Namaste,

I don't often really know what I am getting myself into. The first river I rowed in a raft on was the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. My first Himalayan mountain was Everest. So, I wasn't surprised this morning when the trip "south" of town was actually up in the hills and quite a bus ride.

Krishna, Raj's brother, picked me up at 6:30 am so we could beat the bus crowds. At the bus park, we found a direct to Pharping, but there were no seats left. "No problem," I said since I didn't think we were going far. In Nepal, you don't need to travel far for it to take awhile.

It being Saturday, many of the folks in the bus were headed to their home villages or to the same place we were going. The bus tout kept encouraging us to fit more and more folks in the bus. Eventually, I was propped up between Krishna and another man in an intimacy that elsewhere would be reserved for partners. I could not move my feet and was hanging on to the two bars hanging from the ceiling.

 The road was not wide enough to let two vehicles pass while moving so the bus jerked forward then stopped frequently. On each hairpin turn, we were clipped by our own exhaust in a noxious game of diesel fume tag.

We arrived after about 90 minutes and I didn't trust my legs to move me through the throng to the bus door. We'd given the bus folks something to talk about as it's not that common that Western folks ride local buses. Many eyes stared at me during the whole trip and I was glad, as usual, to have the experience of being a visible minority.

Pharping is one of the places in Nepal where Buddhism and Hinduism come together. We first visited a Buddhist enclave of monasteries built there because Padmasambava meditated in a cave. As is often the case, the enclave was built on a hill. As we climbed the stairs between the various prayer halls, the monks got older as we got higher.

The first temple was dedicated to both Green Tara (Buddhist) and Ganesh (Hindu). Here, the novice monks' voices broke and they sounded like they were chanting "out of tune." Two other temples shared deities as well in a cooperative juxtaposition that, I think, is rare in religion.

The enclave was silent except for the "monastic music" vibrating from the prayer halls. I was once again enthralled by the monks' deep throated chants punctuated by cymbals and horns. One older monk invited us to see a temple that had 1000 statues of Buddha and 1000 statues of a chorten lining the inner walls.

We headed next to Dakshinkali, a Hindu temple 2 kilometers down the road. Here is where the crowds were heading. The atmosphere was respectfully festive-somewhat of a cross between the sacred and county fair.

Leading down to the temple were stalls selling food, children's trinkets, flower leis, and animals to sacrifice. Kali, is a Hindu goddess that is appeased by blood. During a fall festival, many animals are sacrificed to insure Kali's thirst for blood (so she won't need to cause car accidents etc.).

I learned today that if an individual or family is in trouble, they can appease Kali any day by making a sacrifice at this particular temple (which is dedicated to Kali and these kind of sacrifices). Depending on a person's caste, they would choose to kill a chicken, pigeon, goat, or buffalo. Vegetarians can sacrifice a coconut.

The line to get into the temple to perform the ritual was probably over a 1000 deep and folks waited 2-3 hours in line to get into the temple. Given we weren't participating, we could go in the exit to observe.

The temple is near a river so the animals feet are bathed in the river (this is so the animal will allow itself to be slaughtered). The person wishing to appease Kali can kill the animal him or herself or pay a person in the temple to do it. There are butchers just outside the temple to attend to the carcasses of larger animals and birds are butchered at home.

People can light butter lamps in the temple in similar practice to Buddhists and Hindus seem to ring bells in the temple in ways not unlike spinning a prayer wheel.

We rode back to Kathmandu with a few ex-chickens. For once, I felt reasonably safe in a Nepali bus because I knew Kali had received as much blood as she wished on this particular day. There were still a few drop-offs that caught my eye and my breath though, especially knowing there had been two fatal bus accidents in the previous two days.

The ride back was even slower because the roads were more crowded. I was a bit wiped out by the travel but it was very good to get out of town and see the amazing juxtaposition of Hinduism and Buddhism.

TA

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