Introduction – part one:

In this blog I am aiming to describe, as well as I can, my upcoming encounter with the magical country of Nepal.

Since at time of writing, I have not yet been to Nepal, or in fact anywhere in the developing world, these first entries will be about my preparations for the journey – which begins a week tomorrow on 13th August 2008, and what I believe I will find…

I strongly suspect that many of my preconceptions about Nepal and living there will be wildly inaccurate; even having pored over some of the guidebooks and websites as I have.  So one of the things I am interested in exploring is how the ideas and perceptions I have now differ from my actual experiences later on.  I am also going to be writing about the pitfalls and joys of preparing for what is quite a radical change and upheaval in my life.  My hope is that as this blog builds up it might be of interest and benefit to other people thinking of traveling in the region.  We’ll see!

But first a brief background to my journey:  Why Nepal?

My main aim in traveling to the foothills of the Himalayas for about 9 months of this year and beyond, is to study Buddhism in the Himalayan tradition, particularly the Tibetan Nyingma and Kagyu schools.  I may write more about this in later posts perhaps but suffice to say that Nepal is where the teacher I have taken refuge with; Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, is based.  He has a monastery and a course for lay people based in Boudhanath, Kathmandu, which is where I will studying.

I should state from the outset that I am not an expert in this area of Buddhism, which is precisely why I am going – to find out more…!