Kathmandu, March 23 -- There is a deep continuous wailing, punctuated occasionally by the resonance of a single high-pitched conch. Amid the sonorous tolling of large brass bells, at the Pashupatinath temple's Brahmanal, ghat number two, Chandra Dhakal prods a funeral pyre with a long, green bamboo stick. Despite the noise, Chandra is as silent as the Bagmati River, where more pyres float slowly down its murky waters.

It takes an average of three hours for a body to burn completely. In that time, more bodies keep coming in to the Bramhanal, where they are washed with holy water before being taken to other ghats to burn. The atmosphere echoes with the wailing of relatives as they pour water and flowers over the lifeless bodies of their lo...