the pashupatinath temple

we walk past vendors with the popular yellow chrysanthemums and entre the uneven grounds of the pashupatinath temple, a hindu temple of the lord shiva on the bagmati river. as non-hindus we do not enter the temple, but instead briefly explore the area. 

below the temple is the arya ghat, a widely used cremation site. what was obviously once a flowing river is dried up this day.  boney cattle roam the soggy river bed, and a monkey scrounges for bits of dropped food. they are not the only scroungers though. two young boys are also loading onto an old rusted cart, chunks of burned wood that had been used in the cremations. i don’t know what the boys will use or sell the wood for, but it is obvious that this task is the result of the poverty they live with and in. i look at a skinny, almost hairless dog and wonder about its life. this place is hard to be in…

as we sit on the bank opposite the temple, we witness three cremations at different stages of completion.  the fire is mesmerizing and i think about what the mourners of the deceased are thinking as they go through what seems to be an elaborate process of bidding farewell to the fleshly existence of their friend or family member….

nepal is one of the poorer countries in the world, and it is a hard place for me to be. i  learn to become “hard”, to ignore the pleading of beggars, to not think about the young men asleep on the pavement that we step over on the way  to a restaurant, to act in a way that i think of as rude when confronted by aggressive vendors from the kashmir region.  i shall not forget this place. i will keep sharp memories of the dirt and dust, the poverty, the noise and the chaos of the lanes and roads. i will also smile when i think about the buddhist vendors (easily recognizable by their soft manners), the frequent power outages, and when i think about the garden of our guesthouse, a little oasis in a foreign land….

and a little friend we made who lives at the guesthouse…

the stupa of boudhanath

we spend a day in kathmandu seeing some of the sites. the morning calls us to the white stupa of boudhanath, founded in the 6^th century. the eyes on the stupa is one of the famous sites of kathmandu. the air is already hot and dusty. even the shade offers only brief relief, as we walk with many other pilgrims clockwise around the stupa reverently touching the many prayer wheels.  

inside the walls, i am drawn to the bowls of gold flowers.

the flags are worn and paper thin. i love their randomness…

here and there, there are little gems to be seen….

i  also seem to be drawn to animals on this trip, and even here, inside the walls of the stupa, i find two cute pups quietly playing as their mother sleeps not too far away.

i find a shop full of buddhist singing bowls and buy one to bring home. when ringed with a special mallet, these bowls create beautiful tones which can be used for medication and for healing.

i sit on the concrete step as k. and m. as they explore a temple. wishing for a breeze, i watch people –  the school children, old wrinkled ladies, families with young barefoot children, and the oiccasional caucasion tourist – and marvel at the mix of people here.

k. and m. emerge from the little building with cream coloured scarves around their necks. they are followed by a young buddhist monk who drapes my neck with another of the scarves as he gives me a blessing….what a morning….

the elephants

through the window i catch a glimpse of elephants climbing out of the river and an involuntary “ahh” escapes my lips. there is something special to me these creatures, and this is the first time i have seen one in real life.

i had been under the impression that we would be visiting the elephant hospital/conservatory, but this is not to be. instead we are visiting a “working” elephant farm. previous to 1990, elephants were used to log the rain forests of thailand, and in 1989 a ban on logging displaced numerous elephants that had once been used as work animals. the farm we visit is a tourist attraction to show how these elephants once used their size and remarkable trunk agility to move and stack timbers.

i sit away from the others as we watch the mahouts guide the elephants into the river to take their morning bathes. the sunlight dappling through the trees, and the seeming pleasures as the elephants spray themselves with the cool water tickles my heart. what i would give to be able to be in the river playing with them….

afterward the show commences with the mahouts guiding the creatures through the routines to demonstrate how the elephants would have been used in the logging process. i pay little attention to the show, preferring instead to watch the littlest one off to the side scrounge through some branches and leaves with its trunk in search of some edible goodies.

later i purchase some bananas and feed a couple of the pachyderms through a fence. i laugh at the warning “if bananas drop in front of the elephant, so not attempt to pick them up”. seeing the voracious appetite of the animals, i could just imagine what would happen should a human reach for the food at the same time… 

k. feeding a little one some bananas

definitely one of the highlights of the trip, the visit to the farm leaves me conflicted. seeing elephants used as performers, even in this context, is somewhat saddening. this unease is even more pronounced around the creatures who have chains attached, and whose mahouts carry sharp-bladed guiding implements. yet, if not for places such as these, what would become of the numerous elephants displaced from the work they once did?

i ask myself why it concerns me that these animals are used as work animals when the use of oxen or horses doesn’t bother me at all. i don’t know the answer. it has to do with an inexplicable feeling deep inside. i do know that i do want to visit the animal hospital/conservatory    www.elephantnaturepark.org/index.htm   one day.  founded by a young thai woman with a deep love of these creatures, this is a place that gives me some joy, not as much as seeing the creaures returned to their natural habitat would provide of course, but that is not an option these days. there is not enough forest left for them to return to….