Back to Kathmandu and Mt. Everest

Day 60-62, September 14-16, 2008 (No Malaria)

I am now 62 days into this trip and my odds of getting malaria are almost zero. I almost feel guilty now calling this the Malaria Blog. If anyone has any suggestions of what I should re-name the blog, let me know. I will consider all options…except for whatever you propose, Chad. I usually never have any clue what you are talking about.

My trip back from the JPC was relatively uneventful except for a few gangs of teenagers that blocked the road at points trying to demand a toll to get by. I was totally intimidated by the yelling and hitting the car and would have caved and paid them double but Arjun just laughed at them and drove past. He’s the man. One of the Irish girls that was at the JPC needed a ride back to Kathmandu so we let her hop in. Since Arjun doesn’t speak a lot of English, it was nice to have someone to talk to on the long ride.

When I got back to Kathmandu, I went to meet Abe and Anna Goodale and their guide, Eck. I had met them back at the JPC. We were going to go to the Kumari festival that I had mentioned in my first Nepal post. This is one of the stranger and more fascinating festivals and traditions that the Nepalese have.

The Kumari is a little girl, 3-12 years old, who is literally worshiped as a living Goddess. Many cities choose a Kumari to represent them but the most famous and revered in Nepal is the Kathmandu Royal Kumari.
(Kumari Picture from Interet)

The Kumari selection process has been compared to that of the Dali Lama in Tibet and involves many religious and secular leaders in Nepal. I cannot do justice writing about the Kumari tradition so I am going to quote Wikipedia, the world’s foremost authority on everything, to describe the selection process:

“Eligible girls are Buddhists from the Newar Shakya caste (the clan to which the Buddha belonged) of silver and goldsmiths. She must be in excellent health, never have shed blood or been afflicted by any diseases, be without blemish and must not have yet lost any teeth. Girls who pass these basic eligibility requirements are examined for the battis lakshanas, or 'thirty-two perfections' of a goddess. Some of these are poetically listed as such:
A neck like a conch shell
A body like a banyan tree
Eyelashes like a cow
Thighs like a deer
Chest like a lion
Voice soft and clear as a duck's
In addition to this, her hair and eyes should be very black, she should have dainty hands and feet, small and well-recessed sexual organs and a set of twenty teeth.
The girl is also observed for signs of serenity and fearlessness (after all, she is to be the vessel of the fierce goddess Durga) and her horoscope is examined to ensure that it is complementary to the King's. It is important that there not be any conflicts as she must confirm the King's legitimacy each year of her divinity. Her family is also scrutinized to ensure its piety and devotion to the King.
Once the priests have chosen a candidate, she must undergo yet more rigorous tests to ensure that she indeed possesses the qualities necessary to be the living vessel of Durga. Her greatest test comes during the Hindu festival of Dashain. On the kalratri, or 'black night', 108 buffaloes and goats are sacrificed to the goddess Kali. The young candidate is taken into the Taleju temple and released into the courtyard, where the severed heads of the animals are illuminated by candlelight and masked men are dancing about. If the candidate truly possesses the qualities of Taleju, she shows no fear during this experience. If she does, another candidate is brought in to attempt the same thing.”

Once the girl reaches puberty or has any serious illness or loss of blood, it is believed that the Goddess has left her and a new selection process begins.

Once a girl is done with her duties, she goes back to live with her family. By all accounts, they can lead pretty miserable lives. Once worshipped and revered, they often have a lot of difficulty adjusting to life as a mere mortal. Parents still nominate their daughter, though, due to the high honor of having them selected.

The Kumari festival is being held now and we went down yesterday to see the chaos. There had to have been several hundred thousand people in Old City Kathmandu. We couldn’t even get close to the Kumari as she was driven around the town on a huge golden chariot. It was a little overwhelming and fascinating to see so many people turn out to worship a 9 year old girl.

It was good to see Anna and Abe again. They are starting a 8 month trip together all around Asia and down into Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. Eck also took us to a little back-alley restaurant to eat mo-mo’s. Mo-mo’s are a Nepali food similar to Chinese dumplings. These were filled with buffalo and were excellent.

Today, my last full day in Nepal, I took a flight north to do a flyby of Mt. Everest. It is really difficult to imagine how big the mountain is. We were cruising at 23,000 feet and the mountain summit was still about a mile above us. For comparison, if you were flying at the same altitude, the summits of Mt. Ranier in Washington or Mt. Hood in Oregon would still be one to two miles below you.

The Kathmandu domestic airport is pretty hilarious. There is an internet café without any computers. Also security is not what I would call tight. I set off the metal detector on the way to my gate and the guard looked at me and waved me through. During the plane ride, the crew opened the cockpit doors and let the passengers come in to see it and a better view of Mt. Everest. I couldn’t imagine any of this happening back home.

Nepal was amazing. I really loved it despite of and often times because of how different it was to anything I have ever experienced. I would love to see Nepal in a few years to see how different it is. I heard that a McDonalds, the worldwide symbol of westernization, is opening in Kathmandu next year. That can only mean that the age of instant communication has started to open up one of the last untouched places on Earth.