KATHMANDU - Ringed by an endless stream of pilgrims at an ancient
temple in Kathmandu, Hindu holy man Mahant Ramnaresh Giri sat naked
and puffed on a pipe filled with cannabis, his body smeared with
ash as he took part in Nepal's biggest annual religious event.
Giri was one of more than a hundred such naked ascetics at the
ancient Shivaratri festival, which brings an estimated one million
devout Hindus flocking to Kathmandu's Pashupatinath temple each
year for rituals to cleanse them of sin and earn a place in
heaven.
Holy men such as Giri, 35, bless them and smoke cone-shaped pipes
of cannabis as part of the annual festival dedicated to Shiva, the
god of destruction.
"After I smoke I get a feeling that I have overcome worldly
pleasure and dissolved myself in the universe," said Giri, smoke
billowing around his head.
After Shiva's consort died, legend has it, he came to the forests
near the temple, his body smeared with ash. Smoking cannabis, which
grows wild in the forests of Nepal, he wore a serpent and draped
his waist with a tiger skin as he wandered.
Cannabis is illegal in Nepal, but permitted as a religious ritual
for ascetics during the festival, which took place at the weekend.
The only explanation for this is that the ascetics are imitating
Shiva.
The ban is ignored during the festival for the ascetics, who are
allowed to smoke inside the temple complex but not sell or
distribute it to pilgrims.
Authorities supplied the drug to holy men in the past but the
practice was discontinued in the 1990s after critics said it
amounted to promoting its consumption.
For pilgrims, the rituals are more mundane and involve pouring milk
on a stone phallus and making offerings of fruit, sandalwood paste
and incense sticks. Holy men such as Giri press ash-covered thumbs
onto their foreheads and bless them.
"I became an ascetic for the protection of our religion, the
welfare of the world and myself," said Giri, his dreadlocked hair
and beard not combed or cut for 17 years.
This year's festival included modern touches such as 65 CCTV
cameras to help guard crowds estimated to have topped one million
devotees. Some of the holy men also played music on their mobile
phones.
But for most, the festival remains deeply spiritual.
Krishna Nanda, a Romanian holy man wrapped in white cloth who came
to India to study Sanskrit, said his desire to know more about life
was behind his renunciation of physical and worldly pleasure two
years ago.
"I love everything in society and god ... I am always happy," said
the 23-year-old.
