Thursday 9. february 2012

On thursday the rain had finally stopped and full of optimism and excitement we embarked upon our first field trip to two temples in Kathmandu. One hindu and one buddhist.
The first temple was the Pashupatinath which spreads over a large area with many different buildings and a river running through. We walked around the area in small groups, answering questions with the help from local visitors. Actually we didn't need to address people in order to get help with the questions, most people adressed us long before. Some of them were just local people or other tourists being interested in us and wanting to say hello and help us. Some of them were trying to sell us something; jewellery, flowers, Tikka for the forehead, guided tours or even a photography together with a monk.
A few meters away from all the salesmen were a lot of platforms alongside the river where dead people were cremated. We walked very close to the fires, smelled the smoke and ashes and saw different bodyparts sticking out of the flames. All in all that was a very strong and also strange experience and I think we all came to a closer understanding of hinduism and its meaning in Nepal.
After a couple of hours we withdrew from all the people and went up the hill to have a delicious lunch prepared and packed by the platform kitchen. There we could eat almost alone, only disturbed by a few hungry monkeys, a deaf man and a wedding party.
Then we went to see the buddhist temple, or stupa, Boudhanat. This was quite a lot smaller than the hindu one, and the temple itself was only one building in the middle of a kind of courtyard. A large white pagoda with a small tower on top with Buddhas characteristic eyes looking out on (and for) all of us. A kind british guy our age discretely hinted us that we were about to walk counterclockwise around the pagoda instead of clockwise as one should.
There were just as many people, and many more tourists, there than at Pashupatinath, but nonetheless this seemed much less chaotic and crowded, and much more peacefull and calm. It's such a cliche - european youth comming to the east and being fascinated by buddhism, but this place really seemed special. Jinita arranged for us to visit a monastery connected to the temple, where we met an old and very kind monk, who blessed us by saying our name and binding a red and yellow silk string around our neck. This was also a very strong experience and right now I can't really decide whether to take the string off my neck or not - it'll be interesting to see if I stille have it on on monday reading this aloud to the morning meeting.
I think this day showed us a lot about buddhism and hinduism, and for various reasons I would really like to go back to both temples during our three weeks left. However this all seemed to have been enough spirituality for one day and the rest of the afternoon and evening was spent sleeping and packing for the weekend in Pokhara ...and of course on playing a bit of table tennis.