First, 2011 is the Year of Tourism in Nepal and they had a nice catchphrase/motto:
Here's an image of Durbar square in Kathmandu (there's a Durbar square in almost every town) during the pouring rain....the pigeons didn't seem to care about the wetness, but the cow was trying to keep dry under the eaves. This was outside the great museum we visited about the recent Nepalese royalty--sadly no photos inside.
***************************************On a sunnier afternoon, we visited Bhaktapur, which is a very old city in the Kathmandu valley. They have a huge hindu temple, tons of historical statues and buildings and a very medieval feel. Here are a few from the hindu temple:
One of my favorite hindu gods and the mascot for my capoeira school, Narasimha. The half-man, half-lion incarnation of Vishnu:
Me under a particularly ornate doorway:
And here's a version of Durga, the goddess of triumph over evil:
And these were some awesome decorate roof decorations - some of them graphically depicted some of the Kama sutra poses and we were told they were 500-600 years old! And the color is still original. These were made around the time Columbus was stumbling upon the "new world"....
While we were having lunch in the square above the temple, some devotees made a procession through: Here are the women
.....and the men:
One of the reasons the hindu temple is in this location is because there's a natural rock that rises out of the ground that looks like the god Ganesh. Here it is in its little shrine--it's pretty small, only about two feet high.
And a cool bathing area with snakes protecting it and a smiley local:
We had a nice young tour guide and after the hindu temple, he took us to visit the Thangka art painting school he attends in his spare time.
Thangka is a very ornate and detailed religous form of art that originated in Tibet and Nepal. They typically depict the life of Buddhaa or other important deities. There is also another, meditative (Mandala) form as seen here:
It was really awesome to see the students practicing and see the art in its various stages:
Often, there is real gold leaf or gold paint added for shine and effect. Here is a shot of two students adding a LOT of gold to one piece:
And up close to see how ornate it is:
It's difficult to describe the amazing, tiny details in these pieces of art. Some of the larger ones take weeks and weeks of nonstop work to complete. The guy who took us through the school was really full of information and said the artists often go into meditative trances while painting and that's part of their power.And here's a shot of me trying to choose one in a store--I wound up with two small versions and am waiting to properly frame them to display them--i'm afraid Bangladesh's heat and humidity will ruin them until I frame them....
After the great tour of the Thangka artist cooperative, our tour of Bhaktapur still wasn't over--they also make a lot of pottery in town, so we walked to the potter's square:
Here's a guy throwing a pot:
And the full circle, the people who mix the clay to make the pots--see it coming out in a giant clay turd on the right side?
And the streets of this town truly had a medieval feel - here are a couple women drawing water from a well:
************************************************We also visited a Ghurka museum while in Nepal--the Ghurkas are regiments of Nepalese army fighters who identify with a warrior-saint from the 8th century. They have fought in every major world conflict since the 1800s and are still an active group today.
There is only electrical power about 50% of the day during the dry season in Nepal and while we were in the museum, they didn't have power but kindly gave us a giant flashlight to view the displays:
And finally, a sweet little street scene of a goat and parakeet enjoying the sunshine:
Overall, I highly enjoyed Nepal and might try to make it back for a week or two this summer for some more adventures! The people were so warm and friendly, it was relatively cheap and there was lots of good food.
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