After my last call at work around 4am in Nagarkot, I had walked out into the balcony and realized I had walked into a cloud that had nestled on the mountain slope, our entire hotel was covered. With no view to enjoy than the white mist, we woke up a couple of hours later to morning in Nagarkot. From the Himalayan Restaurant where we have breakfast today, there is a 225-degree view of Nagarkot, looking at the clouds delicately perched on mountain peaks, drenching all in a fine mist, covering the top of the several mountain ranges in a soft tufts of white cotton.
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| Morning in Nagarkot - a cloud sitting on the hotel |
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| Multiple terraced hotel properties |
The hotel sits on a north-facing mountain slope. All rooms have windows or balconies to look out at the north. And the various properties of this hotel complex are connected by steps that run along the mountain slopes and alongside the terraced gardens. There is also some crop harvest on some slopes, and an active staff works on gathering fresh flowers for the restaurant and hotel rooms, and maintaining the pristine look of the place. The steps pause at various heights so people can take a breath and enjoy the scenic outlook, before attempting the next flight of steps.
There was a Buddha garden far below that we had not been able to visit yesterday. This morning, fortified with warm puri-aloo and masala chai, we went exploring the many terraced gardens of the hotel. This is the kind of place we would like to build in Jageshwar - a clean, hygienic facility with modern amenities in the middle of the lower Himalayas with the delightful variety of flora and fauna for people to gawk at.
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| Buddha Garden |
The Shakyamuni Buddha, with all the colors one can see in the spectrum, and then some more, sits in a serene garden. Around him are peacocks, ducks, rabbits, frogs, turtles, all painted in bright and happy colors. Looking around at this colorful little garden planned to please the senses, I think of our Texas backyard with the same natural elements but with a far smaller palette of colors with turtle doves, cardinals and jays living in the trees and the visiting pigeons and crows. The house and yard and the trees and the grass hum the panchakshari, even more so when Snowy presided over it. The Buddha as the visual icon for peace and is immediately construed as such by the perceiving eye, but when the mind hums to the cosmic vibration, no icons are necessary.
Thirteen years of Snowy's life that I wanted a wading pool and a multi-tiered fountain like this for her to play in, we could not find one that we truly wanted to see in our backyard. If we had let her decide, we would probably have selected one soon enough. Now with Snowy gone forever to be with my father, the need for the little joys for the little one is gone as well.
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| the web creator |
The garish colors, the chirping of the birds, the buzz of the insects, the splashing water in the fountain - all add to the tranquility. I think back of the Texan turtle doves walking around the pool, clear across our backyard to sip water from the spa overflowing and splattering into the pool - a lovely sight on sunny weekends.
We took a bunch of pictures with different shutter speeds to get the perfect picture of the fountain - the milky frothy water splattering on three levels, seen against the background of the mist gathered on the slope. In the middle of these fascinating visuals, Anish suddenly spotted the perfect Vedantic metaphor - the web creator who spins up a whole gossamer world to catch others.
We left the hotel by 10, so we would reach Kathmandu by lunch time. Just as the car was going down the slope, we gave a little whoop of delight as we passed by a small stall with carved wooden pieces - some masks, some Hindu and Buddhist deities. Our expert young driver stopped immediately like a Disney character on steroids, and inched us into a sideway ditch.
We piled out to look at a middle-age artisan at work carving wood, and asked him for a couple of pieces. He was appraising us more than his pieces, and gave some hilarious prices for some run-down tiny masks. We asked him for one of his Ganesha carvings, about four feet in length. He looked at us in the eye for the first time, and then laughed and said it was expensive. After great reluctance and prodding, he finally named his price, and ten minutes later, it was ours at half of that.
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| Wrapping our Ganesha |
We were still paying him a lot more than he would get in Nagarkot sitting in a make-shift stall, and we were paying a lot less than we would if this was sitting in a store in Kathmandu - the cardinal rule of negotiation is to know when to stop. Whereas it is true that anything can be negotiated to the bottom line for the seller because he needs to make a sale, one needs to remember that the tourist season offers the only time for income to most local artisans. I had cut my finger on something while fishing out money. the wife took out a BandAid from her little purse and tied it tight around my index finger.
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| The Band Aid connection |
The artisan wiped up our Ganesha, polished him with shoe polish, no less, and wrapped him carefully in newspaper - now how will we carry him to Dallas? Shiva will decide, since he has given us this gift in time for Ganesh Chaturthi.
As we walked out, there was another store selling some more artefacts. Our own young driver reached before us, announcing to the shop that we had just bought a Ganesha at xyz price next door, to let his compatriot know what weak negotiators we were.
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| friends galore |
My Band Aid buddy came to check what we were buying that her husband had not carved. We bought a few carved things from this man as well and a khunkri with the inscription "". The khunkri is a Nepali knife with an inwardly curved blade, similar to a machete. It is used both as a weapon and a tool in Nepal, and is the traditional weapon of the fierce Gorkhas, of whom India's Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw said - If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gorkha.
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| Looking out at Kathmandu |
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| Looking back at Nagarkot |
Kathmandu at an altitude of 1400 meters (4600 feet) would be at a slightly lower elevation than our stay in Nagarkot the previous night, sleep would be very welcome. A country capital with 1.4 million residents, the population is almost 6 million if you think of the Kathmandu valley that encompasses the areas of Lalitpur, Bhaktipur, Kirtipur and Madhyapur Thimi. Kathmandhu derives its name from a temple built by the Malla kings in the late 16th century - काष्ठ मण्डप (kashtha mandapa) - meaning covered shelter, at Darbar Square. The city was known as Kashtha Mandap Mahanagar at one point, and has also been referred to as Kantipur - the city of luminosity in the middle ages.
The battle of Kathmandu in 1768, soon after the battles of Lalitpur, Bhaktipur and Kirtipur, and a long siege by the Gorkhali ruler Prithvi Narayan Shah to prevent food supplies to the valley, ended the rule of the Mallas, and started the rule of the Shahs that continued till Nepal became a democratic republic in 2008. The Shiva Purana refers to naya-pal, the area of the temple pashupati-lingam - that appears to be the origin of the name Nepal given to the Gorkha kingdom from the eighteenth century onwards.
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| Descending to Kathmandu valley |
We reached Kathmandu at 1, many from the group had arrived and checked in the Radisson already. This is the lunch buffet we were warned about by the previous group that visited Kailash a month back - a few people fell sick with the food, eat with care. Difficult to say if it is the hotel or generally any buffet in the tropics, but a couple of folks fell ill that night. 3-4 spoons of steamed rice with a spoonful of dal for flavor, and pistachio ice-cream is my meal today and any day at this place. Nothing but hot cooked or boiled food, and ice-cream from the market.
Met Hiraji of Karnali Excursions and his team - any day more engaged and impressive than the travel agents I have seen so far. I asked him if we could go see the Svayambhunath stupa in the evening, and he said he would arrange for the buses. Also, the next day, he would arrange for us to go to Dholpur, a couple of hours away. It is a relief to work with a travel agency who is actually planning travel - our previous experience with Richa Travels and Kailash Treks with their Indian/US partner Travelorg has been a disaster.
Met Hiraji of Karnali Excursions and his team - any day more engaged and impressive than the travel agents I have seen so far. I asked him if we could go see the Svayambhunath stupa in the evening, and he said he would arrange for the buses. Also, the next day, he would arrange for us to go to Dholpur, a couple of hours away. It is a relief to work with a travel agency who is actually planning travel - our previous experience with Richa Travels and Kailash Treks with their Indian/US partner Travelorg has been a disaster.
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| Svayambhunath Stupa |
Svayambhunath Stupa, is visible for miles around with the striking appearance of a gold spire atop a shining white dome, and the eyes of the Buddha looking out in all four directions and a third inward- looking eye in perpetual meditation. There is a legend surrounding the Bodhisattva Manjushri who cut the mountain with a gorge and created the valley of Kathmandu with this beautiful stupa as its crown jewel.
As with many places of worship in Nepal, the Hindu and Buddhist folklore combine to explain the legends and the structure. This temple is frequented by Hindus and Buddhists alike. Besides the dominant Buddha worship, there is a Devi temple - Harati Devi, to whom the locals pray for protection against small-pox. The earthquake of 2015 has wreaked heavy damage here, and I could not find the main temple that had gold-plated deities.
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| Buddha fountain |
The entry point at the start of 365 steps that take us to the top of the temple complex.
The beautiful tranquility fountain is filled with coins of all denominations, as tourists now treat all water as wishing wells in Europe.
There is some modern legend built around throwing a coin that falls in the donation bowl at the feet of the Buddha, and immediately at such a reference, there are enthusiastic groups aiming and shooting at Buddha's feet.
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| Beautiful structure, not well-maintained any more |
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| Ancient sculpture with mixed traditions |
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| Anish spinning the prayer wheels |
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| The vajra - the thunderbolt |
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| The monkeys atop the monkey temple |
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| Kathmandu valley |
The steps down from this temple form, strangely, a lonely path down the hill with an expansive view of the sprawling Kathmandu valley. As one descends this temple in the silence of solitude, while still enjoying a clear visibility and proximity to the world below, the mind rears on its haunches and tries reaching out in all directions to form attachments, to overcome that sense of loss of the ephemeral joys that used to light up a life long left behind. The journey continues, don't know for how long and how far it will lead. There is a comfort feel in the knowledge that the great Adi Shankara walked this path, came to these places, revolutionized worship and changed the dominant paradigm and shaped the future of this great subcontinent. And as long as the guru parampara is held high, we are on the right path.
AUM Namaha Shivaaya
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