Today we set off to see some more temples. First we went to see the Buddhanath stupa, the largest Buddhist stupa in the world. Quite similar to yesterday but bigger!
After spending about two hours at the Stupa, we walked half an hour to another site, the Hindu temple Pashupatinath.
This is one of the most significant places in the world for Hindu worship. We walked for a while and came to the Bagmati river which cuts through the space. We could smell bonfire and wondered what was going on so we walked up the bank towards the river.
Concrete blocks lined the river and on two blocks about ten spaces apart was a mound of reids and wood. A Nepalise guy came over and explained that this was the place of cremation for Hindu's and on closer inspection, we could see the body in the middle of all the reeds. It was strange. Really really strange. The wind changed direction and the smoke was pluming right into our faces....we were breathing in this burning dead person?? I know it's not as basic as that but it really was a strange event to behold. We stood mesmorised at the open cremetorium, not knowing what to say.
We continued walking high up on the hill, dismissing the many many people trying to sell things to us. Luke left my side for about thirty seconds and when he turned around a Hindu guy dressed in orange robes with long grey hair and blessed me, crushed some flowers in my hair, marked my forhead in red ink and tied a bracellet around my arm. He then asked luke for 200rupees...Luke gave him 50 and told him to bugger off!!
We came back to our lovely guest house and had drinks again with Sabin, Meoko and Amit. Meoko is from Tokyo and we asked her about the disaster last year. It was surreal listening to her explaination of the events. She said for three months solid aftre the earth quake they would feel up to ten tremors a day, reminding everyone of what had happened and stirring fear once again.
She also said after Fukishima she, and many other people felt very odd. She explained that they would feel stabbing pains around their diaphragm area, which is one of the key symptoms of being exposed to radiation.She also said people slept and slept, having no energy. She said it was a very strange time.
We both spoke about it later when we got back to our room and thought about how lucky we are to have never encountered such a problem. We often say that we have no stories to tell and we spend our time listening intently to other people...we then realised we are actually really lucky to have nothing to tell because it means we live in quite a normal and peaceful place.
Especially listening to Amit and Sabeen talking about Nepal, its corruption and the difficulty the citizens have in obtaining a visa to travel anywhere else in the world. We are so so lucky to be Irish and to have all the opportunities handed to us, opportunities that so many people dream of.
 |
| There is always a crazy amount of pigeons that gather at the Stupas |
This is one of the most significant places in the world for Hindu worship. We walked for a while and came to the Bagmati river which cuts through the space. We could smell bonfire and wondered what was going on so we walked up the bank towards the river.
 |
| open cremetorium |
Concrete blocks lined the river and on two blocks about ten spaces apart was a mound of reids and wood. A Nepalise guy came over and explained that this was the place of cremation for Hindu's and on closer inspection, we could see the body in the middle of all the reeds. It was strange. Really really strange. The wind changed direction and the smoke was pluming right into our faces....we were breathing in this burning dead person?? I know it's not as basic as that but it really was a strange event to behold. We stood mesmorised at the open cremetorium, not knowing what to say.
 |
| there were monkeys everywhere! |
 |
| sun setting over Pashupatinath |
We came back to our lovely guest house and had drinks again with Sabin, Meoko and Amit. Meoko is from Tokyo and we asked her about the disaster last year. It was surreal listening to her explaination of the events. She said for three months solid aftre the earth quake they would feel up to ten tremors a day, reminding everyone of what had happened and stirring fear once again.
She also said after Fukishima she, and many other people felt very odd. She explained that they would feel stabbing pains around their diaphragm area, which is one of the key symptoms of being exposed to radiation.She also said people slept and slept, having no energy. She said it was a very strange time.
We both spoke about it later when we got back to our room and thought about how lucky we are to have never encountered such a problem. We often say that we have no stories to tell and we spend our time listening intently to other people...we then realised we are actually really lucky to have nothing to tell because it means we live in quite a normal and peaceful place.
Especially listening to Amit and Sabeen talking about Nepal, its corruption and the difficulty the citizens have in obtaining a visa to travel anywhere else in the world. We are so so lucky to be Irish and to have all the opportunities handed to us, opportunities that so many people dream of.
No comments:
Post a Comment