A week of rest in Nepal
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2009
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2
39
Trip End
Mar 20, 2010
Kathmandu, Nepal, Nepal
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Nepal is a country of conflicts, with its political instability an issue for developing its infrastructure, economy and people, but with its geographical beauty and multi-faith harmony, the draw to tourists is obvious. Surrounded by many of the world's highest peaks, Kathmandu valley is at the heart of Nepali culture, with the city its centre. The misty sky silhoutted the calm of its mountainous skyline, while deep in its valley all hell seemed to have borken on its streets! The traffic is horrendous; polluting, constant horn-blowing and frightening. What's amazing is despite all the activity, the drivers themselves and the walking public all seem calm and unaffected!
The fog from choking traffic fumes was pierced by the beauty of a Nepalese women wearing beautifully bright & jewelled saris. The streets were all bustling with street sellers, market stalls, tiny shop fronts and snack barrows. Men humped disproportionately huge loads on their backs, rickshaw drives carried tourists, broken down motorbikes or wardrobes and children quietly behaved beside their working mothers. Real life in the raw and nobody exempt.
After a lunchtime coffe in the gloriously warm sun, I set off for Durbar Square thro' the tourist area of Thamel. It still has a charm of its own, selling wollen yak items, thangkas (Tibetan religious paintings), trekking gear, curios etc. Everywhere was a riot of colour and shop workers proudly swept their frontage, as they quietly hoped for a sale. The heart of the old town of the Square is an area where Kathmandu's royalty were crowned & housed in palaces, until the early 20th century. There are 47 different sights, including temples, towers, shrines, balconies, inscriptions, bells, drums and palaces and all reflecting the religious (Hindu & Buddhist) and cultural life of the Nepali people. In addition to the buildings and monuments, many festivals, cultural activites and tradtions continue to this day and people from all the city, country and world gather to celebrate. The carvings and architecture are superb, with a great deal of fine latticed wooden windows and door frames, all intricately carved.
I took a guide and concentrated well, focussing on the part played by King Rama, his wife Sita & hero Hanuman (winged monkey), along with the parts played by King Malla, Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva and Ganesh. Reincarnations , the 33,000 Hi8ndu gods and their protectors, all became a little blurred, so I was grateful for a quick side-swipe into a mandala (artistic geometrical/astrological representation of Buddha's path to enlightenment). They were stunning, as indeed were the prices, so my education continued with stories of nagas (serpent deities), the reason for displays of erotic (Tantric) art on supporting pillars and the building of temples from a single tree. I finally climbed 5 flights of stairs to see the Square from a rooftop. Probably of most poignancy was to learn about the Kumari Devi. The Kumari ghar was built in 1757 to house a living doddess, who is considered to be an incarnation of goddess Taleju. Continuing to this day, a girl between 4 and puberty is selected from a particular caste, must meet 32 physical requirements and undergo a variety of tests before being chosem . She moves into the building with her family and makes only 6 ceremonial occasions per year. Her time outside the ghar is very constrained, as indeed are her playmates and her term ends with her first period, when she reverts to normal status and a new Kumari si found. Behind a nearby gate, a chariot can be seen that caries the Kumari around the city.
I left the complex and watched 2 young girls make snacks for locals and thought I'd try. A handful of rice crispy lookalikes, dried peas, tomato, potato, cut green chilli & seeds, teaspoon of chilli powder, herbs & stir. Serve in a paper cone of old newspaper, with a square card made from a cigarette packet to use as a scoop. Delicious!
I left for Nepal's premier national park the following day and spent 6.5 hours on a bus to the southern Terai area of Nepal, going thro' some amazing countryside and very sheer drops around the mountains. Unfortunately one minibus had gone over the side just before we arrived at the spot. I was later to be told that these guys are under a lot of pressure to get as many trips in a day as they can muster. There were 6 people on board (which was quite minimal for the usual numbers in these vehicles) and there would have been no hope of any survivors. The Tiger Residency Resort hadn't been told of my booking and were full, so I was lucky to be placed in higher star accommodation next door. The park was established in 1973 and declared a World Heritage Site (WHS) in 1984. It has an area of 932 sq km, 56 mammals, 47 reptiles, 9 amphibians and 530 birds. Home to the one-horned rhgino and the endangered Royal Bengal tiger, it also has 4 deer & 2 monkey species, gaurs, marsh-mugger & gharial crocs, striped hyenas, kingfishers, green parakeets & blue-tailed bee-eaters.
During my time there I went to the government-funded elephant centre (used for the Army and local work), where the elephants seemd well looked after and took a canoe ride on the Budhi Rapti river. I saw beautfiul royal blue kingfishers, 2 kinds of stork, pied wagtails, house martins, peacocks and a marsh mugger. I went on a jungle wak, with a prep talk on running zig-zag across the field if rhino approached (serious stuff here, as many guides have been killed by rhinos & tigers, plus a few tourists!). The I visited a breeding conservation programme for elephants, wth approximately 18 elephants of varying ages. It's the first breeding centre in Asia, with great expense devoted to raising the young. It was here that I saw Nepal's first set of identical male twins (6 months), with their 5 year old sister and mother. I also had a ride on an elephant from our resort down to the river, where I went in the river with the elephant and helped to wash and scrub it all over! It absolutely loved it and sprayed water over us sitting on its back! We scrubbed them with stones, which all the other 18 - 20 elephants appeared to like, too, After taking a return ride on the elephant, I took a jeep safari for 5 hours into the park. We saw some one-horned rhinos, spotted deer, familits of macaques, another marsh-mugger and more kingfishers.
I went on to a crocodile breeding centre for gharial crocs. They're a freshwater species with a very long, narrow snout, like a long stick in front of their faces! Then I saw a tiger orphan centre with one beautiful tiger approx 3 year old. A great sunset trip over the river was followed by a show in the evening. The Tharu are indigenous people of the Terai regions and they put on a cultural show with folkdances and music. There were groups of guys performing stick dances performing tranditional movements, alongside drummers. They played drums and did the dance of the Holi Festival (mid March) called the dance of the colours, with a round drum at the centre, trimmed with bright colours & peacock feathers. Probably the most enjoyable part of the trip was the elephant safari the following morning for 3 hours. This took place in the forest and river areas, where many deer and wild boer were grazing. The mahout was such a small guy but very good at spotting wildlife, as he found a baby one-horned rhino and it mother and we were just so close - almost next to them! Another prize was suddenly coming into a wooded clearing and seeing a scene from Bambi - tons of spotted deer, troupes of monkeys & wild pigs, along with a good canopy contingent of birds. Clearly all were behaving in absolute harmony, until they saw us approaching and then they scarpered, just as they did for Walt Disney! The forest floor simply became an empty stage once more.
After returning to Kathmandu, I then set off for Nargakot, which is a village lying on the edeg of the Kathmandu valley, as it rises to meet the neighbouring Himalaya and offers the most sensational views of those superb ranges of hills! It was a great way to see the lush hills of the Nepal countryside and amazing views, while appreciating local village life as we went thro' several busy, bustling centres. We arrived as it got dark, so I couldn't fully appreciate my room until I woke pre-sunrise to see my views. I swept back huge curtains to reveal panoramic windows with a view to die for! I was perched on the edge of a hill, with nothing between me and the horizon. And was it some horizon! From Dhaulagiri in the west to Kanchenjunga & Mt Everest in the east, the centre of the peak views was occupied by Ganesh Himal (7406m), Langtang Lirung (7246m), Shisha Pangma (8,012m), Dorje Lakpa (6,975m) and Gauri Shankar (7146m) - a veritable feast of snow-capped peaks. What you could legitimately call icing on the cakes!!!
Never have I been so grateful for the collision of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate colliding with the Eurasian continent to create the Himalayas! Nepal has one-third of the length of the Himalayas and 10 of the world's 14 tallest mountains and my view needed to be seen as a group of massifs, rather than a solid wall of peaks, since there are passes in between (used by those accessing nearby borders over the years of trading and seeking asylum). At first my view was of stunning silhouettes, but as the sun rose, the Langtang range could be seen with lower mountain peak progressions, rising to the highest, brightest massifs of them all! I can't stress enough just how wide this view was and how much of the sky it took up!! We headed to a lookout tower on a high ridge for other views - all so unbelievable that you just couldn't grasp that they were actual mountains and not clouds!
Sadly, we had to leave Nagarkot to head for Bhaktapur - the third biggest town in the valley and known as the 'City of Rice or Devotees'. It was the most powerful of the 3 Malla kingdoms in the valley between the 14th and 16th century and has a paved Durbar Square with a host of temples and buildings, including an Erotic Elephant Temple, Ugrachandi & Hairabl stone lion statues, 4 temples making up the Char Dham, the King Bhupatindra Malla column, the Vatsala Durga Temple and Taleju Bell, Royal Palace, National Art Gallery, Chyasilim Mandap, Pashputinath Temple, Siddm Lakshmi Temple, Fasidega Temple & Tadhunchen Bahal. I came across a Nepal man dressed in a very frightening mask, yak hair and costume, who didn't take kindly to me taking a photograph of him. It transpired that he was undertaking a dance to ward off bad spirits from the gods! Taumodhi Tole is its second square with Nyatapola Temple (highest in Nepal with 5 storeys and great example of Newari architecture), plus another two of special note. The original square was probably Tachupal Tole, accessed thro' a labyrinth of alleys, lanes and courtyards. All were fantastic here, but Potters Square was nicely different, in that it's an area where pots have been made since 1646. It was a lovely area to visit, particularly as the German-funded development has restored many buildings and cobbled the streets. Traffic-free, it makes a stress-free visit and all the linking alleyways make it a pleasure to visit.
My next trip was to combine four sights of particular interest, starting in Dakshinkali, in the southern edge of the Kathmandu valley. The temple is dedicated to Kali, who is Shiva's consort. As Shiva is a creator and destroyer god (and the most important in Nepal), he needs to be placated, so sacrifices are made to the goddesses and to Kali. Uncastrated male animals are presented at the temple on Tuesdays and Saturdays and this was Saturday. We saw goats, chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep have their throats cut and/or heads cut off (carried out in a lower area of the temple thankfully out of view), with the blood flowing into the nearby stream, with Kali's image bathed in it. This was an incredible experience, as there were hundreds and hundreds of families bring sacrificial animals and dishes of flowers, ribbons, candles etc to the temples. Whole families lined the many stairways and bridges and the smell of incense pervaded the air. The whole place was a riot of stunning colour, as Nepalese women wear saris of every colour and hue. We returned up the path from the temple, which was lined with tense, caged livestock, sadhus (wandering Hindu holy men), tea stalls, sellers of sacrificial marigolds, coconuts & fruit, along with souvenir and snack stalls.
Patan was the next stop, via a stunning country road with forested hills along the route. We took a walking tour of the town, the second largest town in the valley, with its own Durbar Square fullof temples and a greater concentration of architrecture than Kathmandu or Bhaktapur. With more than 600 supas and 185 bahals (Buddhist monasteries) dotted around the backstreets, the walking tour was excellent. We saw temples, shrines, monasteries, old librarires, courtyards, megaliths, pools and more temples, pus the atmosphere was electric with local backstreets full of local life buzzing and bustling by.Durbar Square contained a number of templs, pools (for bathing and washing, statues, bell, a Royal Palace, the Keshav Naryan Chowk couryard, Patan museum, central Mul Chowk courtyard with its 3 Taleju temples, statues of the river goddess Ganga, a 5-storey temple, a triple-roofed Taleju temle and the smaller Sundari Chowk, containing a lovely carved, sunken water tank with a Royal Garden out of bounds. North of Durbar Square we saw the Golden Temple (Kwa Bahal) - an amazing Buddhist monastery with stunning inner courtyards of golden gods, with an inner courtyard containing a richly ornate temple with a golde roof with a bell-shaped top. The temple is incredibly ornate, with Lokeshvara statues and tortoise temple guardians. Finally, the Kumbeshwar temple was stunning - a huge compled used for locals, dating back frm 1392 and having lovely 5-storey temples and beautiful woodcarvings. The Uma Maheshwar temple was slightly disappointing, as there was no black stone relief of Shiva & Parvati in the UM pose. Maybe someone thought it shouldn't be seen, since it was supposed to be in a seductive pose!
It was then time to see Pashputinath, where Nepal's most important Hindu temple lies on the banks of the holy Bagmati River. It is also home to one of the most important Shiva temples on the subcontinent, with sadhus & devotees visiting from all over India. Unfortunately many of the temple buildings are not open to non-Hindus, but this was to be a fascinating visit. We couldn't see inside much of the temple complex containing the Pashputinath temple and the nearby Panch Deval series of 5 temples, but we were to see and learn a great deal more by the riverbanks of the Bagmati. As it's a holy river, many choose to be cremated here. There were 6 creamation ghats on the south side of the bridge for 'common' deaths, so these were particularly busy. I saw 3 bodies burning and one man only wrapped in an orange cloth on a bamboo stretcher, lying with his bare feet in the water (supposed to heal his soul before cremation). He would have had his orange cloth removed before being wrapped in white for his cremation.
There are several Arya Ghats (burning ghats) in front of the temple, north of all the footbridges, where royalty are cremated and where ritual bathing takes place in the river (it was here that 10 members of the Nepalese royal family were cremated after Crown Prince Dipendra shot his father and mother (King & Queen) before turning the gun on himself). We watched the preparation and pre-cremation of a Newari young male (about 30) and learned of the process involved. It seems people are usually cremated within ½ hours of their death. Family members wear white and all attend the cremation. First the body is laid on a sloping brick 'table' where milk and water is poured down from the temple thro' pipes, that comes out on to a table canopy, where the body is washed. The body is transferred to a central preparation area halfway down the ghat steps to the river, where a host of processes take place on the body: washing, oiling, perfuming, rubbing and pressing. The head is prepared and a long 4" wide 'life scroll' (of the deceased's deeds, good and bad) is wrapped around the head.
Each family group drapes the body with a different orange cloth, after the initial white robes have been wrapped. Flowers are placed on top before the next family group , with the process repeated until all have laid over the body. A final rich red and orange cloth is then draped (presumably by the close family) with more flowers. Women then cry/wail and leave the gathering to return home, while the males finish the preparation and transfer the body to a bamboo stretcher. This is then carefully transferred by the men to the actual cremation ghat site where the body is turned on the stretcher three times, before finally being laid. Then all the coloured cloths are removed and thrown into the river and a flare lights the logs under the body. As this is a wealthy family, they could afford to use sandalwood, which also helps to produce a more pleasant smoke. All Hindus are very happy to die this way, altho' pregnant women and children are buried. It's incredible how everyone takes it for granted and nobody squirms or shows any particular emotion.
What is bizarre about the process, is that people are burned with their jewelry and after cremation, all the ashes are swept into the Bagmati. It's then that the children come along with magnets on a long string, determined to find coins and gold! Our guide told us that all locals come here, as Saturday is holy day and it makes a cheap 'day out' on their one day off a week! It seems they all gain great comfort and spiritual wellbeing from the experience! We didn't have time to visit the other temples, but we watched the cremation service from opposite the other temples on the western embankment, where 11 stone chailyas (small stupas) each contain a lingam (phallic symbol of Shiva's creative powers). It was all quite moving.
I was keen to see Bodhnath, home to one of the world's largest stupas and home to a very large population of Tibetan exiles and Tibetan (& foreign) monks. The religious centre for all these people, it's one of the few places in the world where Tibetan culture is vibrant, accessible and thriving! There are gleaming monastery roofs, shops full of thangkas,paintings, Tibetan Buddhist chanting music and Tibetan texts, plus yak butter! As we arrived, police poured out of vehicles with riot shields and entered thro' the gates to the area, to stand on the side of the kora walkway around the stupa. The whole pilgrim population (it seems) were walking the kora, with many, many monks by their sides. They were all holding lit candles (butter lamps) and chanting while they circumambulated the stupa. I took a paper handed to me by a monk, outlining Tibet's current plight and the role of the Chinese. It was very poignant. We watched as prayer services were held in the surrounding gompas before all the monks and others wishing to join in ,continued their circumambulation , while the police observed. Since the Maoist presence in the government, the Nepalese have been careful to appease the Chinese!
It was now time to prepare for my big event - Everest!
