Monasteries, monsoons, and momos

My few days in Kathmandu were spent amid all of the above. The monsoon season has continued un-seasonally late this year so the heavens open up every afternoon for a downpour. Except on Monday when they stayed open for 24 hours resulting in plenty of mushy mud, mess and mayhem

On Saturday I went on a spiritual tour of Kathmandu with my own personal Bob Marley look-alike guide. He spoke good English and was a devout Buddhist so I learnt a great deal of their philosophies.

Our first stop was at Pashupatinath Monastery, dedicated to the god Shiva, it is one of Nepals most sacred monasteries, revered by both Hindus and Buddhists and dates back to the 12^th century. Shiva is regarded as the supreme self who delivers humans from worldly afflictions.

It is a World heritage Area and also happenes to be the main funerary site for Nepalis.

Located on the edge of Kathmandu on the banks of the Bagmati River, in front of the temple are large ghats where cremations take place 24/7.

Although cremations contain a lot of rituals, they are generally very matter of fact, business like affairs without much display of emotion.

The deceased is delivered to the site on a litter by family or mortuary vehicle within hours of their demise wrapped in a saffron coloured cloth.

The eldest son carries out the majority of the rituals which include undressing the deceased from under the cloth (the clothes were hurled into the river) washing the feet to cleanse the mortal remains (the spirit has already left the body at death). The body is then laid on a pyre built of logs and containing chunks of butter and other heat accelerants. The eldest son lights the pyre and the body is covered with long grasses. Each cremation takes about 2-3 hours and the ashes are then swept into the river to return the body to the earth.

While there is little emotion shown , it didn’t feel quite right being a tourist site and the pall of smoke hanging over the site everyday is a bit sobering.

While they don’t use coffins, they probably use the best part of a tree in firewood.

On Sunday I took part in a cooking class, once again I was the only participant so got one to one tuition making momos. Momos are little Tibetan dumplings filled with vegetables and chicken or yak meat. They are very labour intensive requiring lots of chopping, dough kneading and fancy folding and filling. It took awhile to master the folding and filling bit but in the end I was happy  my dumplings looked nearly as pretty as the experts. We also made a spicy sauce to go with them and three hours later sat down to momos for lunch. The class cost a whopping $10..

Monday it rained all day but we did visit the Boudanath Buddhist stupa in the rain. Can’t say the photos are what I was hoping for but will have a chance to return there later

Kathmandu has had a number of incidents over the past week, an earthquake a few days before I arrived and on Sunday, a plane crash and a bomb scare t the airport, so will be glad to move onto Tibet on Tuesday.