Saturday 20 April 2013
Durbar Square in Kathmandu and the anniversary party.
Saturday 20th April
Today we went on a visit to the major cultural site in Kathmandu, Durbar Square. It is completely unlike anywhere I have been before. It is an enormous square surrounded by palaces, each with many courtyards within its walls. Nepal has been a democracy since about 2005. Prior to that there were always kings. In 2001, the crown prince fell out with his parents over his choice of a bride so he shot and killed the whole family before killing himself. His uncle took the throne but almost immediately gathered in the power to make himself an absolute monarch. The people rebelled especially the Maoist faction and there were many deaths before peace was restored. The Maoists are still agitating for more change.
Anyway, the centre of the square is chock full of huge temples, each belonging to a different god and I'm afraid that it was overload and I lost track of all the names, though I remember that Annapurna, like the mountain, means goddess with pot full of silver. There was one temple which had erotic carvings inside which were meant to deflect lightening from the temple. Lightening is the earthly form of the virgin goddess and she wouldn't want to see the carvings. However, although the temple was not open to the general public, you could go in if you were ”tantrically initiated" so that ruled me out. There was a temple to the monkey god and yes, I saw a monkey eating the offerings. It was a special holy day today to the god of rain and there was a huge pole with decorations on it on a great cart with large wooden wheels which was being pulled by water buffalo. There were lots of marigolds, rice and stuff I couldn't recognise being sold as offerings to the various gods. Also you could poke a bamboo stick into various street fires to give you good luck and long life, so I had a poke in as many fires as I could. However, apparently I didn't do it correctly as I didn't stir it round enough. I was actually afraid of singeing my hair. In one courtyard we saw the ritual slaughtering post where 54 water buffalo and 54 goats are slaughtered for sacrifice by beheading. 108 is a sacred number. What did they do with the carcasses? We found out when we walked through the market. There are of course many people hawking jewellery and purses etc in the square and they do not take no for an answer. One old woman had just one necklace to sell and followed us for the best part of twenty minutes. The price went down from 500 to 100 rupees in that time but we weren't interested. Finally she said, " crazy people" and stomped off. So full marks for good English.
When temple fatigue set in, we walked through the bazaar and then the market. Cashmere prices are fantastically low once you have haggled and there are lots of brass ornaments, sandals, saris, spices etc. The market is very basic. The butchers seem to have one big lump of meat, buffalo or goat, and they cut you a chunk off. Flies are a free, optional extra. There are also big baskets of all sorts of dried fish, as of course Nepal is far from the sea. But the fruit and vegetables are varied and really fresh.
Barbara bought some knitting wool for the girls at the orphanage. I had been asked to take some knitting needles over, which I did, but then we discovered they had no wool.
In the evening we went to the 13th Anniversary of the Orphanage at a hotel. Lots of local dignitaries were clapped and honoured with colourful scarves. We had no idea what was going on and were hugely embarrassed when our names were called out and we had to go up on the podium and be presented with scarves. We had decided to go in dresses and immediately regretted it as we were the only women there showing our legs and they made no effort to disguise looking us up and down. I don't think they were particularly disapproving but were surprised to see women with their legs on show. I had had taken a shawl with me so spent most of the evening draping in front of my legs.
The girls did their lovely dancing, the boys did their judo and there were lots and lots of speeches. However we did get an unexpected glass of wine to help things along. Suddenly we were called up again to receive a brass engraved dish on behalf of Saga. By this time, Barbara had her ceremonial scarf wound round her neck and trapped in her handbag and was struggling to get away from it.
I need to say how lovely and welcoming all the hosts were and how friendly everyone was. Lots of people made a special effort to come over and talk to us in English and we did feel like honoured guests.
Am still apparently not getting my photos posted correctly so I will try another way. Please let me know if its still not happening and I will send them to Facebook.
Today we went on a visit to the major cultural site in Kathmandu, Durbar Square. It is completely unlike anywhere I have been before. It is an enormous square surrounded by palaces, each with many courtyards within its walls. Nepal has been a democracy since about 2005. Prior to that there were always kings. In 2001, the crown prince fell out with his parents over his choice of a bride so he shot and killed the whole family before killing himself. His uncle took the throne but almost immediately gathered in the power to make himself an absolute monarch. The people rebelled especially the Maoist faction and there were many deaths before peace was restored. The Maoists are still agitating for more change.
Anyway, the centre of the square is chock full of huge temples, each belonging to a different god and I'm afraid that it was overload and I lost track of all the names, though I remember that Annapurna, like the mountain, means goddess with pot full of silver. There was one temple which had erotic carvings inside which were meant to deflect lightening from the temple. Lightening is the earthly form of the virgin goddess and she wouldn't want to see the carvings. However, although the temple was not open to the general public, you could go in if you were ”tantrically initiated" so that ruled me out. There was a temple to the monkey god and yes, I saw a monkey eating the offerings. It was a special holy day today to the god of rain and there was a huge pole with decorations on it on a great cart with large wooden wheels which was being pulled by water buffalo. There were lots of marigolds, rice and stuff I couldn't recognise being sold as offerings to the various gods. Also you could poke a bamboo stick into various street fires to give you good luck and long life, so I had a poke in as many fires as I could. However, apparently I didn't do it correctly as I didn't stir it round enough. I was actually afraid of singeing my hair. In one courtyard we saw the ritual slaughtering post where 54 water buffalo and 54 goats are slaughtered for sacrifice by beheading. 108 is a sacred number. What did they do with the carcasses? We found out when we walked through the market. There are of course many people hawking jewellery and purses etc in the square and they do not take no for an answer. One old woman had just one necklace to sell and followed us for the best part of twenty minutes. The price went down from 500 to 100 rupees in that time but we weren't interested. Finally she said, " crazy people" and stomped off. So full marks for good English.
When temple fatigue set in, we walked through the bazaar and then the market. Cashmere prices are fantastically low once you have haggled and there are lots of brass ornaments, sandals, saris, spices etc. The market is very basic. The butchers seem to have one big lump of meat, buffalo or goat, and they cut you a chunk off. Flies are a free, optional extra. There are also big baskets of all sorts of dried fish, as of course Nepal is far from the sea. But the fruit and vegetables are varied and really fresh.
Barbara bought some knitting wool for the girls at the orphanage. I had been asked to take some knitting needles over, which I did, but then we discovered they had no wool.
In the evening we went to the 13th Anniversary of the Orphanage at a hotel. Lots of local dignitaries were clapped and honoured with colourful scarves. We had no idea what was going on and were hugely embarrassed when our names were called out and we had to go up on the podium and be presented with scarves. We had decided to go in dresses and immediately regretted it as we were the only women there showing our legs and they made no effort to disguise looking us up and down. I don't think they were particularly disapproving but were surprised to see women with their legs on show. I had had taken a shawl with me so spent most of the evening draping in front of my legs.
The girls did their lovely dancing, the boys did their judo and there were lots and lots of speeches. However we did get an unexpected glass of wine to help things along. Suddenly we were called up again to receive a brass engraved dish on behalf of Saga. By this time, Barbara had her ceremonial scarf wound round her neck and trapped in her handbag and was struggling to get away from it.
I need to say how lovely and welcoming all the hosts were and how friendly everyone was. Lots of people made a special effort to come over and talk to us in English and we did feel like honoured guests.
Am still apparently not getting my photos posted correctly so I will try another way. Please let me know if its still not happening and I will send them to Facebook.
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