Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

The holy city of Varanasi, with its temples and ashrams, attracts many devotees. Pilgrims and seekers come from all over the world to pray and purify themselves by the banks of the Ganges River. It is also a gathering place for the locals to bath, swim, pray, do their laundry and hold cremation ceremonies for their dead at the Ghats, burning them on pyres and scattering their ashes in it?s holy waters. What is striking about this picture is that it captured devotion, which is something very rare. She was not aware of my presence and therefore, truly in her element and in the rapture of prayer. It was sunrise, and the rays of the morning?s first light were coming up behind her, illuminating her wet clothing and her skin. She was beautiful.