Hinduism, Buddhism and Tourism

Thamel in Kathmandu - Backpacker Mecca.

Lots of Nepali people say Nepal has three main religions; Hinduism, Buddhism and Tourism.

I'd say we've experienced all three to some extent since we got to Nepal at the start of September.

We've spent endless hours visiting Hindu temples and shrines - from multi-roofed pagoda temples in Kathmandu's Durbar Square, to small orange-tika covered Shivalinga shrines at the roadside. Every morning, (mainly) women walk through the streets with plates of offerings - rice, tika powder, flowers and much else to leave at thier local temple as an offering to the gods. Later, in the evening people would go back to temple to make further offerings - sometimes singing the Gayatri Mantra as they light butter lamps and throw flowers onto the shrines. This is all fantastic to see and take part in, as we have many times.

At Buddhist Stupas, Chortens and Monastries, we've seen devotees wake up at first light for morning prayers, meditating and chanting the "Om mani padme hum" ('Hail to the jewel in the lotus' - Lord Buddha) Mantra. This is accompanied by the crash of cymbals and the blowing of (massive) horns. After, devotees would share a cup of yak butter tea and tsampa bread. The devotion shown by the monks and nuns is impressive.

In Pokhara, Nepal's second city, you are overwhelmed by Tourism. Every morning, devotees to this cause  wake up late, go to a "German" bakery* and order a croissant and coffee. Later, purged of the sins of the night before, followers would tour endless shops, bartering for special clothes, jackets, walking sticks - all with the mantra "The North Face" printed on them. Devotees knew that these clothes weren't "pukka", but they continued. They must look the same as each other.

We've definitely had chance to emerse ourselves in all of the above. Personally I feel the most empathy with (and I am most interested by) Hinduism, and plan to read and learn a lot more about it over the coming weeks.

We hope to be spending a few days in Bodhnath, a pilgrimage site for Buddhists next week, which will be really interesting, and we'll hopefully learn a lot more about Buddhism. Every time I think I understand something, I realise I really don't.

*Before coming to Nepal, I didn't know that Germany was famous for its pastries. A lot of places here really make a big deal about being German. Odd then that they serve loads of Croissants and Danish Pastries...

Dasain - or how I stopped worrying and learned to love the Kukri

Dasain is the biggest festival of the Nepali calendar running for 15 days throughout October. It is a primarily family affair, so we as mere tourists haven't seen all that much. Until today!

Today is the 8th day of a 15 day long festival and the start of big celebrations in the main square and around the town. Be warned, Dasain is a bloody festival. There are many sacrifices to the angry Goddess, Durga, she is a terrible incarnation of the much more pleasant Parvati.

Over the course of several days there are buffalo, goat, chicken and duck sacrifices with the blood being used in a ritualistic way to bless temples, shrines, cars, motorbikes and houses.

There was a ceremony today in a side square where the fearsome Gurkha soldiers are selected to sacrifice buffalo in the square to music and drums using their Kukri knife, which is also ceremonial. They have to slice of the head in one blow to show how hardcore they are.

Just in case we were unsure as to where to stand

We thankfully missed the ceremony, we heard the drums a little late and went round to see what the kerfuffle was about and found many, many (think 15/20) buffalo heads on the floor!

On the way to the square, we did witness a goat sacrifice. We saw the crowd, and joined them. There was one goat and 3 men holding it down. The man with the knife counted to 3 and.... BANG!!! 3 soldiers that we hadn't seen let off their guns into the air at the same time! I nearly had a heart attack, I did not expect that!

Goat with head still attached. We do have the after photo, but we thought it was a bit much!

In a less bloody ritual, families were queuing round the whole square and out into the street to offer puja (prayers and offerings) to the Gods in the main temple in the square. Women would carry their puja plate with all the different offerings of tika (red powder that is put on the forehead to symbolise the all seeing 3rd eye), food to feed the Gods, flowers (normally carnations), money, milk and a lit butter candle. All of these items are placed on the shrines and the person receives prasad (holy food) back from their offering to share with their family.

So many people que

An example of a Puja plate. Swastikas have been used in Hinduism for millenia, it means peace.

We joined in and offered our puja to Bhairab, another fearsome God that Nepali people seem to favour, he is the aggressive incrnation of Lord Shiva (the destroyer). We gained our Tika and threw small flowers in our hair and revelled in the holiday spirit!

Puja offered at a small shrine. Yep the red stuff at the top is blood...

Offerings that are left outside peoples houses are unceremoniously swept up into a pile, probably to be burnt later in the day...

We'd not seen the square so full, vibrant and happy. We can't wait to do it all again tomorrow!

A Weekend at Rewalsar Lake

We spent last weekend at a lake near Mandi called Rewalsar. The town is built around the lake, which is sacred to followers of Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism.

The legend goes that Padmasambhava (aka Guru Rinpoche) fell in love with a local princess (Mandarava), and the king, disapproving of the match decided to burn his daughter and Padmasambhava alive.

When the smoke cleared, the fire had been replaced with Rewalsar lake, with Mandarava and Padmasambhava sat on a large lotus flower in the centre of the lake. The king changed his mind about the match after this.

The legend goes that Padmasambhava then went on to travel from India to Tibet, and spread the Buddhist religion there. For this reason, he is revered by Tibetan Buddhists, and a large community of Tibetans have settled at Rewalsar. In 2012, an enormous (40m tall) statue of Padmasambhava was erected atop one of the Buddhist temples there.


This was one of the views from our guesthouse - they love a good statue in India.

Four of us (Jess, Karen, Melanie and I) went for a quiet weekend away, and we found it. Rewalsar is so peaceful and relaxing, it was great. We got up early Saturday for a walk around the lake, popping into the numerous small Hindu temples along the way.

We then took a taxi up to a cave above the town where Padmasambhava meditated. The cave is pretty far up the mountains, so the cloud is really thick - it looked like we were at the end of the world!

After a good lunch of Momos (Tibetan dumplings) we headed for another stroll around the lake. Jess, Melanie and I went up to see the Sikh Gurudwara, and were promptly invited to sit and listen to the music being performed, and to visit the community kitchen there (all Sikh temples are open 24/7, with free food offered to all from the community kitchen). We were completely full of Momos, but out of politeness also managed to eat a place of Rice and Dal there too (like that Vicar of Dibley episode, anyone?). We were made to feel very welcome, and we all left with a fuzzy feeling inside (and a lot of rice).

Offers of free food continued as we visited a local fete, hosted by the Tibetan community in the town. We found out much later that it was to celebrate the Dalai Lama's birthday. The whole community had got together to put on music, food and dancing, throughout the whole weekend.

We returned at dinner time - to see more of the festivities and take up the invitation of sharing dinner with the local monks. The girls were in full flow, dancing and generally entertaining the large number of teenage monks from the local monasteries. The whole place was alive with energy, and it seemed like the entire community had come together for the celebration. They welcomed us, despite forgetting to bring our own bowls ("This is a community, and the community will provide you!"), and we enjoyed a massive, spicy dinner of noodles and tsampa (doughy bread).

The weekend was really fun. It was nice being in  small group, without the fuss of lots of people, and suiting ourselves. We also found the people in Rewalsar to be really kind and friendly , which made it such a good weekend.