Dramas…!

Well sort of.

Unfortunately the government here in Nepal has just self-destructed due to the Maoist leader Prachandra’s resignation on Monday.

As I understand it from speaking to people here and reading the paper, he was trying to get rid of the top level of the army in order to bring his own people in.  The Maoists have still not dispanded what are called their ‘cadres’, which are mostly the young hot-heads who formed their army against the government during the bloody 13 year civil war here.  I’m not given to being that political in this Blog but this situation I know has local people pretty frustrated and concerned and it is definitely worth trying to understand he background to the whole thing.

The general perception is that the Maoists actually had little intention (or ability) in making a democratic government work and rather than governing by concensus in the coalition government, tried to push their own policies through (which having some of the army on their side would have assisted with enormously, obviously).  This meant that when Prachandra didn’t get his way on the generals retiring, he resigned rather than discuss matters, or compromise.

For the Tibetans living here in Nepal, a people already horribly displaced by the events of the 20th century in the name of communism, this is a really worrying time.  Reading between the lines of what Tibetans are saying, they fear a repeat of what they saw and know of from before in Tibet, where as one person put it; ‘They smile at you and even appear to agree with you, and then shoot you dead.”  For the Nepalis I have spoken to, they feel so let down after having had the excitement of their first election (Nepal having been ruled by the royal family previously) and then to see it come to this.

It might be that the remaining parties will be able to form a second coalition, but no one knows what the Maoists will now do.  Will they plunge the country into civil war again?  Will Prachandra be heading out into the hills again to take his cadres back to battle?  And to what ends?  And what are the roles of the alleged other players in this country, i.e. China and India?

For their part, the expats here are keeping their ear to the ground.  Old hands pointed out on Monday that the country didn’t have a government before the elections, but as someone else said, ‘That was when they had the hope of the elections to come.  Now they have tried it and have had it fall apart so soon, people are naturally going to be much more pessimisitic, and that might lead to trouble’.  Bandhs, or strikes, are quite common here as really the only way ordinary people have of expressing their opinions and they can get quite heated and occasionally violent.  Friends who have wanted to travel to and from India by bus recently have either had to wait for the troubles near the Nepal-India border to subside, or to change their plans and fly over the protests in the Terai, in the south of Nepal, instead.

I don’t know.  Life in Boudhanath here can seem a bit of a bubble at times: predominantly Buddhist, peaceful and somewhat (though not completely) isolated from the turmoils of these strikes and the large Maoist rallies this week.  But I will be keeping an eye on the political situation, keeping on listening and talking to people, and checking regularly with the Foreign Office website for updates on the situation from an expat’s point of view just in case:

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and-living-overseas/travel-advice-by-country/asia-oceania/nepal

And I would recommend anyine thinking of coming here to do the same.  I wouls say its not something to panic over but also not something its safe to sweep under the carpet and forget about either.
So that’s been the macro drama here this week.

On the micro level a friend had a drama the other day which is a good illustration of how tough life can be for the animals here, especially in this case, the street dogs.  My friend’s daughter came home about 10 days ago with an abandoned and adorable puppy about a month old.  At first the little mite seemed to be fine, lapping up the food they gave her, but it turns out she was infested with worms which are very prevalent here, especially for animals who have to eat whatever they can find on the street.  OK.  [Those of a nervous disposition skip to the next paragraph!]  Anyway, we called a local animal rescue charity vet who arrived from Kathmandu on his friend’s motorbike about 40 minutes later.  By this stage the little dog was lying on her side panting and unable to get up.  It turns out that she had a very badly established case of worms, because she’s been infected with adult worms while still in her mother’s womb… Ugh…!   And double ugh.  Now she was puking and pooing out worms because her poor little system couldn’t eat anough to feed them and her.  And she was critically dehydrated.

[OK -start reading again here!]  But the good news is, after an emergency intravenous drip to make her stronger and some special re-hydration tablets (incidentally the same that humans can use), she has made a fast recovery from what looked like death’s door (it all happened so fast my friend was really taken aback, I just happened to arrive as this was unfolding).  And the puppy should have had the worm medicine today (Saturday) to begin elminate the critters from her system.  She will also be administered with her jabs to help prevent her getting ill again.  The vet was very kind.

So.  A week of dramatic events which have shaken me out of my post-exam reverie to say the least.  I will aim to keep you updated on events on both the macro political and micro puppy level in the coming weeks.

Namaste!

Two weeks to go

Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks… then (loved the studying though I have), I will be freeeee!

Have so much material for the blog, can’t tell you. So am looking forward to posting what I can from here and the rest from dear old Blighty. Return to the UK end of June – so am staying around in Boudhanath for a while after school – which is great!

Anyways – Two weeks and counting…

Now = for that Philosophy essay (On the Way of the Bodhisattva Chapter 9). “Cover me, I’m going in!”

Namaste!

Mountains!

Quick post as it’s getting late, about 8.30pm and am getting cold for the first time sitting in a cafe here.  Suddenly gone a bit more autumnal yesterday and today.  Have such a backlog of material to send to the blog, can’t tell you!  The bandwidth here isn’t up to much, pics and vids especially, take AGES to upload.  Still, have managed to put a few more Tihar Festival pics n vids over on PhotoBucket at:

http://s529.photobucket.com/albums/dd331/isojonesnepal/

Let me know if you can’t find or see ‘em.

Have also got some media from a lovely visit during reading week two weeks ago to a place called Namo Buddha.  Tell you more later but the main point for now is – The Mountains!   As in THE Mountains!!!! 

Will add one small video clip onto the Photobucket page asap, URL as above.

It seems that I might have scanned past Mount Everest when I filmed the Himalaya from a ridge on the way up to Namo Buddha!  WOW!  The view was stunning & my friends and I just had to stop the car to look back out to those snowy mountains.  You can probably hear us wowing about it on the footage.  And to think I didn’t even know Everest might have been among them!  Don’t laugh, I only ever did social Geography in bloomin’ South America in Geography at school.  I can tell you ALL about how to tap a rubber tree, but how to recognise the world’s tallest peak from afar.  Nope.  Nothin’ useful like that…  It was a great school, just they were more into social geography at the time than things like the world’s tallest mountains.  Oh well! 

Note that if there, Everest won’t the tallest peak in the vid as is further away than some of the others.  Still…  WOW!

So it MIGHT be there (and if anyone knows for sure, please tell me!).

Himalayan Mountains from Namo Buddha - Lovely!

In the next few weeks am planning a trip to Nagarkot to see more mountains and most likely Pokhara over the Christmas break too, so expect more pictures of and ravings about mountains from me.  Oh yes!

Festivals and Essays. Part Two :)

Festivals and Essays. Intro:

Hello. The main part of this blog below about the festival was written during last week, as was the previous one. Not posted until now due to the usual leccy difficulties and also a rather urgent deadline for my history paper. The system at our Uni is based on the American one, where paper means essay. But I prefer essay meself and flew the flag for dear ole Blighty by calling it so in the essay itself. I’ll let you know if I fail! Anyways by staying up all night on the red-eye I got the thing in. I have another one due in about 3 weeks for the Philosophy class and this time I will take better account of the electricity outage schedule! Lesson learned. Again.

In addition to ordering an extra 5 hour battery for my computer from the UK, I am also trying to weigh up the relative merits of getting a UPS, an Uninterrupted Power Supply, which is really basically a car battery you plug into the mains. This would mean I could run my computer and maybe also a fridge, maye. So in the interests of research I am planning to go to a few places like shops which have these and find out how much they cost. Expect a post soon, with pictures. Oooooh!

Anyways, here’s the post from last week, on a rather more pleasant festival here in Nepal which is called Tihar. Fireworks, firecrackers, Nepali Ska-punk and Hindi raves…. oh yes!

Festivals and Essays. Part Two.

As I type this I am sitting in a rather nice Italianate cafe called “Flavor’s” which is around Boudhanath stupa.  Don’t ask me exactly where, as since the path around the Stupa is round, I always lose my way finding particular places and have been known to go around several times looking for a certain shop or cafe (and to think my Buddhist friends thought I was being very devout and doing lots of ‘Khora’, Buddhist practice walks, around the Stupa ).

Anyways, outside the cafe right now is the sound of firecrackers and fireworks, no doubt attended by the uplifted faces of little kiddies who look all angelic and in awe with their faces lit by the firework’s glow until it finishes (awwwww), whereupon the fastest little angel always rushes to kick the remains, laughing maniacally as she / he does so. This is a good way to get some fun out of the last embers of the firework, but woe betide anyone nearby wearing turn-ups (not that I do, y’understand! LOL )

And another word to the wise, bring earplugs with you if you go out during Tihar, as the same little darlings and their teenage counterparts love to set off MASSIVELY loud strings of firecrackers right next to poor unsuspecting Yingies (tourists) at every opportunity. Scallies….

There’s yet another festival sometime early next year where people throw bags of red and yellow-coloured powder at each other and yes, the Yingies get targeted quite a bit then as well, but all in a good-natured way I am told.  I’ll let you know when the time comes…

Still, like kiddies everywhere, I love the sparkle and flashing lights of the fireworks at least and I did live to tell the tale, albeit with a certain ringing in my ears for a while afterwards… 

Today is the 3^rd day of the festival and is called Tika. This is the day when brothers and sisters exchange a Tika on each other’s forehead. This is in the form of a small spot of usually red-coloured paste, or a small jewel just above the eyebrow line, on what I think you might call the third eye. They also give each other gifts and sweets.  Actually, specifically, the girls are there to honour the boys, which is something my feminist self could get huffy about, if I let it.  Here in Nepal someone was telling me, it seems that families are happy when a girl is the first born because then her brothers, whom the family hope will follow, will have someone to bless them at Tika.  Hmmmmm! (Grumble grumble mutter mutter

Another day as part of the 5 day festival was Tihar itself. Tihar is the Nepali Diwali.  Lots of pretty fairy lights, candles, fireworks and the aforementioned firecrackers (Grrrrr. ) everywhere.

See pictures for some sights around the Stupa, although I seem to have missed the best of it by thinking it was at 7-8 when it was earlier. Bovver. Still, one advantage of staying somewhere for a while is there’s always next year.

I did also get to see a local band in action on the back of a pickup truck around the Stupa. For some reason (possibly the length of their electricity cable I conjectured), these guys were very close to one of the shops, so it was difficult to film them and their pogo-ing drunk-uncle audience, but still I had a go. It was all very Camden; the singer with his immaculately tousled hair, a bit longer than everyone else’s, the guitarist and bassist trying not to knock each other off-stage (well, truck) with their guitars and the drummer, who wasn’t half bad actually, having a good old tap. Some of it was pretty inventive, some of it was Ska-punk (not a bad thing in itself you understand, just nothing new… ) Although the lead singer did blot his copy-book by doing that classic lead-singer thing of getting them to play a new song before it was ready, so that number was a bit shambolic. (If I had a quid for every time that’s happened to me…) Anyways, see him, lyric sheet in hand, on PhotoBucket hopefully….

http://s529.photobucket.com/albums/dd331/isojonesnepal/?action=view&current=SANY0046-1.flv

I have also been experiencing the delights of a full-on Hindi rave going on right next to where I am staying every night for the last four nights.

No problem the first night, there was some good music and I even danced around a bit on the porch to some pretty decent Hindi / Nepali Hip-Hop. And, not tooooo bad the second night, but last night it was VASTLY loud. And by this I mean it was even louder than the lads near where I used to live in North London with their car sound-systems fully cranked up at three in the morning.

Louder and almost fully distorted.

Tonight we have had some particularly over-amplified choons, and a DJ with a short attention-span which doesn’t help me love it.  Oh well.  Still, there’s always a decent cafe like this one to come to up until about 9pm., which brings me back to where I started.

All part of life’s very rich pattern here.

BTW – regarding the Hindi rave, I never thought I’d be actually wishing for a power-cut, especially with an essay to finish, but there you go!

As folks say around here, ‘What to do?’

Namaste .

Festivals and Essays – Part One.

In a brief moment of respite from frenzied essay-writing while also trying to fix my laptop which keeps crashing (ahhhh the lazy lazy life of a student eh?), I watched the Nepal Tourist Board CD we were given in our information pack when we enrolled.
It was replete with very pretty pictures which I have to confess did make me stare out of the window into the pleasant garden at the place I’m staying, and dream of spending my enitre budget in one big mega-trek to the Himalayan mountains and lakes, or to the southern jungles and rivers.  But after reality dawned, one particular slide from the slide-show stuck in my mind:

“More festivals than there are days in the year”, it said over a picture of a square filled with people celebrating something, somewhere in Nepal.

And you know what, it might well be right…

I once lived in a city, Brighton, in the UK, which claimed a church for every week of the year, and a pub for every day (priorities people) but nothing in my experience comes close to Nepal.

We’ve had a festival this month (so far), Tihar, which lasts 5 days (more on this one later). Then last month we had a festival called Dasain, which went on for about 10 days (and there was power ALL day EVERY day – yey!). And I think there’s more to come.  Phew! 

Although I have to confess I largely avoided the Dasain festival as one day in particular involves massive goat-death in the forms of sacrifices to the Goddess Kali. In fact, I think only the cows are safe because if a family can’t afford a goat they buy a chicken, which then is killed in the goat’s stead. For several weeks before and certainly the immediate days before the sacrificial day, there were little conglomerations (is that the collective noun for goats? Somehow I doubt it, its probably more like ‘bleats of goats’ – of which more later) of adult goats on the roadsides, huddled at the end of 2 – 3 meter tethers, chewing surprisingly calmly on the grass nearby. Perhaps they were unaware of their fate. I certainly hope so.

And I did think I had avoided all of the carnage by carefully walking the long way around to home and etc. But when I came back home from Uni one day and set my bag down with a sigh to get on with some quiet reading, the houses next door beyond the garden wall revealed themselves to be occupied by people celebrating Dasain, because what I heard next was the plaintive bleating of what sounded like one quite young and very lonely goat.

Blaaaaaaaaah.    Bleeeeaaaah.      Bleeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaahhh!     Blaaaaeeeeeeeh…

All afternoon and into the night.  Oh dear.

‘ Course, next day, nothing.  Just a very sad silence.

I had a few moments of hatching a madcap scheme to rescue the little creature and set it loose in my landlord’s garden but, apart from the former owners, I would have my landlord’s irate missus to deal with. She works really hard on the garden, and as we know, goats eat everything…. Ah le, what to do?

So I did the only thing I could do and joined people at the monastery who did an all day Puja (prayer ceremony, for want of a better word), for the departing animals that they not suffer too much and achieve good rebirths.

This could be said to be a perfect example of the symbiosis between Hindus and Buddhists here in Boudhanath. While on the one side, the Dasain festival, an indelible part of the national psyche, was being celebrated in part to provide protection for people by sacrificing lots of animals; across town in all the Buddhist monasteries that day you had Buddhist ordained and lay people praying that these same animals had as little suffering as possible in the ending of this life, and also in the next.

Difficult. And please, note that it is NOT for me to judge anyone here, at all, it’s just how things are, sometimes.

I do wish I could have rescued just that one little goat though.

Namaste….

A new broom

Hello.

Hope you like the new header picture.  Have decided to start again a little bit with the visual layout here as the links I have (or have planned) have started to add up.

Anyways, above are some notes from our Classical Tibetan class.  The Mid Term exam was this morning and well, there’s still some work to do let’s say, but I am confident I will get there….  eventually!

Good teachers will bring out the best in even the slowest students, so there’s hope for me yet, as the teachers here are really good! :)

I am typing this in our open air cafe at the monastery.  The sun is shining and the green-shrouded mountains which ring the valley seem a little closer than usual.  There are some amazing stacks of white fluffy clouds around and I would say that it is peaceful, with the birds twittering in the trees, except there is the ubiquitous Nepal incessant barking dog somewhere in the near distance.

Still, it beats the rush hour tube in London by about oh, 1000 miles, at least. 

So what is it like studying in a monastery?  Very interesting.  In addition to the regular academic classes, some of us have signed up for a meditation course in the evenings over the next two weeks.  As with everything else here, this is clearly and thoroughly delivered, with ample chance for questions and experiential stuff as well.  Good things.  It is really beneficial to hear the teachings on medititation from a monk who has probably done the same practices probably 1000’s of times, maybe even 10,000’s of times.

I am hoping this will feed into my academic understanding as well, as we start studying Tibetan Buddhism in our History class next week.

All of our classes are in English at the moment by the way, but some are delivered in Tibetan and then tranlsated by some very able translators.  The course aims for us to be able to understand the teachings directly ourselves in Tibetan by the 3rd Year, and I for one am really looking forward to having even some of that level of understanding.  (One day, one day!  ).

So, I will sign off for now.  My battery is about to go and I am keen to check out a few more things before it does.  Next post I want to reflect on how the electricity issues here have influenced my status as an STA Explorer.  Suffice to say for now that it is difficult to keep up with the internet world with limited power windows and slow connection speeds…  But I AM working on it!

Namaste!

A few weeks of ‘firsts’ :)

So, in the past few weeks I have managed the following ‘firsts’, (in no particular order):

First Saturday Teaching this term by Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche (the abbot of the monastery where we are studying), which was lovely.  We are very lucky here to have a class in Buddhist Philosophy given by a Khenpo 5 days per week and then Rinpoche’s teachings on a Saturday morning, which is aimed at a non-Tibetan audience and which he has been giving as often as he can when in Nepal for over 20 years now.

To clarify:  Khenpo is a term which is given to a monk who has studied in the monastery for 13 years and then completed 3 years of Buddhist teacher-training.  Only once he has completed these 16 years of training is he allowed to teach others beyond the basics, and this earns him the title Khenpo.   This is done to ensure that the teachings he gives are correct and proper so that they 1.  Benefit beings instead of leading them astray (as it were) and 2.  Keep his particular school of Buddhism pure so that future generations may benefit from these teachings as well.  It is a very intensive system believe me.  We often hear the young monks in their classroom near ours shouting out their spelling and the scriptures they need to learn.  It is very inspiring and humbling to hear 5 year olds happily shouting out almost the same sentences that you have been struggling with for hours in the Classical Tibetan translation homework!

Our classrooms are inside the Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling monastery here in Boudhanath, which is known locally as the White Gompa, (for reasons that the photographs should make obvious)!  Here we study a fully-recognised Western academic degree program designed for lay people, but one that is infused with the knowledge and experience of our surroundings.  And it is a fascinating place to be, believe me!  This term we have classes in Colloquial and Classical Tibetan (which are just similar enough to be confusing and just different enough to be, well…confusing), Buddhist History and the Philosophy class I mentioned above.  This is the standard program for Year 1 Term 1 but there will be classes in Nepali, Sanskrit, Translation, Buddhist Art and many other exciting things in the years to come.  Needless to say I am really enjoying it.

OK, back to the ‘firsts’! 

First lessons with my fantastic Tibetan tutor Sonam.

First drum purchased.  A Madal, which is the local Nepali two-headed drum.  It is quite small and sounds good but I did pay too much for it so this leads to…

First case of getting really badly fleeced (that I am aware of!).  See above.

First spoken Tibetan sentence without deviation, hesitation or repetition (for those Radio 4 fans out there).  This earthshattering first sentence was:  ‘Those two water containers over there are the same’.  Hardly Shakespeare, or Milarepa for that matter (the Tibetan national poet akin to Shakespeare) but, it came out all at once with the right case, particles and pronunciation so hey I was (briefly) very PROUD!….

First case of a food-related bad tummy (only 1 day off, luckily and that is all the information you need I am sure! ).

First 1/20 for a test, ever.  Sob.  Oh well…

First experience of a Bandh, or strike in the Thamel area of Kathmandu.  This was pretty unpleasant actually and I was only on the fringes well before it started.  To explain briefly; Bandhs are how the local people here show their displeasure with the way the country is run (and before the democratic process it was probably the only way).  In the recent past, before the election, the Maoists used to organise these strikes.As far as I know this was the first one against them now they are in power as part of the coalition government.

This was last Sunday and I didn’t actually see the cars and motorbikes getting set on fire or the tear gas going into the crowds later that evening but when I was there the streets were lined with anxious-looking men and equally anxious-looking young policemen and army in their blue DPM uniforms, and the atmosphere was pretty tense.  All the shops, hotels and restaurants were shuttered up as it was clearly going to kick off quite soon.  This happened again the following Tuesday, which is a measure of how people cold be said to be getting impatient waiting for things to change.

First two weeks in my new accomodation, which is a nice twin room facing a garden with a bathroom and front door all of my own.  Works well for me as it is peaceful, as much as Nepal gets, and clean.  The family have provided furniture as well, which helps me travel light.

There are other firsts am sure but to be honest, I haven’t kept a list.  The best thing to say is that at the end of my first month and a half here I am starting to settle in, grumble about the lack power (see other post), and still really really love it here!

More as soon as I can, when the ‘leccy is on!

Namaste! 

It’s all gone dark…. :)

OK.  So I haven’t posted in what the American yoofs would call ‘like ages’.

This is because there has been a really BIG increase in the number of powercuts here.  The Nepal Electricity company call it ‘load shedding’ and when you are the load they are shedding, as folks say around here ‘no choice’…

It’s now up to 35 hours per week and seems to still be rising, with the most common times being in the evening.  There is a new schedule every week or so and no power = no telephone booths and no or at best VERY slow internet.  Last week it took me an hour to post two pictures and a small comment on my Facebook page.  Somehow it seems whenever I have time away from studying, no power.  Hyper-frustrating!  We are all getting a bit concerned about how exactly we are going to write up 2 x 2500 word essays and print them out for November with no power.  But as they say… ‘no choice’!

The other evening I was reading for the History class in my now-favourite cafe Double Dorje* and when the power went off I just reached in my bag for my head-torch and carried on reading.  Only really thought about it afterwards.

I think a fellow STA Explorer (hello everyone – I AM still here!), mentioned his head-torch as making him look and feel like he was in a SWAT team.  In his case maybe this was so, but for me it is rather difficult to look cool when you’re reading with a head torch.  More dork-ish, or hey, SWOT team perhaps – I like that!  LOL!

Cue image of rows of Nepali students of all ages with headtorches on their heads and books in their hands.

What team are you in?

The SWOT team!

The WHAT team?

The SWOT team!

Sound off 1, 2, 3, 4….

Ahhh.  Having no power gets to you like that, sorry!

Seriously, the people here, Nepalis and Tibetans alike, are pretty fed up with trying to run homes, families and businesses on random and extending blackouts.  These things run for four hours at a time at the moment & apparently last year by Janurary it was 8 hours per day.  Yipes!

So, if you are coming here to lovely Nepal anytime soon (and it is lovely when you can see it), bring a head torch and probably a wind-up torch as well (and if they do wind-up head torches now, bring one of those! )

*  Double Dorje do lovely Mo-Mo’s, that’s Tibetan dumplings to you (and stop chuckling at the back there) and a VERY fine Apple pie (occasionally, by request the day or so before).  It is a good place to go once you’ve been here a little while and acclimitised.  Relaxing and friendly.  Lots of us Shedra students hang out there regularly (but we’re a nice bunch!) 

Boudhanath Stupa is AMAZING!

Yesterday I promised some information and images about the Stupa.  I can see a very small part of it from where I am sitting typing this in a cyber-den.  At present the Stupa is covered with people thronging in preparations for the Gaijatra (Cow Festival).  I thought this festival was in September but there you go…

So this is how I narrowly avoided being chased by a man dressed as a cow, who was also carrying a doll in a pouch on his tummy and terrifying kiddies, young adults and me alike by chasing them with the doll!  Vid of him in action in near future.

Meanwhile here is a vid of the Stupa on a more normal day:

http://s529.photobucket.com/albums/dd331/isojonesnepal/?action=view&current=StupaViewwithsound-drummerWMV.flv

One of the things I am finding difficult is the virtual curfew after dark.  I hasten to stress this is not an official curfew but being a tourist around after dark is ill-advised.  So I am being careful to get back asap but it’s difficult being a night-owl.  Learning learning.  I am also working out various routines for getting clean water to drink.  So far it has been iodine tablets but these taste a bit unpleasant even with the recommended neutralising tablets so although they have been a godsend (and many many thanks to the person who brought them to the airport for me = you’re a lifesaver!), I can’t use them forever.   So today – I boiled me first water using my faithful Pocket Rocket – brilliant little cookers these – and the pan I bought the other day.  How wonderful (and British), to celebrate clean water with a cup of Rosehip tea.   Ahhh tea!

Here are some pictures taken from the Guesthouse where I am staying:

Better go – night is beginning to fall again and though it isn’t as quick as I feared, it still happens fast enough to take dreamers like me by surprise!

More media tomorrow = SLOW connections although with the festival in full swing it might be the day after tomorrow…

A bientot!