India Day 17

We woke this morning in the ancient city of Varanasi to discover that one child was killed in last night's bombing down by the River Ganges and 37 people were injured.  We decided to wait until tomorrow to visit the river once again to watch the cremations and the placement of ashes in the Ganges.  Let's hope that the terrorists have all gone away.
Varanasi (Sarnath is 10 kms outside of the city) is also famous worldwide for the location of the first Buddhist monastery where Buddha himself lived, prayed, meditated, and gave his first sermon to his disciples in 500BC.  Mark Twain once wrote, "Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together." We have included a picture of Susan standing in front of the room in ruins where Buddha would meditate.  Tourists from around the world visit this location to mediate, pray, chant, and reflect.  They also make offerings of gold leaves and other things by placing the offering on the red brick walls.
After lunch we visited a family silk manufacturing business where we were given a demo of how this family still makes saris, bedding, wall hangings, and scarves on ancient looms.  You will see in the picture, a young teen and an old man working together on the oldest loom making a bed covering.  It was 60% pure silk and 20 % gold and silver.  (more silver than gold).

We finished the day by visiting another famous temple called "Mother India".  There we were given a geography lesson on why India is such a great place to be.  India is surrounded by a natural fortress known as mountains (Himilayans), and seas.