There were two funerals that day. The first was a military funeral, replete with honor guard, brass band, and attendance by a a politician/entourage with enough celebrity to draw quite a crowd of locals. I do not know who he was, I only know he was not this man, Prachanda, former Maoist guerrilla leader and former Prime Minister, the only Nepali political figure I could hope to recognize on sight. The crowd, mourners, politicians and soldiers, and together with the idle watchers, dispersed shortly after the pyre was lit. I admit I was surprised that the time of observance would be so short, but then remembered that in western funerals, too, most memorializing and remembrance of the deceased comes before the burial.
In this image, the second man is prepared for his funeral rites as smoke from the first pyre fills the sky. In the foreground, in the river, can be seen the remains of a previous cremation.
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