Today is a day of many and varied sights - mountains, villages, rice fields, a Living Goddess and much more. A veritable feast for the senses.
Today we were up before the crack of dawn to go to the airport for our “Mountain Express” flight along the southern face of the Himalayan mountain range. The plane had three seats across but they did not place anyone in the aisle seats...everyone had a window seat to see the mountains. The flight flew east about as far as Mt. Everest and then turned around and flew back. It was really awesome. We saw the Himalays four times from planes: this flightsee, and commercial airlines from Pokhara to Kathmandu, Kathmandu to Paro (Bhutan), and Paro to Delhi (India). All gave awesome views.
After breakfast we headed out to see two old nearby villages,
Bungumati and Khokana, that have not seen much modernization. The streets were narrow and windy and livestock was roaming everywhere, including cows, goats, ducks and chickens.
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| Typical street in Bungumati |
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| Drying corn and garlic |
Making a Mandala for the festival
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| Khokana |
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| Water reservoir in Khokana |
Playing Cricket
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| Rice Drying |
In one of the villages we came upon a festival going on. It was fun watching the dancers and listening to the music.
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| Doing the dishes |
It was New Year’s Eve on the Lunar Calendar
and everyone was celebrating the Festival of Light. As part of the celebration the women were
cleaning everything in sight. It is a thankless
and endless job as the streets are so dusty and the newly scrubbed front steps
seemed to attract dust.
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| Rice drying in the square |
In addition, it was also rice harvest season so many women
were seen raking the drying rice and separating the grains from the chaff
tossing the mix into the air for the breeze to blow away the lighter bits of chaff.
In the meantime, since it was a holiday, the men were seen
sitting around playing cards.
Not often do you see a sign pointing the way to a goddess.
And we actually visited the Living Goddess and were blessed by her in Patan, a town very close to Kathmandu. There are several Living Goddesses in Nepal. These kumari, or "living goddesses," are pre-pubescent girls considered to be the earthly manifestations of divine female energy, incarnations of the goddess known as Taleju, the Nepalese name for Durga. The one we visited is only 7 years old. The Living Goddess is handpicked by a council of high priests based on rigorous criteria, including that she must be healthy, dark-eyed and dark-haired with no physical imperfections, and be a Buddhist. She is worshipped by Hindus and some Buddhists. They retire upon puberty, as that is when the goddess vacates her body.
Nepal is loaded with World Heritage Sites and our next one
was the Great Boudhanath Stupa. It is 141 feet (43.25
meters) high and the area is 120 feet in diameter. It was jaw-dropping and the “Buddha Eyes”
near the top had us convinced that Buddha really is watching everyone all the
time.
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| Buddha is Watching You - Great Boudhanath Stupa |
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| Great Boudhanath Stupa |
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