around the world in 180 days

All three photos are from the day we crossed the pass; as you can see, we were lucky and had wonderful weather. Enjoy!

We’ve been in Kathmandu for a total of 6 days now, between the first time we were here and the last few days, and before today, we hadn’t seen any of the cultural sites here. It’s almost shameful, until I remember that we’re americans and the only culture in the world that matters is ours. We’ve been drinking plenty of coca-cola, so we’re cool on that front.

We decided we’d better visit Pashupatinath anyway, as it is one of the holiest sites in all of Hinduism. It is a temple complex dedicated to Shiva, the creator and destroyer god, and it is also the place where Hindus cremate their dead. It is in active use and in the hour and a half we toured the complex, four bodies were either reduced to ashes or set aflame. It was both profoundly moving and disturbing at the same time; the emotions that the sight of a charred and smoldering human arm stir up are complicated and difficult to describe.

Death in India and Nepal is something that is confronted, not something that is prettied up by a mortician and displayed in false grandeur. The family members of the deceased wash the body in the holy river and cleanse him or her of all sin. For a man, his eldest son takes a torch in his hand (for a woman, it is her youngest son–if a person has no sons, it is their spouse or other close relative), walks around the funeral pyre three times, and places the flaming brand, which is made of red sandalwood, in the deceased’s mouth, setting the body and the wood beneath alight. It takes about 2-3 hours to completely burn a body, with women taking longer than men. Once the body is burned, the torch bearer shaves his hair, eyebrows and beard and dresses in white for 13 days, a period of mourning for their loved one. A woman whose husband has died will never remarry, their bangles and jewelry burn with their spouse and they are not allowed to wear red ever again.

Much of the rest of the temple complex is dedicated to fertility. There is a long series of temples all containing representations of divine genitalia, that of Shiva and his wife, whose name I can’t remember. Couples who cannot conceive travel here from all over the country and smear a combination of milk, honey, butter, sugar and something else on the statues and then drink it, believing it will make them fertile. Infertility can be a big problem for a couple in a rural area: people begin to talk after a couple of childless years of marriage, and they don’t say nice things.

All in all, it was a great experience, if somewhat disturbing. Glad we finally made it out of Thamel and into the real Kathmandu.

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We walked to Marpha yesterday, a town famous for its orchards, primarily apple, but also apricot and peach. All the hotels served apple pie and apple crumble, apple juice and apple cider and apple brandy, all of which Anna ... [Continue reading this entry]