I have spent the last ten days getting to know Nepal a little better. From my vantage point in Kurtipor, a hilltop village on the periphery of the rich Kathmandu valley, the urban sprawl of Kathmandu city spreads out to the north-east, mingling with green fields in full post-monsoon flush. Kathmandu is home to about 10% of Nepal’s population, 3 million people. The city itself sprawls across the wide valley floor. As it spreads, buildings are interspersed between fields of rice and grains. I have been studying the Nepali language, which for most Nepalis is a second language. Nepal is a country rich with religious traditions, home to a very old brand of hinduism, birthplace of buddhism, and home to Bonism, one of the world’s most ancient living religions. Wandering through the twisted stone streets of Kurtipor and exploring Kathmandu’s major religious sights the people one meets—people who truly live these ancient religions—carry their traditions into the twenty first century. The clash of ancient and modern is nowhere more palpable than in the crowded bazaars, where vendors sell dried grains from wooden vessels, or cook food over open wood fires, alongside stalls selling cell-phones, or western clothing emblazoned with “modern” phrases like ‘sexy’ or ‘pimp’.
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- The madness and bustle of life in the Kathmandu valley has been a good primer for the coming move into more rural Nepal. The thing I have learned the most: to find beauty and peace amidst all of the apparant chaos disorganisation.
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- I have spent the last ten days digging deeper into Nepal. The twisted stone alleyways of Old Kurtipor are an excellent place to begin.
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- These school-children stopped me in the street and asked me to take their picture. Kurtipor, home of Thribuvan University, is an educational epicenter on the periphery of Kathmandu.
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- An older Nepali man sits on the steps outside a cell phone store in Kurtipor’s New Bazaar. He seems an island of calm amidst the busy scene.
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- Prayer flags hanging at a Tibettan monestary frame the view from Kurtipor over south-western Kathmandu.
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- A small child carrying a toy gun shoots at a female monk on his way into one of Kurtipor’s buddhist shrines. Tibbetan Buddhism is a religion of bright colours and rich imagery, in stark contrast with the minimal zen aesthetic with which I am familiar in American or British Buddhism.
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- Monks at prayer in Kathmandu’s Boudhanath temple. The site is home to an ancient buddhist monument. Prayer for these monks involves sound, song, and incense. Younger devotees bring them hot mugs of tea as they pray.
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- Devotees only circle the stoupa in a clokwise direction. An old woman cleans dust away from the stoupa with a simple stick-broom and a bucket of water.
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- It doesn’t matter whether you visit a buddhist, hindu, muslim or sikh site, shoes are dirty and must be removed before entering. Even shoes that won’t touch the floor are removed before entering a holy sanctuary.
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- Tibbet Buddhism, the most popular branch of buddhism practiced in Nepal is a religion rich with imagery. This decorative garden at one of the Tibbetan monestaris in Kurtipor features two clay rabbits, chasing one another in perpetuity.
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- Kathmandu valley is walled in by richly forested foothills, mountains in their own right. Atop this sit clouds, thanks to a prevailing wind that brings moisture up from the bay of Bengal. On a clear day, one can see the Himalaya above the clouds.
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- Watching monkeys play alongside humans in urban Kathmandu has been a real treat. Nepal is one of the most biodiverse places in the world. It is also home to an incredible amount of species trafficking, thanks to a rich market for animal parts in central-asian medicine.
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- Smoke rises from open funeral pyres alongside the banks of the Bagmati river. In the Hindua trinity, Shiva represents destruction. The Bagmati is a very holy river, and open cremation ceremonies by the river’s banks are highly prestigious. In the lower right a body is prepared for cremation.
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- In Nepal, life and death are often witnessed alongside one another. Around the corner from the open funeral pyres I witnessed this tender mother-child moment. Comfort with the cycles of life and death are very much a part of Nepali thought.
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- Non-hindus are not allowed into the temple at Pashupatinath. Instead I observed the monkeys outside, in the temple’s periphery enclaves. Their family groupings reflect the tight-knit family units that have allowed the Nepali people to weather a potentially gruelling mountain environment.
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- Having clothes tailored in this part of the world is not a strange or exotic activity reserved for the super-rich. Instead it is a very ordinary way that people are connected with their clothes.
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- The stupa at Boudhanath is the focal point of Tibettan Buddhism in Nepal. The ancient monument, origin immemorial, towers over the neighbouring regions of Kathmandu, and presents a calm and reflective sanctuary amidst the pel-mel of Kathmandu street life.
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- Getting to grips with Nepal over the last 10 days has been far from a new and exotic location to continue my casual, coffee-drinking existence. Exploring this country is a process of self-humbling in the face of a wholly other set of attitudes to life, death, consumption, and even wealth.
This new post was worth the wait! Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful observations and vivid accompanying photos. I love that the baby shoes say “1love”! How fitting!
Thanks Susan. Hopefully I won’t keep you waiting as long for the next set of images.
Great pictures, David. It looks like an amazing experience!
Dear David,
Your Mum sent me the logpage and I think it all looks really interesting! (Mum & I are cousins!!!) and so your travels are a source of news and joy. I wonder how you are finding the music? Any songwriting to accompany those photos? A soundscape travelogue might be really interesting to hear – I did a three minute electroacoustic collage a while back using the voices of children in a classroom and everytime I hear it the whole experience of that time rekindles itself in my memory and is just as fascinating! I particularly love the airport photo and the ‘snake’ ! Looking forward to seeing more pictures and wishing you all the best in your year’s travels, Jana x
Thanks Jana! I actually have some recordings from the school I photographed, as well as some monks chanting, and some street-noise from India & Nepal. There will no doubt be some mucking about that happens with those at some stage. I’ll post whatever results up here when it’s done, and I’ll let you know. There was some wonderful music out there. The Golden Temple, beyond feeding so many people each day, also hosts daily singing of the Sikh ragas, and you hear this incredible music throughout the whole place! Good luck for the New Year
Hey just catching up again after seeing some more of your wonderful photos – how’s it going?
I have a day off and have been lazing playing piano a bit and writing some notes – one to your mum – and some catch up emails. Are you still travelling? do write if you want, I think your photos are beautiful and love the contrasting ‘alone-together’ style of imaging contrasts. Yesterday a friend of ours sent us a cd of Buddhist chanting – a little required taste I sometimes feel, but all the same interesting in texture. You may know I once met the Dalai Lama….best wishes, jana x