Pashupatinath Temple - Nepal

Warning: content could be considered disturbing for some people!!

Initially, I decided that I wasn't going to post about Pashupatinath because I thought some people would be disturbed by it.  However, I am going to post about it because it is one of the most significant Hindu temples in the world.  It is regarded as the most sacred temple of Lord Shiva.

According to Wikipedia:

Pashupatinath Temple's existence dates back to 400 A.D. The richly-ornamented pagoda houses the sacred linga or holy symbol of Lord Shiva. 

Legend says that Lord Shiva once took the form of an antelope and sported unknown in the forest on Bagmati river's east bank. The gods later caught up with him, and grabbing him by the horn, forced him to resume his divine form. The broken horn was worshipped as a linga but overtime it was buried and lost. Centuries later an astonished herdsmen found one of his cows showering the earth with milk. Digging deep at the site, he discovered the divine linga of Pashupatinath. 

Only Hindus are allowed inside the temple, so we had to view it from the outside.

Entrance to the temple. We only get as close as the red carpet.

View from outside looking into the temple at the large golden bull.

Lingas

Sadhus (holy men). Their business is having photos taken of them.

The actual temple isn't what I thought would be disturbing to people.  It is what else that happens at Pashupatinath.  Located on the banks of the holy Bagmati River, Hindu cremation ceremonies occur here 24/7.

The cremations are performed on the banks of the river on platforms that are prepared in advance.

Whole families come to watch and mourn.

People watching a body being prepared for cremation. The body will be draped with flowers and  carried down to the riverbank.  There family members will pay their last respects and sprinkle the body with holy water from the Bagmati River.

The men of the family prepare the body for cremation.

The sons perform the cremation. The oldest son leads the others and they circle the body clockwise three times.

Then he lights the fire.

They cover the body with wood and straw.

The men tend to the body making sure the fire stays lit and it is burning properly.

Spectators include both foreigners and Hindus.

 Notice the boys swimming in the river across from where the cremation is taking place.

Pashupatinath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  If you are going to Kathmandu, it is worth seeing if only for the architecture.  However, it's not a place where I would want to visit again.  We felt an uncomfortable eeriness the whole time we were there.  It's one of those places that we can check off our list, but not go back to again.

Kathmandu, Part II - Temples

With Christmas fast approaching, I thought I should catch up a little on the blog.  Since my last post on August 8th, our oldest son has gotten married.  We have hosted quite a few visitors here in India, been out to the villages a few times, taken a quick trip to Singapore and hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house for the expats that Mike works with. So a lot has been going on!

To finish up with my Kathmandu posts, here is Part II.

We visited many temples while we were in Kathmandu.  Some were Buddhist, but most were Hindu (80%) with a few Muslims (11%).  So, there are a lot of Hindu temples in Kathmandu.
Below are some pictures of the ones we saw.

Hindu Temple

Hindu Temple

Outside a Hindu temple

Hindu temple in Kathmandu

Hindu temple in the base of a tree

Someone dressed up as Lord Hanuman, also called the monkey god.  Hanuman is one of the most popular Hundu gods and he is worshiped as a symbol of strength and devotion.

The temples that I found the most interesting were the Buddhist ones. Nepal is the birthplace of Buddha, so there are many temples in Kathmandu.  There are two major Buddhist temples here: Boudhanath and Swayambhunath.

Boudhanath sits in the middle of Kathmandu.  Thousands of pilgrims gather daily to make the clockwise circumnavigation of the temple under the watchful eyes of Buddha while they pray or chant.  Their belief is that with each completion of the circuit, certain prayers are lifted up.

People walking clockwise around Boudhanath.

Prayer wheels, below, are also spun clockwise.  With each spin, the prayers that are printed on the wheels are lifted up as if a person is actually saying the prayers.  We saw the same people go by the wheels many times.

Prayer wheels at Swayambhunath

 

 

Large prayer wheel inside the monastery at Boudhanath.

Buddhist monks-in-training

Buddhist monk

Swayambhunath temple, also known as the monkey temple because of the monkeys that live around it.

Kathmandu, Part 1 (Mountains and Monkeys)

I know I said the Taj Mahal was next, but I changed my mind.  Our trip to Nepal was too short.  We are definitely going to have to make another trip.  We had planned on taking a trip up to Everest, but the weather was rainy and cloudy.  We did take a plane trip to see it.  We saw it peaking over the cloud cover, which was totally cool.  The picture below is as close as we could get.  Hopefully we can get back in the fall when the weather is better.

Mt. Everest (29,000ft) on the left.  Lhotse (27.900ft) is on the right. 

Some friends told us about a quaint little hotel in Kathmandu, Hotel Courtyard, in the Thamel area.  Thamel is the tourist area of Kathmandu.  While some people may want to shy away from it, we enjoyed being in the middle of restaurants, etc.  An added bonus is that there is a camera shop on every corner, which came in handy when a monkey stole my lens cap!  The owners of the hotel, Michelle and Pujan, like to keep it small and friendly.  They were wonderful hosts!  The first night we were there, they arranged an authentic Nepalese dinner at a local restaurant for all their guests.  Who would've thought a year ago that we would be having dinner in Kathmandu with people from all over the world?

Hotel Courtyard, Kathmandu, Nepal

Kathmandu Valley

There were monkeys everywhere.  I love monkeys, so I thought it was so cool to see them just running wild all around us.  They weren't the least bit bothered by the fact that we were there.

Swimming pool for monkeys

More Nepal coming....

Delhi

Weston and Taylor at the
India Gate, Delhi.

I am back in Tennessee getting ready for Matt’s wedding.  When I went to church, I was gently reminded that I haven’t put a new blog post up in over a month! Yikes, time flies!

We've had a busy time since my last blog post.  Mike's job continues to keep him busy and challenged!  It's very different doing business in India compared to the US.  He's learning the ins and outs of it and what to do and not do.  

Weston and his girlfriend, Taylor, came to visit for 3 weeks in July.  Three weeks sounds like a long time, but it really isn’t.  There was so much I wanted them to see and not enough time to do it.  So, we decided to take them to Delhi/Agra and then to Kathmandu, Nepal. 

Besides the compulsory mall trip, in Delhi we visited the Red Fort, Qutab Minar, India Gate and the Lotus Temple.  We crammed as much into 2 days as we possibly could.  

Lotus Temple, Delhi

The Lotus Temple, the Mother Temple of India, is a Bahai house of worship.  It is open to people of all religions.  We didn't get to go inside because we were there on a Friday, which is the primary day of worship.  There were thousands of people waiting in line to get in.

Qutab Minar

Qutab Minar (Delhi) is the tallest minar in India.  Contruction began on it around 1200 A.D.  It was constructed as an Islamic monument, however there are many Hindu influences in the carvings on the walls of the buildings that surround the minar.  It used to be open for people to climb the 379 stairs to the top of the 238’ high tower.  However, in 1981, there was an accident when the electricity went out resulting in total darkness in the stairway.  Forty-five people (mostly children) were killed in the stampede. 

Carving on the walls at Qutab Minar

Close up of the carvings on the walls and pillars at
Qutab Minar

That was our quick tour of Delhi.  Next stop....Kathmandu!

My New Friend

I’d like you to meet my new friend.  I don’t remember his name, but I will never forget his story.  He is around 90 years old, although he doesn't know exactly.  He lives in a rural village in India with his daughter and her family and his son and his family. (He calls them his children, although we suspect they are actually his grandchildren.)  They live in a house that is smaller than a lot of master bathrooms in the US.  They have so little, yet they have more than most people on earth.  They have love.  Here is his story.

His village sits along a railroad track.  Back in 1952, as he was waiting at the tracks for a train to pass, a book fell off the train at his feet.  He picked it up and looked at it.  The book was written in his mother tongue, so he took it home with him and began to read it.  As he read the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, he became curious and had lots of questions.  So, he began walking to church every Sunday to seek answers and to worship.  Walked 12 miles (4 hours) one-way.

Rain or shine.

He began teaching his children, a son and a daughter.  Fast-forward 60 something years.  His children taught their children.   And so on. 

He became so old, that he couldn’t walk to church anymore.  He quit going, but he never stopped worshipping. 

When we met him, he told us that he has a piece of land in the village that he wants to donate to build a church.  His granddaughter said, “There are all these other temples and worship areas here.  We want a place to worship Jesus!”

I have no doubt there will be a church there at some point. It’s God’s timing, not ours. God planted the seed 60 years ago and has watched this man's faith grow!  How pleased He must be!

I am truly humbled by my new friend.  Ashamed, really.  They have so little, yet they have everything! They have true love.

"And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on." Luke 21:1-4

Sivananda Rehabilitation Home

Recently, I visited a school at the Sivananda Rehabilitation Center with a group of women from the Twin-Cities Expat Association (TEA).  We did crafts and sang songs with the children.  The children seemed to enjoy it a lot, but I think we were blessed more by them. They are so open and sweet.

The main reason for this post is that I wanted to give you a little information on Sivananda and what they do there, because I found it fascinating.  Sivananda Rehabilitation Home (just outside of Hyderabad) is a place of refuge for children and adults who are suffering or have been affected by leprosy, TB, and HIV/Aids.  I never really thought about leprosy still being an issue, but there were approximately 600 leper colonies in India as of 2008.

There is still a stigma associated with leprosy.  When a person is discovered to have it, they are often run out of their villages, then beaten and shunned.  However, Leprosy has a high cure rate if the person seeks treatment.  Founded in 1958, Sivananda provides free food, shelter, education and clothing for over 500 destitute people who, although cured of leprosy, have nowhere else to go. 

Sari Shopping

A friend took me sari shopping today!  It was overwhelming, but so much fun!  I'm so glad Jaya went with me.  Not only is she Indian, but she always looks so cute!  



The shop she took me to was small, but they had sari fabric from floor to ceiling.  There is no way to look through them all, so I told them the colors that I liked and they started pulling.  

One of the things that I love about India is that everything is so 
colorful.

This is the sewing room where they make the saris and the choli, which is the short bodice that is worn under the sari. The choli is made to your measurements after the sari is purchased.

Next they wrapped the sari for me, thank goodness. I kind of felt like
I was dressing up for a college
fraternity party.

This poor girl had no idea what she was getting herself into when she came to work today!

This is just loosely wrapped. It looks much prettier
than this when it's done right.

Th

I may have to hire someone to come to my house to wrap it.  I would hate for it to come untucked.  I can just see me with my sari flapping in the wind! Fortunately there is a skirt that is worn underneath, but still...

So, there were several that
I really liked.  How to pick
just one?