KATHMANDU — White smoke billowed over the banks of the Bagmati River running through the Nepalese capital. A Hindu funeral ritual was underway, in which the deceased were washed in the sacred river before being cremated and their ashes returned to the water. As victims of the devastating floods continued to arrive, the smoke had grown noticeably thicker over the past several days. On Tuesday, a week after the devastating floods, the Hankook Ilbo visited the Pashupatinath Temple on the eastern outskirts of Kathmandu. The site was shrouded in smoke, with bodies being cremated at 11 of the temple’s 12 cremation platforms. Soon, another body, covered in orange cloth, arrived on a stretcher. Family members removed the deceased’s clothes and carefully washed the body in the river. Firewood crackled and flames rose into the air. It was a final farewell. Pashupatinath Temple, one of the world’s most renowned Hindu pilgrimage sites, is dedicated to Shiva, the god associated with destruction and regeneration. An Indian man who had lost family members in the floods struggled to hold back his