150 bodies being cremated at Pashupatinath alone every day, says priest Family mourns 18 lost in house crash

Kathmandu, April 29: Flanked by funeral pyres flickering in the darkness, Shankar Pradhan stood barefoot on the edge of Kathmandu’s sacred Bagmati River, where the dead pulled daily from the city’s ruins are being brought non-stop after the massive earthquake that shook this nation.

He doused his daughter’s feet and lips in holy water three times. He knelt down and kissed the orange shroud she was wrapped in. And then helped by grieving relatives, he spread red ochre and marigolds over the corpse, encased it in a tomb of dry wood and set it ablaze.

The ancient Hindu cremation rite is meant to purify souls for the afterlife, and this was far from the only one for Pradhan and his extended family. When the quake crumpled his brother’s four-storey house on Saturday, it left them with a total of 18 souls to prepare.

Pradhan’s 21-year-old daughter was one of nearly 6,000 people who perished in the worst quake this country has seen in 80 years.

Even in a nation where death and destruction have touched a vast area stretching from the icy peaks of Mount Everest to remote villages that rescue workers are yet to reach, the grief visited upon Pradhan’s family is overwhelming.

Bidhar Budathoki, a priest, said around 150 bodies were being cremated daily at Pashupatinath alone.

Day and night, acrid smoke fills the air, and mournful wails echo continuously through the sacred complex. — AP