1 00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:12,990 DAN CRUICKSHANK: I'm on a journey to explore the architecture of death. 2 00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:20,070 A temple to immortalise the soul of a pharaoh. 3 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:26,430 A cemetery where death is a sensual experience. 4 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:34,750 (PEOPLE CHANTING IN HINDI) 5 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:38,070 A city where you come to die. 6 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:50,990 And pyramids for human sacrifice! 7 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:00,390 I'm crossing the river Nile at Luxor, 8 00:02:00,480 --> 00:02:03,470 moving from the land of the living on the east bank, 9 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:07,470 where life is proclaimed each morning with the rising sun, 10 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:10,910 to the land of the dead on the west bank, 11 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,710 where the sun sets and where the dead were commemorated, 12 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,550 were sustained, by awe-inspiring architecture, 13 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:21,910 architecture intended to last for eternity. 14 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:47,430 I've come here to see a woman who's always intrigued me, 15 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:51,150 a woman who died nearly three and a half thousand years ago. 16 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:53,430 Her name is Hatshepsut. 17 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:57,550 Now, for nearly 20 years she ruled Egypt as a man, 18 00:02:57,640 --> 00:02:59,310 as a pharaoh. 19 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:18,190 This is Hatshepsut's tomb. 20 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,590 A strangely neglected and crumbling place 21 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:25,470 never open to the public. 22 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:33,350 Golly, this is a challenge. The shaft stinks of ammonia. 23 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:35,270 Bats, I suppose. 24 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,870 And I mustn't touch the sides 25 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:43,110 in case I bring the whole thing down. 26 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,550 This flaking limestone. 27 00:03:48,480 --> 00:03:51,550 This shaft's been descending rather steeply for 28 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:54,110 over 200 metres. 29 00:03:54,200 --> 00:03:57,270 And now I have to get on my hands and knees to get below 30 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,790 this sort of lintel here, all cut from the limestone. 31 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:05,750 I've never been in a tomb like this in Egypt before. 32 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:08,230 It's rough, it's treacherous. 33 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:16,550 Ah! At last, what I've been looking for. 34 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:19,390 The burial chamber. 35 00:04:21,960 --> 00:04:24,190 It's very rough, 36 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:28,910 no sign of plaster or paintings. 37 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,310 There's no body of Hatshepsut down here. 38 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:40,710 But never mind, I can look for her somewhere else. 39 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:54,990 This is Hatshepsut's magnificent mortuary temple 40 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:58,070 created to house her spirit and soul. 41 00:04:59,840 --> 00:05:03,390 Mortuary temples were machines for rebirth, 42 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:05,510 where the living made offerings to the dead 43 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,110 to sustain them in the underworld. 44 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:14,590 Temples were called the Houses of the Millions of Years. 45 00:05:14,680 --> 00:05:18,990 This temple is architecturally stunning. 46 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:23,190 It seems in its symmetry and its powerful simplicity, 47 00:05:23,280 --> 00:05:26,870 to represent Ma'at, that is the Egyptian idea of truth and order. 48 00:05:26,960 --> 00:05:29,630 Ma'at prevailing over chaos, 49 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:34,310 chaos represented by the rough, rude cliff face behind, 50 00:05:34,400 --> 00:05:36,470 an incredible piece of work. 51 00:05:36,560 --> 00:05:39,830 And imagine in the past, all you would have seen approaching from afar, 52 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:42,870 these rows of statues of Osiris, 53 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:45,030 the god of the underworld. 54 00:05:55,360 --> 00:05:58,550 The images on these walls proclaim that Hatshepsut 55 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:02,590 not only had a pharaoh as a father and as a husband 56 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:06,230 but that she was a child of a god, Amun-Ra. 57 00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:11,230 The story is that Amun-Ra crept into the bed chamber 58 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:13,430 of Hatshepsut's mother, Ahmose. 59 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:15,630 She, the mother, woke up, 60 00:06:15,720 --> 00:06:18,990 smelt incense, a sign of the presence of a god, 61 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:21,350 and laughed in pleasure. 62 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:25,590 And here it says that the god did with her as he liked. 63 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:30,630 And here you see the mother pregnant, lovely image, her little tummy, 64 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:32,310 gave birth to Hatshepsut. 65 00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:35,350 So Hatshepsut had a divine origin, 66 00:06:35,440 --> 00:06:39,390 and that gave her the right to rule as a pharaoh of Egypt. 67 00:06:52,000 --> 00:06:54,310 These walls record what Hatshepsut regarded 68 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:57,030 as her greatest worldly achievement. 69 00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:00,190 A trade mission to the exotic land of Punt. 70 00:07:00,280 --> 00:07:04,910 No one quite knows where Punt was, probably wasn't Somalia or Ethiopia, 71 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,750 but certainly it was strange enough for the Egyptians to record 72 00:07:08,840 --> 00:07:10,910 Punt's everyday architecture. 73 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:12,950 Here you see it, the village, 74 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:15,950 little huts on sticks, approached with ladders, 75 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:18,110 palm trees everywhere. 76 00:07:18,200 --> 00:07:20,270 But what she really wanted was incense, 77 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:24,270 incense to nourish the gods, the food of the gods. 78 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:29,630 And here we see Egyptians carrying incense trees, myrrh trees. 79 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:34,030 Whole trees in baskets, with the roots being carried 80 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:36,790 onto ships to be brought back here. 81 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:42,470 What she wanted was to plant these trees at this temple 82 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:45,950 to please her divine father, Amun-Ra. 83 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:53,350 The building was once rich in images of Hatshepsut. 84 00:07:53,440 --> 00:07:55,710 She would have been a striking presence. 85 00:07:55,800 --> 00:08:00,430 The queen was always depicted as a man with a ceremonial beard. 86 00:08:02,080 --> 00:08:04,590 But most of these images were aggressively erased 87 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:08,310 by her rival for power, Tuthmosis III. 88 00:08:50,320 --> 00:08:54,150 This is Hatshepsut's chapel within her mortuary temple. 89 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:56,190 Here priests would have come to make offerings 90 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:58,590 to sustain her soul in the underworld. 91 00:08:58,680 --> 00:09:01,870 And here you see ranks and ranks of priests 92 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:03,670 making offerings, marching forward, 93 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:07,470 carrying fowls and fruits, I think, and liquids, 94 00:09:07,560 --> 00:09:09,990 all going towards, 95 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:13,350 I suppose, where her image would have been, now gone. 96 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:15,830 What does survive is this rather wonderful thing, 97 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:17,910 this false door, 98 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:21,870 that allowed her spirit and soul to travel between this world and the next, 99 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,310 to enter her temple and leave it for the underworld. 100 00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:27,670 What is striking though is that 101 00:09:27,760 --> 00:09:32,310 all the images of Hatshepsut and her cartouche, her name, 102 00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:35,590 they've been removed, brutally cut away. 103 00:09:35,680 --> 00:09:38,510 That's a frightful fate. 104 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:42,710 So she's been, I suppose, consigned to oblivion, 105 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:45,710 her name removed from memory. 106 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:50,670 The intention is that that would give her a second, permanent death. 107 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:01,350 The route through the building ends by taking me into the mountain itself. 108 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:06,430 This is the sacred epicentre of the temple. 109 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:09,510 Only the highest in the land could enter here. 110 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,630 It's the sanctuary of Amun-Ra 111 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:16,030 who was Hatshepsut's divine father, 112 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:18,790 the great god of Thebes. 113 00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:21,830 The sanctuary is cut into the mountainside, 114 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:25,270 the mountain that defines the Valley of the Kings, 115 00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:28,590 the tombs lying just over there. 116 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:34,430 Now, I'm going into the inner parts of the sanctuary. 117 00:10:34,520 --> 00:10:37,670 They get smaller, darker, more intimate, more holy. 118 00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:41,990 Only the high priest and the pharaoh, I guess, could penetrate this far. 119 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:45,310 And now here is something which I've dreamed of finding. 120 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:49,670 Incredible, here is an image of Hatshepsut 121 00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:51,630 not destroyed by Tuthmosis. 122 00:10:51,720 --> 00:10:54,590 Hatshepsut, of course, in the image of a powerful man. 123 00:10:54,680 --> 00:10:59,270 I know it's her because her cartouche, her name, survives. 124 00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:00,790 Here it is. 125 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:04,230 It doesn't say Hatshepsut, but it's her birth name. 126 00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:09,310 Ma'at, Ka, Re. There it is. 127 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:12,870 Her fantastic image. 128 00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:22,510 Hatshepsut wanted to obtain immortality through architecture, through art. 129 00:11:22,680 --> 00:11:24,550 And despite all the attacks upon her, 130 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:28,990 her temple, and this image of her, and her name here survives. 131 00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:32,350 So she's not consigned to memory, obliterated, 132 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:33,670 she lives. 133 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:36,990 I can utter her name, Hatshepsut, 134 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:38,670 and wonderful to see her. 135 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:41,390 And if her soul is still alive 136 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:44,590 then it must need nourishment, offerings. 137 00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:47,390 After all these centuries, it must be starving. 138 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:49,230 So I want to give her 139 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:53,190 what she gave her divine father, Amun-Ra. 140 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:56,510 Magical myrrh from the land of Punt. 141 00:11:57,320 --> 00:11:58,710 Here it is. 142 00:11:59,680 --> 00:12:03,230 Incense that feeds the soul, 143 00:12:05,600 --> 00:12:07,430 that purifies. 144 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:11,670 I hope this reaches her in the other world. 145 00:13:10,680 --> 00:13:12,790 This is Guatemala. 146 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:15,510 Once the land of the Maya, 147 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:20,430 an ancient civilisation whose influence can still be felt in this land. 148 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:27,150 I'm arriving on a day when the souls of the dead 149 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:31,110 are said to return to Earth to commune with the living. 150 00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:35,150 The Day of the Dead. 151 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:38,590 (PEOPLE SINGING) 152 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:48,590 Once a year, the tiny village of San Jose 153 00:13:48,680 --> 00:13:52,030 gathers in its church to venerate three skulls. 154 00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:56,110 Some say they belong to Catholic missionaries, 155 00:13:56,200 --> 00:14:00,350 others that they're the remains of Mayan chiefs or holy men. 156 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:04,870 The festival is a strange marriage of Catholicism, 157 00:14:04,960 --> 00:14:09,990 imposed by the Spanish conquistadors, and indigenous Mayan beliefs. 158 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:11,950 (BELL CLANGING) 159 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:16,630 The Catholic Church doesn't recognise 160 00:14:16,720 --> 00:14:19,990 the festival of the Day of the Dead, at least officially. 161 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:23,470 So this is a most intriguing church service. 162 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:25,550 It's held on All Saints' Day, 163 00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:28,150 so I suppose one can say it's celebrating that. 164 00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:30,230 But I'm not sure. 165 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:34,990 And the skull itself is a very powerful Mayan symbol. 166 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:37,950 Mayans would keep the skulls of their ancestors, 167 00:14:38,040 --> 00:14:41,750 and once a year present them, venerate them really, 168 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:45,230 paint between the eyes with a cross of paint. 169 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:48,270 And on these skulls, they'd paint the name of the dead person. 170 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:50,510 And they'd collect the skulls of vanquished enemies. 171 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:52,950 The skull's a very ancient, important, 172 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:56,070 sort of relic image in this part of the world. 173 00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:06,430 After the service, there's a procession 174 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:10,190 in which one of the skulls is taken from house to house. 175 00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:17,390 (BELLS RINGING) 176 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:26,030 (PEOPLE PRAYING IN SPANISH) 177 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:45,910 All of it? Ooh, gracias. 178 00:15:50,640 --> 00:15:52,430 This is extremely interesting. 179 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:55,390 Over there is the offering altar, 180 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:57,750 but around the skull 181 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:00,670 are bowls of food, and even a bottle of beer. 182 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:05,070 They're there to attract the souls of the dead ancestors 183 00:16:05,160 --> 00:16:06,870 to nourish them. 184 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:12,030 So on that offering table we have Christian ritual and ritual objects 185 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:14,550 of the Day of the Dead combined. 186 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:17,870 (PEOPLE PRAYING IN SPANISH) 187 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:31,350 Throughout the village, people are waiting for their ancestors to return. 188 00:16:31,440 --> 00:16:33,270 CRUICKSHANK: Hola. 189 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:38,750 Old friends, living and dead, are meeting again this night. 190 00:16:38,840 --> 00:16:41,430 (SPEAKING IN SPANISH) 191 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:54,950 In most societies death is feared, 192 00:16:55,040 --> 00:16:57,950 but here it seems that death is not so alarming because 193 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:01,270 you continue to have a relationship with the dead, the dead with the living. 194 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,470 The atmosphere surrounding the procession 195 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:40,870 is not morbid but joyful, 196 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:44,830 because here the spirit of the Maya is very much alive. 197 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:47,150 But tomorrow 198 00:17:47,240 --> 00:17:51,790 I'm going to explore the darker side of the Mayan cult of death. 199 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:00,990 Deep in the rainforest 200 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:05,230 lie the remains of the great lost Maya city of Yaxhá, 201 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,470 discovered by the explorer Teobert Maler. 202 00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:16,110 He was a headstrong cantankerous fellow, 203 00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:18,390 but with a love of the Maya. 204 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:23,310 He described arriving here in 1904. 205 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:29,110 He'd been travelling for some time and his men were rather sort of restless 206 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:31,470 and he also was clearly a bit fed up, 207 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:35,310 because he said that they didn't want to work 208 00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:37,790 and could only think of guzzling. 209 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:48,990 But what Maler found silenced their grumbling. 210 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:01,550 Yaxhá was constructed about 1,200 years ago 211 00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:04,510 and the temples are very precisely built, 212 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:08,790 even though the Maya didn't have metal tools or the wheel. 213 00:19:19,440 --> 00:19:23,710 These step pyramids served as platforms for temples, 214 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:26,350 staircases to the gods. 215 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:34,990 This was a vast city, 216 00:19:35,080 --> 00:19:39,510 but now only the elite buildings survive above ground level. 217 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,430 The palaces, the temples. 218 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:45,550 The more humble buildings, well, they're lost, 219 00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:48,150 buried in the rainforest. 220 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,550 The Maya was a very sophisticated civilisation, 221 00:19:52,640 --> 00:19:56,030 with a written language. There was, um, mathematics. 222 00:19:56,120 --> 00:19:58,710 They were great astronomers, they charted the movements 223 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,750 of the planets and stars to create a very accurate calendar. 224 00:20:01,840 --> 00:20:05,390 All of this civilisation, all these ideas, 225 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:08,430 are here locked in the buildings. 226 00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:18,790 The ancient Maya saw the world of the living and of the dead 227 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:20,950 as one and the same. 228 00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:33,190 Everywhere there are monuments to communicate 229 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:35,670 between this life and the next. 230 00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:41,670 In front of me are the fragmentary remains of an altar, 231 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,750 and around altars such as this, a ritual took place 232 00:20:45,840 --> 00:20:48,950 that we would find absolutely extraordinary. 233 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:54,070 Here, the king and queen came to spill their own blood. 234 00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:58,590 The queen would take a bit of chord with thorns 235 00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:03,110 and run it through her tongue, and the blood would explode out. 236 00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:07,550 She'd throw it on the image of the god standing on the altar here. 237 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:10,430 And the king would take his penis 238 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:12,390 and run a spine through it, 239 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:16,670 and the blood from that he'd throw on the images of the gods. 240 00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:21,990 For Mayans, blood was the most precious substance, 241 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:25,710 it contained the sacred life essence they called "k'awil". 242 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:30,190 And only blood could nourish, could appease, the gods. 243 00:21:38,440 --> 00:21:42,070 But it wasn't just their own blood that was spilled. 244 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,990 On the top of pyramids like this, Yaxhá's tallest, 245 00:21:46,080 --> 00:21:48,710 they performed human sacrifice. 246 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,790 The victim would have been brought up the staircase 247 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:00,750 on the front of the pyramid, 248 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:02,350 lead to the altar. 249 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:06,910 And the altar would have had a convex top. 250 00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:08,870 So the victim would have been stretched over it, 251 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:11,830 on their back, with their chest sticking up. 252 00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:14,390 They'd have been held down by four men 253 00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:16,830 and a fifth man, with a great stone knife, 254 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,990 would insert the knife into the stomach just below the chest, 255 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:23,550 ripped open the wound 256 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,910 and thrust a hand into the chest cavity 257 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,950 and pulled out the still living heart. 258 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:34,990 The heart pumping gushes of precious, sacred blood. 259 00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:37,510 Then 260 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:40,430 the corpse, the victim, would have been held up, 261 00:22:40,520 --> 00:22:43,990 and they'd have been painted blue, the colour of sacrifice. 262 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:48,590 And this body would have been thrown down the stairs 263 00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:51,070 to the base of the pyramid, 264 00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:55,390 and there the victim would have been skinned. 265 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:57,430 And the skin, 266 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:01,470 this awful dripping garment, 267 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:05,790 would've been wrapped on and around the officiating priest. 268 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:09,270 And he'd have danced in a solemn manner, down there, 269 00:23:09,360 --> 00:23:13,190 with the people who'd gathered to watch the sacrifice. 270 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:35,310 The Maya are a problem, a paradox. 271 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:37,670 They believed in utter desolation 272 00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:42,550 yet they built to last for eternity. 273 00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:46,110 They were a very sophisticated civilisation, 274 00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:49,590 yet steeped in blood and murder. 275 00:23:49,680 --> 00:23:52,070 What is one to make of them? 276 00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:55,910 I suppose the obvious point is that, for them, 277 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:01,030 life was not held cheap, it was the most precious of things. 278 00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:06,270 And blood had to be given to the gods to allow the gods to do their job, 279 00:24:06,360 --> 00:24:08,590 which was to ensure that creation would go on, 280 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:11,230 that the sun would rise each day. 281 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:15,110 And so really, out of love the Maya killed. 282 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:19,550 The Maya took life to ensure that life would continue. 283 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:06,230 I've come to Genoa on the Italian Riviera, 284 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:08,910 the largest port in all Italy. 285 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:13,870 Genoa is an ancient trading city 286 00:25:13,960 --> 00:25:17,670 that through the centuries survived many tribulations. 287 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:22,630 But in the early 19th century, it faced a potentially catastrophic threat. 288 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:26,430 A threat that came not from the living, but from the dead. 289 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:47,070 This is Staglieno Cemetery, a vast city of the dead, 290 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:49,550 with monuments, chapels, 291 00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:52,790 streets and triumphal gateway. 292 00:25:56,720 --> 00:25:59,910 It saved the city from disaster. 293 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,510 Genoa was blighted by disease 294 00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:04,990 caused by ill-buried rotting bodies 295 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,270 crowded into church vaults and graveyards. 296 00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:17,590 So Staglieno was opened on January 1st, 1851. 297 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:21,550 And this city of the dead, like cities of the living, 298 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:24,710 had its own social hierarchies. 299 00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:28,790 Your status in life would determine your position in death. 300 00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:42,390 The rotunda's the main chapel in the cemetery 301 00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:45,670 and it's a splendid piece of architecture. 302 00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:48,870 It's inspired by the ancient Pantheon in Rome, 303 00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,230 the temple of all the gods. 304 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:54,150 And therefore it's rather appropriate 305 00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:59,270 that the great of Genoa are commemorated in this building. 306 00:26:59,360 --> 00:27:03,990 Wealth and fame secured you the best locations here. 307 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:08,430 But the middle class of Genoa also loved this cemetery. 308 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:10,310 They brought their dead here, 309 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,990 and they honoured them with spectacular monuments 310 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,030 that were intended to grant immortality. 311 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,190 In these arcades, middle-class families 312 00:27:43,280 --> 00:27:46,750 created elaborate shrines to honour their dead. 313 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:51,390 And to make their memorials truly impressive 314 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:55,070 the families commissioned the best artists in Italy. 315 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:05,030 Walking here, you feel that you're meeting these long dead people, 316 00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:08,190 getting to know them and their mourners, 317 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:10,990 to share in the mourner's grief. 318 00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:14,470 This young lady is a widow, 319 00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:17,550 and she's leaving the tomb of her husband. 320 00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:21,110 A cross around her neck, bible in her hand. 321 00:28:22,360 --> 00:28:27,310 On her face, the expression of pure sorrow. Most beautiful. 322 00:28:37,320 --> 00:28:41,390 Over the decades, Staglieno's collection of sculpture grew 323 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:46,230 to make it one of the most awe-inspiring and imitated cemeteries in the world. 324 00:28:49,360 --> 00:28:51,950 And one statue, more than any other, 325 00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:56,150 came to define the values and aspirations of Staglieno. 326 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,190 This is one of the most famous monuments in the cemetery. 327 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:05,430 It shows Caterina Campodonico. 328 00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:09,670 And she was a hawker at local fairs and feasts. 329 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:11,790 And during her lifetime, 330 00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:17,110 she paid for this spectacular monument to be made using her savings, 331 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:22,150 her meagre savings for this spectacular object. 332 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,230 And it shows how she made her money, 333 00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:27,950 she sold nuts and bread at these fairs. 334 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:30,950 And these objects, these tools of her trade, 335 00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:35,670 are proudly shown, she's not ashamed of how she made her money. 336 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:37,510 And I love the face. 337 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:41,030 She's staring defiantly in the face of death. 338 00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:46,630 This statue gives her a foothold on eternity, 339 00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:48,710 and also shows that in death, 340 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:53,070 she at last gained some middle-class respectability. 341 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:12,870 Artists grew in ambition, 342 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:17,030 introducing increasingly inventive ways of approaching death. 343 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:21,590 The cemetery became more famous for the quality of its art 344 00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:23,910 than the people buried there. 345 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:34,630 Ah, here's a very charming, solid middle-class couple, 346 00:30:34,720 --> 00:30:37,670 wealthy tradespeople I should think. 347 00:30:37,760 --> 00:30:41,030 Very realistically rendered, lovely. 348 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:45,990 But above them an extraordinary scene's being enacted. 349 00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:49,230 Here there's a skeleton on its back. 350 00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:52,190 It's death, the Grim Reaper. 351 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:53,950 Here's his scythe, 352 00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:58,070 and flames are bursting through the rib cage here, 353 00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:00,350 he's being struck by a bolt of lightning. 354 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:04,710 All of this is being orchestrated by this very charming angel, 355 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:09,590 the personification of eternal life promised by Christ. 356 00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:12,430 So here we see the values of this couple. 357 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:16,870 They achieved immortality through commissioning art. 358 00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:21,910 And through their Christian belief, Death itself is being destroyed. 359 00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:36,430 By the turn of the 19th century, 360 00:31:36,520 --> 00:31:38,950 old Christian certainties about resurrection 361 00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:41,870 and the afterlife began to be questioned. 362 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:45,630 The symbolism became more outlandish. 363 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:49,870 Artists explored their darkest fantasies, 364 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:54,630 producing statues that were disturbing, sensuous, erotic. 365 00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,630 This is one of the most strangely, darkly 366 00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,470 thrilling tombs in the entire cemetery. 367 00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:07,550 It was made for a local rich businessman, 368 00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:09,150 but most of the imagery here 369 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:11,270 has very little to do with him in particular. 370 00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:14,790 It's more elemental, more primal. 371 00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:17,630 It's to do with the dance of death. 372 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,710 And here you see the image above me. 373 00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:24,470 Life is represented by this beautiful young woman 374 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:26,670 and she's writhing in the grip of death, 375 00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:31,150 the skeleton, his bony hand around her wrist. 376 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:35,350 She's turning away but she's tiring of the struggle. 377 00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:39,430 It's futile, inevitable. Death will come, Death will claim her. 378 00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:44,350 In this tomb, there is no promise of eternal life. 379 00:32:44,480 --> 00:32:46,870 Death is triumphant. 380 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:07,190 The less well-off also have their place in the cemetery. 381 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:11,150 All Genoese citizens have a right to be buried in Staglieno. 382 00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:15,390 But if you can't afford an elaborate tomb 383 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:19,390 then you can't expect to remain in the ground for too long. 384 00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:24,550 The people here are buried on a 10-year lease. 385 00:33:24,640 --> 00:33:26,270 When the lease runs out, 386 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,070 their bones will be removed from the ground 387 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:31,870 and their tombstones destroyed. 388 00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:44,510 Well, I see you're digging a grave and I can see in the grave 389 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:49,030 bits of coffin there, and here's a bit of a headstone. 390 00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:52,070 So clearly someone's been buried here before. 391 00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,110 (SPEAKING IN ITALIAN) 392 00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:08,390 So you expect to be dug up after 10 years? 393 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:23,190 In Staglieno, the mysteries of death remain. 394 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:26,350 But in these picturesque surroundings, 395 00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,910 the beauty of the art makes death seem more noble, 396 00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:32,590 more familiar. 397 00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:35,590 An almost blissful experience. 398 00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:36,110 This is the most sacred site in India. 399 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:39,590 Varanasi on the River Ganges. 400 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:43,270 Hindus believe that India is the spiritual centre, 401 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:45,470 the navel of the world. 402 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:49,910 And that Varanasi is the centre of the centre, the holy of holies. 403 00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:52,230 This is a very, very ancient city. 404 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:55,310 They say it's where creation started 405 00:35:55,400 --> 00:35:57,830 and where the world, in time, will end. 406 00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:10,150 More than a million pilgrims come to Varanasi every year 407 00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:12,550 to bathe at dawn and to pray. 408 00:36:16,400 --> 00:36:18,630 They congregate on the ghats, 409 00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:22,070 the stone terraces that lead down to the sacred water, 410 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,990 and believe this ritual bathing will purify them 411 00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:27,310 and wash away their sins. 412 00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:38,870 Bodies of the dead are brought here for cremation, 413 00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:41,950 for this is the city of the Hindu god Shiva, 414 00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:44,390 known as the Conqueror of Death. 415 00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:51,630 And the Ganges is the watery body of the great goddess Ganga. 416 00:36:51,720 --> 00:36:55,710 The river of heaven that carries souls to eternity. 417 00:37:04,120 --> 00:37:08,350 Varanasi has been a place of pilgrimage for thousands of years. 418 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:13,790 And the narrow alleyways are full of wonderful sights. 419 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,350 A journey through this city 420 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:22,190 is a journey to the sacred heart of Hindu India. 421 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:31,070 (BLOWING CONCH) 422 00:38:06,520 --> 00:38:08,510 All these people are progressing to and from 423 00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:10,510 the great Shiva temple over there. 424 00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,470 One of the most important Shiva temples of the whole of India. 425 00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:17,110 This is a sacred terrain, here's a sacred cow. 426 00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:20,110 Get a blessing from her. 427 00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:22,390 And little temples each side. 428 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:24,430 Um, and more cows here. 429 00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:30,030 You really do get the sense this is a great holy city. 430 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:42,470 Despite their pain and suffering, many very ill people 431 00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:45,590 make their way to Varanasi, or are brought here by their families, 432 00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:49,510 because Hindus believe if you die here, 433 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:54,310 you are granted the great gift of moksha by Shiva. 434 00:38:54,880 --> 00:39:00,030 Moksha is the release from eternal and often painful 435 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:03,590 birth, death and rebirth on the Earth. 436 00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:06,830 And while the families wait for the end, 437 00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:10,430 many of them stay in dying houses, such as this one. 438 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:22,430 The Mukti Bhawan is one of the two major dying houses in Varanasi 439 00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:26,630 that accommodate families while they await the death of a relative. 440 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:29,950 Thousands have come here to die. 441 00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:40,470 This is not a place for the sick. 442 00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:42,950 It's only for families to bring relatives 443 00:39:43,040 --> 00:39:45,190 who are very close to death. 444 00:39:51,680 --> 00:39:55,190 As a non-family member, I'm incredibly privileged 445 00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:58,390 to have been allowed inside this dying house. 446 00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:04,550 I'm going to meet a gentleman who very kindly has invited me 447 00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:07,470 to his mother's dying room. 448 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:21,670 Thank you. 449 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:25,750 -Hello. -Please, be seated. 450 00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:27,630 -Thank you, thank you. -Please. 451 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:36,990 Thank you very much for inviting me here on this very, 452 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:41,270 I suppose, in the West one would say sombre occasion, 453 00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:43,550 but maybe not the case. 454 00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:47,550 Um, can you tell me, how is your mother now? 455 00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:49,830 Is she comfortable? 456 00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:51,950 (SPEAKING IN HINDI) 457 00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:05,150 Can you tell me why you have brought her to the dying house? 458 00:41:05,240 --> 00:41:07,670 What is the purpose of being here? 459 00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:11,310 And what do you think... What is going to happen? 460 00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:53,950 During my visit, the family conduct the most important ritual 461 00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:57,110 to prepare for the death of their relative. 462 00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:01,390 This calf, sacred in India, 463 00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:03,310 has been brought in to help the dying woman 464 00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,350 on her journey to heaven. 465 00:42:05,440 --> 00:42:07,590 (RELATIVES TALKING IN HINDI) 466 00:42:22,320 --> 00:42:25,190 The calf and the woman are anointed, 467 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,350 and this ritual is to ensure that the calf will guide 468 00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:31,470 and safeguard her soul on its way to God. 469 00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:34,550 (CHANTING IN SANSKRIT) 470 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:43,870 The mood is relaxed, people are even laughing, 471 00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:46,830 because the family believe that at this moment, 472 00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:51,310 the god Shiva has entered the room to promise moksha to the woman, 473 00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:54,870 that her soul will be released after she dies. 474 00:42:58,240 --> 00:42:59,870 Thank you. 475 00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:02,830 MAN: Thank you. Lot of thank you. 476 00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:05,390 Thank you. Thank you. 477 00:43:07,560 --> 00:43:10,950 The family have just given me some prasad, a sweet, 478 00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:15,710 so that I can get the sweetness of the whole event that I've been witnessing. 479 00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:20,510 Sacred sweet. 480 00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:22,950 Very generous. 481 00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:25,590 Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you. 482 00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:27,070 WOMAN: No mention. 483 00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:39,150 I hope all goes very well for your mother. 484 00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:42,550 Thank you very much, and thank you. 485 00:43:46,800 --> 00:43:51,750 I feel incredibly honoured to have been allowed in to see 486 00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:54,670 that ceremony, to have met the mother. 487 00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:59,270 The Hindus believe that the nearly-dead and the newly-dead 488 00:43:59,360 --> 00:44:01,030 are spiritually very powerful. 489 00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:03,430 They're a bridge between this world and the next. 490 00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:05,390 I really felt that there, and when they told me 491 00:44:05,480 --> 00:44:07,750 that is was auspicious for me to be there, 492 00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:09,270 I was a lucky man. 493 00:44:09,360 --> 00:44:11,870 Many lives have led me here, he said, 494 00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:15,110 to Varanasi at this moment and I sort of feel it. 495 00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:18,350 (PEOPLE CHANTING IN HINDI) 496 00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:23,430 Death is big business in Varanasi. 497 00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:27,670 It's inspired, indeed funded, much of the architecture, 498 00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:30,310 and, of course, is a way of life. 499 00:44:33,360 --> 00:44:36,110 There are lots of shops that specialise in selling 500 00:44:36,200 --> 00:44:39,430 articles needed for funerals, for cremations. 501 00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:42,470 Here's one. I'll just see what's available. 502 00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:46,190 -Hello, hello. -Yes. 503 00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:50,590 Now, I see you sell... Oh, even now the body is coming, I see. 504 00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:53,030 (PEOPLE CHANTING IN HINDI) 505 00:44:59,160 --> 00:45:01,990 They said that was an old, holy man, important man. 506 00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:05,990 Yeah, very, very old man died. They have much decoration on his body. 507 00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:07,430 -Ah. -End of life. 508 00:45:07,520 --> 00:45:09,190 -You die, end of life. -Yes. 509 00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:11,510 But tell me the sort of things that you sell 510 00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:13,030 which were used in that particular... 511 00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:15,310 Yeah, we sell so much things for body. 512 00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:18,710 So first of all the body's wrapped in a white shroud like this. That's this. 513 00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:21,790 Yeah, in the beginning, they're wrapped in white. 514 00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:26,270 White in beginning, and after that we give this on the top of that. 515 00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:29,510 So this sparkling cloth, this beautiful... 516 00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:32,070 VENDOR: This to put on the top of the body. 517 00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:34,870 -To beautify the body before it's burnt? -Yeah. 518 00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:37,030 What else do you have here? You've got some... 519 00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:40,630 We have stuff to put on the fire, on the body. Sandalwood. 520 00:45:40,720 --> 00:45:43,550 Yes, I thought it was. So this is expensive wood, isn't it? 521 00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:45,870 Yeah, expensive wood. Just put it... 522 00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:48,590 Fine water buffalos. 523 00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:51,870 They put this wood, like the symbolic, on the top of the body 524 00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:54,990 -to have a good smell in his body fire. -It smells lovely. 525 00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:57,710 I'll close the top 'cause I know the smell must be caught in there. 526 00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:00,070 (PEOPLE CHANTING IN HINDI) 527 00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:05,110 Many, many people following that particular body. 528 00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:07,110 Another family come with dead body. 529 00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:09,310 I love the way the bodies are so beautiful, 530 00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:10,910 -and the whole atmosphere. -Yeah, yeah. 531 00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:14,310 -It's quite joyful, isn't it? -Yeah, this is most holy place. 532 00:46:14,400 --> 00:46:17,150 This is why family, they are coming, very happy way. 533 00:46:17,240 --> 00:46:19,990 They feel very lucky to come into this place. 534 00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:25,390 Mountains of wood are stored near the river 535 00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:27,670 to feed the cremation pyres. 536 00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:34,310 Around 40,000 people are burned here every year. 537 00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:37,070 Most didn't die in Varanasi. 538 00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,310 But just to be cremated here is a blessing. 539 00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:44,950 Cremations take place at two ghats on the river. 540 00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:48,230 This is the most popular one. Manikarnika. 541 00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:55,950 A specific caste of funeral attendants, called Doms, oversee all the cremations. 542 00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,430 It's all so public and open. 543 00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:13,750 It's an extraordinary feeling being here. 544 00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:16,470 In the West, of course, we associate death 545 00:47:16,560 --> 00:47:19,510 almost like something embarrassing, 546 00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:21,510 something to be denied, not to be confronted. 547 00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:23,470 But here it's the opposite, of course. 548 00:47:23,560 --> 00:47:27,990 This public ceremony as people come and gather 549 00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:30,790 and say their farewells in a joyous way 550 00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:34,270 is altogether extraordinary, uplifting. 551 00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,590 And another body is arriving. 552 00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:41,310 You hear people chanting 553 00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:45,190 and bells ringing, carried by the family members. 554 00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:47,350 The great last journey. 555 00:47:47,440 --> 00:47:49,310 (BELLS RINGING) 556 00:47:51,160 --> 00:47:53,870 Holy Ganges water being poured over it. 557 00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,070 And in a moment now it will be taken to its logs, 558 00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:03,790 its pyre of logs, and it'll be cremated. 559 00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:08,230 The soul liberated, the soul sent on its way. 560 00:48:12,600 --> 00:48:16,750 And because it's happening here, of course, in Varanasi, 561 00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,910 the soul won't have to be reborn. It will return to God. 562 00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:22,510 Unity with the Almighty. 563 00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:24,870 So this is a glorious moment 564 00:48:24,960 --> 00:48:28,510 and you see the people, they're not sombre in particular. 565 00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:33,150 People watching, chatting, laughing. Terrific celebration, this. 566 00:48:33,240 --> 00:48:35,510 A public celebration of death. 567 00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:49,830 This last stage in the journey of the dead 568 00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:52,310 may be shocking to Western eyes, 569 00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:57,190 but to Hindus it is a joyful moment of the release of the soul. 570 00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:01,990 Varanasi's an astonishing explosion of emotion 571 00:50:02,080 --> 00:50:04,430 within a thrilling architectural setting 572 00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:08,190 that's transformed my perception of death. 573 00:50:08,280 --> 00:50:11,470 Before coming here, I saw death as something mysterious, 574 00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:15,430 terrifying, almost divine aberration. 575 00:50:15,520 --> 00:50:19,430 But having wandered round, it's all now very different. 576 00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:24,710 Here death is a thing of visual, sensuous beauty. 577 00:50:24,800 --> 00:50:28,470 It is a journey of liberation, a journey to be embraced.