This afternoon Niraj and I went to visit a few more famous temples. This is a picture of the Bodnath Stupa which is very famous. The whole area is owned by Tibetians and many monks live in the area. While I didn't take pictures of them we did walk into some of the rooms where they were meditating. We also saw a "Holy Body" of a famous monk who recently died. His body will be cremated in 10 days but in the meantime there is a display set up with him in it.
A doorway in one of the buidlings surrounding the stupa
A calendar depicting heaven and hell
Me at one of the many buidlings surrounding the stupa
Niraj on the phone in the area surrounding Pasupati - a very famous Shiva temple
Me in front of a Shiva statue. Shiva never has a face and is always depicted by a phallic symbol of sorts. I apologize to all of you with better understanding of the religious and cultural aspects. But here is a picture of the statue nonetheless. 
The main Pasupati Temple. On Shiva Day last week is was absolutely mobbed with people lined up for nearly a mile waiting to get in. It don't know where the fire marshall was during all of this.
A cremation in process. Everyday there are many cremations at this temple.
One of many depictions of Ganesh. He is the son of Shiva and there is an elaborate story about how he came about his unique form. It involves his mother and Shiva becoming angry with him and chopping off his head then having to save him at his mother's request. He used an elephant head and now prayers go through him making him on of the most famous gods. Like I said before, there are over 1,000 Ganesh temples in the Kathmandu Valley.
Milk Baba - this fellow only drink milk for sustanence and meditates alot.
A doorway in one of the buidlings surrounding the stupa A calendar depicting heaven and hellMe at one of the many buidlings surrounding the stupaNiraj on the phone in the area surrounding Pasupati - a very famous Shiva templeMe in front of a Shiva statue. Shiva never has a face and is always depicted by a phallic symbol of sorts. I apologize to all of you with better understanding of the religious and cultural aspects. But here is a picture of the statue nonetheless. 
The main Pasupati Temple. On Shiva Day last week is was absolutely mobbed with people lined up for nearly a mile waiting to get in. It don't know where the fire marshall was during all of this.
A cremation in process. Everyday there are many cremations at this temple.
One of many depictions of Ganesh. He is the son of Shiva and there is an elaborate story about how he came about his unique form. It involves his mother and Shiva becoming angry with him and chopping off his head then having to save him at his mother's request. He used an elephant head and now prayers go through him making him on of the most famous gods. Like I said before, there are over 1,000 Ganesh temples in the Kathmandu Valley.Milk Baba - this fellow only drink milk for sustanence and meditates alot. 
My Danish friend Peter at dinner tonight. We met rather coincidentally on the way to Chitwan last week. He was on a different bus but we happened to stop at the same place for breakfast and chatted a bit. Thought we were at the same hotel but weren't so figured we lost touch. Turns out we were on the same bus back together so we've been hanging out a bit the last few days. He's going to join our trek so now we'll have 4 - Niraj, Peter, myself, and a Sherpa. Tonight I had a rather good filet mignon at a very nice place serving western style food. Tomorrow I'll take it easy and try and get over my illness. Not enough to be crippling but I'll be miserable if I try and trek in my current condition. I'm hoping a few days will fix me.
2 comments:
okay, jason, i know i'm going about this backwards....but, is nepal a buddhist country? or hindu? were you able to share the gospel with anyone?
hey! you never responded to my comment! what's the deal orlando boy? :)
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