Henry J. Neils’
Travelogue of 1959 Great World Cruise
Henry J. Neils was a businessman from Minneapolis. He wrote a daily diary of his voyage on the 1959 Great World cruise. Presumably, the 30 faded typewritten sheets had been duplicated for distribution to his employees.
The transcribed document now forms 25 pages of the Timeline, accessible from links on the January, February, March and April 1959 month pages. This was the first special feature to be added to the Timeline as it entered its 2nd year of being on-line.
Henry's quoted text throughout the site start with this indicator: H.J.N.…
Henry J Neils’ Travelogue 07 March 1959
Banaras, India
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Elevation: 382 Feet
Population: Over 1,000,000
Early tea on train - 5.30am. Train running one hour late. Beautiful sunrise. Natives out in fields doing chores and
washing themselves, which is quite a feat without modern plumbing.
At 9.00am we arrived in the terminal and were assigned cars. It happens to be a Hindu festival. Thousands of pilgrims have come to the Holy City to bathe in the healing waters of the Ganges River. Healing both from sin and physical ailments.
The streets are jammed. No cars, bicycle rickshaws or bicycles allowed! Everybody, including ourselves, walking east to the River. Even the sacred cows in the procession. They do not give way.
You just walk around them. Pushing forward through the narrow streets is just like being in a crowd going to a football match. We finally made the ghats (steps) leading down to the River, got aboard an antique houseboat, climbed to the upper deck and sat on chairs. This ring side seat revealed a sight you can get at no other place!
The Ganges Riverfront
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The pressure of the crowd from the higher steps was terrific. Everyone wanted to get to the water, and once there do
the ritual of washing, which each person seems to do in his own way.
Some of the boys ventured out into the middle of the river. They were good swimmers, but most of the people were satisfied to perform their ceremony and be on their way. Then the same pressure going up the steps. Men, women, children, babies, cripples, priests. What a colourful sight!
The Burning Ghats
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There are many ghats for bathing and adjoining them, dispersed in between, are ghats where the dead are cremated at the
rate of about forty per day. Huge piles of wood are laid to receive the body, which lies under a sheet (of various
colours, depending on who the deceased was - man, woman or child).
The pallbearers place the body in the prescribed position, and the oldest son or relative carries the torch from the perpetual fire to light the pyre. This is done within a few hours of death, for very good health reasons.
The ashes are strewn into the Ganges River. For the Hindu to die in Banaras, be cremated on the burning ghat and have his ashes strewn into the Ganges is the fulfillment of a cherished wish and answer to fervent prayer.
Incidentally, the water in the Ganges at low stage is some of the clearest we have seen in India. The pilgrims carry this water with them in their highly polished brass vases to sprinkle this holy water an various objects at the many temples.
Sarnath
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After breakfast at the hotel, we drove to Sarnath, where we visited the Buddhist temple and the Stupa (mound) where
Buddha (meaning “enlightened one”) was supposed to have delivered his first sermon, about 600 BC.
He was the son of a king of the Sakyas from the foothills of the Himalayas, born in 563 BC., was married at sixteen, had one son, and at age twenty-nine, gave up his home, kingdom, wife and child to become a preacher, reforming the then Hindu ceremonial customs that had crept into the religion.
He taught the four truths and the eight paths in which to apply and achieve them. From India, Buddhism has spread all over Asia.
The Archaeological Museum of Sarnath, a very fine building, has many exhibits of great interest and historical significance. We were very fortunate in having a guide with a B.A. degree, who wrote a book on Banaras and Sarnath. He autographed a copy for us. It makes interesting reading.
In the afternoon we made visits to the Gold Temple, Monkey Temple (so called by tourists because of the monkeys inhabiting this structure), and through crowded streets. A big day.