Pilgrimage around Ganga
Is there any other river in the world which has become a subject for passionate worshipping as Ganges River? The people in India call Ganges River as "Ganga Matagee" with respect. It means "Ganges as our mother" or "Goddess Ganga". This river is a mighty mother river. It was 1980 when I visited Ganges River in India for the first time. And then I cannot remember how many times did I visit that Ganges River. I spent my time in a cave on a sacred mountain in Himalaya, in an island in a river mouth connecting to Bengal Bay, or in a large festival called as Kumbmela held once in some twelve years, talking with Sadus wearing only ash of cow stool on their bare skin. For more than 30 years since then, I have roamed different places along this river like Hinduists, from its source to its estuary with witnessing numerous holy sites and festivals. It was also a pilgrimage for me as if I had crossed the boundary between fantasy and reality, life and death, holiness and stigma, and here and there. These photographs serve also as an epic of my pilgrimage to Ganga.
