Running for, due to a variety of time zone changes, roughly three days with naps and coffees we have finally reached our destination in Kathmandu. The flight from Delhi to Kathmandu was absolutely amazing this morning. Beginning with a dusty dawn take-off in Delhi, we slowly rose above the haze until we reached our cruising altitude. What was most amazing, though, was that at this altitude we began to see the crest of the Himalayas crowning just above the clouds. After landing and a brisk trip through customs, we embarked upon one of the most fascinating vehicular rides in my life. Streets crowded with bikes, motorcycles, people… shops and banners line the city streets. The smell of food, curry especially, lingers over the whole of the city. Men and women sell the work of their labor in the streets, and statues, masks, foods, spices, teas…
The Guest House itself is absolutely wonderful; it possesses huge open areas, and despite the noise of the street remains consistency quiet. The view from the fourth floor balcony is quite good despite not being particularly high, and in the distance, I can see the mountains which encircle the city, but they remain in a haze omnipresent this time of year due to monsoon season. The temperature is warm, but not overly so, and it is certainly not humid.
We spent part of the afternoon walking around the city. This is like a place I want to live; it’s so alive. There remains everywhere; despite the presence of modernity, it still holds on to something that it has possessed since its earliest days as a trading center on the Silk Road.
That’s it for now. Later tonight we will be meeting with our internship coordinator, and hopefully I’ll be able to hammer down details with my internship. If that fails, however, I’ll probably end up at the Whitefield School assisting in English lessons, but I really hope that the first one, the one at Shtrii Shakti, works. I’m excited to be doing something that so represents my values.
June 13
Today we began our role, hopefully short-lived, as the typical tourists. With cameras ablaze, we set forth into the city in our bus tour, traveling from spot to spot and flashing and photographing all the way. It. was. wonderful. I love this city-the sights, the sounds (drivers drive by noise rather than vision; it's fascinating) and most importantly the smells- and today we got to see a large portion of it. We began our day traveling to a Buddhist Stuppa, which is a large, dome-shaped outdoor temple, surrounded by a series of spinning cylinders, each of which contains a specific prayer. The devotion holds that devotees circumvent the stuppa in a clockwise manner, and continually spin each of the prayer wheels.
Then, we went to the temple of Shiva, the Hindu god who is the deity of the city. Shiva is the creator, destroyer, and protector of the universe. He created the world when he danced, and when the destructive forces of the world outweigh the creative, the world must be destroyed and started anew (according to Hindus, this cycle has continued forever and will continue forever as time remains constantly cyclical. Near the temple, there ran a river, a small, nearly empty river, but a life-giving, and in some senses life-taking one nonetheless, and right on the banks the reverent worshippers cremated their dead and then pushed their ashes into the river. What remains most fascinating is the openness and acceptance of death in the Hindu faith as just another element within the cycle of birth, death, and re-birth. Death serves as a liberation, shedding this life for the next one.
From here, we went to Buddhanat, the largest stuppa in Nepal, which also serves as a main gathering point for Tibetan Buddhist monks. Monasteries litter the nearby area, with twenty or so (rather smaller than the ones with which we are familiar) in a five-mile radius. Seeing the child-monks especially was powerful; to commit to such a path at such a young age puts us indecisive college students to shame.
That, for the most part, is a fair recount of the adventures of our day. The plans for the newxt few weeks stand as such: two weeks here in Kathmandu, two weeks in Pokhara, one week in Kathmadu/Pokhara, and then a week in Delhi. My plan right now is as such: two weeks with Shtrii Shakti in Kathmandu, at least one week with its sister organization in Pokhara, some time trekking, some time in a Buddhist monastery (with a subsequent stint in a Benedictine monastery, i.e. St. John's Abbey, when I return to the states), and then a tour of northern India, primarily in Delhi/Jaipur. I'm not sure how or if I'll be posting pictures, but when I can figure it out, I'll let you know.
Namaste.
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