By Linda Herrick in The New Zealand Herald
Before you drink from a skull, you must first find the right corpse.
Thus begins The Lady Twilight, a chapter in British writer William Dalrymple's latest book, Nine Lives, which profiles the multi-faceted spiritual paths of nine people in India.
The collection opens with the story of a lovely young Jain nun slowly starving herself to death, an ascetic who carries a peacock fan to gently brush the path ahead so she will never hurt a living creature. The Lady Twilight, on the other hand, depicts the Bauls, devotees of the tantric goddess Tara, who appears to have an insatiable appetite for blood sacrifice.
To meet Tara's followers, Dalrymple, who has lived near New Delhi for more than 20 years, had to enter her holy place, a cremation ground populated by mad and marginalised people at Tarapith in Bengal.
"Tarapith is an eerie place, with a sinister reputation," he writes.
Read Linda Herrick's full piece at NZH.
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