Today we were scheduled for city sightseeing as a group, while Rishi sorted out our trekking permits. We were picked up by a bus just after 9 am to our first stop at Pashupatinath: a Hindu temple and cremation site on the Bagmati river. On the way, our guide Sri explained some of the main beliefs of Hinduism and the rituals around funerals and cremations. Their aim is to be a good person by living a peaceful life, to escape the cycle of reincarnation. According to their beliefs, a bad person’s life is characterised by suffering, ‘like beggars’, he said. When asked what made a beggar a bad person, he replied, quite matter-of-factly, ‘because of some bad karma’, i.e. from a previous life. I thought about a girl we had seen with a deformed hand, begging in Thamel. It would seem that under Hinduism there was no compassion for someone like her, hence why she was asking tourists for money. The futility of this mindset is overwhelming if you think about it for too long.
There was a funeral taking place while we were there. (Sri seemed disappointed there was only one!) The body, wrapped in a shroud, was down by the river bank and about a hundred or so people surrounding it, with another couple of hundred tourists, hawkers and onlookers watching from the other side. People would lay or sprinkle various things on or around the body. I looked away when they started unwrapping various parts and did not watch the cremation.
While all this was going on there were people throwing money onto the spire of one of the smaller temples. Sri explained that if the money landed on top and did not fall off, the person who threw it would not need to work for money ever again. We have people like that at home – it’s called Lotto.
We also saw some ‘holy men’ sitting around on our side of the river, with faces and torsos painted with vibrant colours. Sri said we could take photos of them or with them if we gave them some money. He explained how they smoke marijuana for breakfast and continue through the day. We have people like that at home too...
The colours of this place were full-on: the clothes, flowers, spices, the shroud of the dead person. The smells were equally full-on: burning wood, incense, cigarette smoke, and monkeys (which were everywhere). The ‘holy river’ was grey/brown, with trash and dead animals and goodness knows what else floating down it. The River Jordan was beautiful in comparison.
I wonder what the family of the dead person thinks about tourists watching the proceedings and taking photos. I wonder what the more devout Hindus think of this and also of the hawkers taking advantage of the activities to try and make money from the tourists.
Finally we left and went to the Boudhanath stupa, one of the most important sites in Nepal for Buddhists. It is a large concrete raised platform with a dome on top. The spire had been damaged in the earthquake and taken down for restoration.
After lunch (at a rooftop café near the hotel) we packed and repacked our bags, trying to get our weight down to 10 kg in our red bag and 5 kg in our day pack. We eventually managed it, but it would entail wearing our puffer jackets on the plane tomorrow! We decided to have an early night in preparation for the 4:15 am wakeup call in the morning.
Next day
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