Indian cities recycle only about 30% of their sewage. Nowadays the Ganges, like many other rivers in India, is extremely clogged. It contains more sewage than fresh water. And industrial waste and the remains of cremated people accumulate along its banks.
corpses.

Thus, the First City on Earth (as Varanasi is called in India) produces a strange and incredibly strong, indelible impact on tourists - it is impossible to compare it with anything, just as it is impossible to compare religions, peoples and cultures.

Burning of corpses / Desyatov V.P. — 1975.

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At home It is almost impossible to burn the corpse of an adult. Stories about burning a corpse in an oven in 3-4 hours should be considered fiction. To burn a corpse weighing 60 kg, Brouardel needed 40 hours, and A.S. Ignatovsky - 50 hours. Ogier, generously dousing the corpses with kerosene, burned them in 6-10 hours. Saratov experts (I. V. Skopin) dismembered corpses were burned in a Russian stove, using firewood for 20 hours, and using kerosene for 10-12 hours. The infants' corpses burned in 2-2.5 hours. In the Moscow crematorium, at temperatures above 1000 ° C, it takes 30-60 minutes to burn the corpse of an adult. The crematorium was opened in 1927 and is located in the church of the Donskoy Monastery. It consists of three ovens: two German and one domestic. The throughput capacity of each of them is 40 corpses per day; about 12,000 corpses are cremated during the year. Currently, construction of crematoria is underway in many cities of our country.

The remains of corpses in fires must be found and carefully examined. In cases where a theory arises about the burning of a corpse at home to conceal a crime, an inspection of the crime scene can reveal a lot.

When inspecting the scene of the incident (furnaces), you need to remove the ash. In it you can find burnt bones, which sometimes look like charcoal. Next comes the question: Whose corpse was burned, human or animal? If the protein is preserved in the bones, then a precipitation reaction is carried out by Prof. F. Ya. Chistovich. In all cases, research should also be carried out according to the method of Prof. Yu. M. Gladysheva (1968).

Yu. M. Gladyshev established that osteons (lacunae or Haversian canals) in humans are located at an angle to the periosteum, and in animals - parallel. The oblique arrangement of osteons in humans is clearly expressed in tubular bones and less clearly in flat bones. Maternal osteons in humans undergo resorption before the age of 3 years and secondary osteons are formed. In human bones, all secondary osteons are rearranged four times, while in animals there is a single or maximum twofold rearrangement. Human bones are characterized by endless restructuring, which is not observed in animals.

To determine age from bone remains, we used a Zeiss-3 type flame photometer. Calcium accumulates most consistently in bones. Thus, over the course of 10 years, the calcium content in each bone increases by approximately 470 mg%. Calcium deposits in the bones are a kind of monument to the number of years lived. Based on the calcium content of bones, it is possible to approximately determine the age even from fragments of individual bones.

Establishing the age of young people based on metric criteria is well and fully presented in the tables of I. I. Nainis. They indicate the length of all bones for each age, as well as the diameter of the middle of the diaphysis, its circumference, thickness of the compact layer, cross-cut area, etc. Even Balthasar (1911), and then Lovyagin (1915) established that the diameter of the Haversian canals gradually increases with age increases.

Sex is determined by the content of sex chromatin in the cells of burnt muscles and bones (A. V. Kapustin).

What is uncertain in the human world? Taxes, economics, credit system, ? Yes, it’s always difficult to figure this out, but no one on this list can overcome death by the criterion of uncertainty and mystery. And if we talk about our interaction with society, we rarely have direct contact with death. Accidents, hospices and hospitals. We prefer not to notice this integral side of human life. But then the “old woman with a scythe” quickly turns in our direction, and there is no time for thinking.

There is a healthy interest in death in many cultures. During the nineteenth century, with the development of natural philosophy, anatomy and the literature of decadence, this interest was also characteristic of European culture. But now we have become more sensitive, more closed, and those guys who look at corpses with interest are perhaps unfairly called creepy perverts, sick in the head. But each of us is destined to touch death, whether we like it or not.

1. Stages of death

Let's start with the basics, which will be your guiding stars in the world of decay and carrion (sounds kind of strange).

Clinical death

Your vital functions go to waste, your heartbeat and breathing stop. Brain activity is actually still active, which is why some people think that clinical death is some kind of border between life and death. Actually, there is a possibility that you will be brought back to life if they resuscitate you properly.

Biological death

Embalming fluid consists of formaldehyde, methanol and a couple of other ingredients. It usually contains water, but the most effective and expensive embalming methods are anhydrous. They preserve the body much better. The liquid may contain various dyes so that instead of deathly pallor we see a healthy blush. So it is always matched to the color of the skin.

The principle of operation is simple. A small incision is made in the neck, axilla, or groin to access the carotid, brachial, and femoral arteries. The embalming fluid is pumped into the machine and swapped with the blood. This process takes about an hour. While all this is happening, the corpse is given a wonderful massage to break up any blood clots and speed up the process. The fluid is then drained from the main cavity in the body and replaced with another to slow down decomposition. Depending on the religion, the outer shell is washed by the undertaker, Sikh, family or imam.

6. Embalming #2: Helping Hand

We love our dead. We even say: “A dead person is either good or not at all.” And when preparing the body for “leaving,” we prepare it more carefully than when preparing ourselves for the first job interview.

The nose and mouth have to be filled with cotton wool to prevent moisture from seeping through. The mouth is also sewn or sealed. If there are any wounds on the skin, then the body is wrapped in plastic, and only then in a suit. Small plastic cups are inserted under the eyelids to prevent the possibility of open or hollow eyes. In addition, the latter is done in order to avoid the “dead man’s cry.” And this is not only creepy, but also sad for the family. In general, everything is done in order to maintain the illusion of “normality”, the familiar appearance of a person.

7. Decomposition #1: Self-digestion

No matter how much embalming fluid you pour into a dead body, it will still begin to decompose, especially if the death occurred in the open air. Decomposition begins within minutes of death. After blood stops flowing through the body, oxygen starvation makes itself felt. Enzymes begin to digest cell membranes. This meanwhile causes discoloration.

Next comes rigor mortis, nucleic acids break down proteins in muscle fibers. As soon as the muscles begin to break down more intensely, rigor mortis goes away and the body becomes elastic again. Trillions of bacteria that live in the human body throughout life will be free again. Cell membranes begin to degrade, giving rise to their own decomposition process.

8. Decay #2: Rotting

The next stage of decomposition, when the bacteria are slightly carried away.
The initial stage of self-digestion produces many sugars, salts, liquids and anaerobic bacteria that have recently been released from the prison-guts. In general, bacteria feed, ferment sugars, and produce all sorts of unclean gases such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. As bacteria begin to break down hemoglobin in the blood, they turn the skin a mottled dark green color.

All these gas-generating processes cause the body to inflate like a balloon of horror. This is called “bombing”. As a result, pressure will accumulate in the body, and gases and liquids will begin to flow out of every hole (every one, yes). But it might “fortune” and then the whole thing will explode. It is at these moments that the skin begins to loosen, and black spots appear on the body.

9. Decay #3: Colonization

At some certain point, the organism becomes simply irresistible to any creature that is looking for the ideal place to lay eggs. Flies lay hundreds of eggs, which hatch into hundreds of maggots. The giant, writhing mass of larvae can raise body temperature by 10 degrees Celsius. This means that the larvae have to constantly change their location so as not to cook in the body.

Subsequently, they grow into flies, which, in turn, lay eggs again. This process is repeated until all the flesh and skin is consumed. However, the larvae will attract their own antagonists, all kinds of predators such as birds, ants, wasps and spiders. An entire ecosystem is created around the decomposing body. Larger scavengers, of course, can stop all this disgrace in just a couple of hours, for example, if we are talking about a flock of vultures.

You should also remember about the corpse's skull, which is saturated with nitrogen. It is so rich in it that it kills surrounding plants nearby. But after a while, the soil, on the contrary, becomes extremely fertile, which helps the growth of mushrooms, plants and the like.

In the end, all human energy returns to nature, to where it found its birth. It's even beautiful if you can bear the image of horribly rotting corpses.

10. Burial

However, in most cases we do not leave bodies on the street. We come up with fancy religious buildings and burial methods for them.

When you cremate a body, you think you're making your life easier. But this is easier said than done. Because the body burns at an incredibly high temperature, over 1000 degrees Celsius. To burn a normal-sized person, it will take you about 90 minutes, and if we are talking about a person with a lot of fat deposits, then this procedure will take several hours. The ash is then crushed to remove large bone fragments and any metal implants.

What type of soil should I choose? It directly depends on how you decompose. Heavy clay soils will help protect against oxygen and therefore slow down the decomposition process. Loose soils, on the contrary, will speed up this process. It usually takes 10-15 years.

In very hot, dry conditions, bacteria cannot destroy body tissue; they simply dehydrate it. When the ancient Egyptians buried their dead in the hot desert sand, the bodies were preserved much more efficiently than in the cold darkness of the pyramid tombs. This is why, as many believe, embalming was invented.

Ultimately, all organs are destroyed, decompose and return their energy to nature. You borrowed all this from her initially, and therefore you have no other choice.