Saturday 31st July

We are very fortunate to be in Nepal right now as there is there is a great Hindu religious festival happening. Many pilgrims are travelling to Kathmandu right now for it. What a sight, seeing generations of families sitting together making lingam. They have 9 days to make 10 million of these things out of clay!

Those that help are all fed whilst they are here. Environmentalism has been taken to the extreme as the food is served upon plates made of leaves that are discarded into tanks for the wandering cows to eat!

It is fascinating to see animals just meandering through traffic; so far we have come across goats, cows, numerous dogs, the odd cat and monkeys.

The baboon-like red monkeys live in many of the temples around Kathmandu and are treated warily by locals as they can give a vicious bite if you get too close. They are not beyond scrapping with each other also and we saw two fights break out. The first one involved a mother telling a juvenile probably for some upset to her youngster, they scrapped with the mother’s young one joining in, both fighting. The mother of the juvenile carrying a fairly small baby then decided to stick up for her own and attacked the other mother. Mother and baby ended up falling in the river. What a bedraggled sight that poor little one looked snuggled up to his mother after they climbed out of the river.
Kathmandu is a wonderful mix of religions with many Hindu and Buddhist peoples living well alongside each other. Something that will stay with me for a long time is the sight of the Hindu open-air cremations that take place. The bodies are wrapped in white and draped with an orange cloth. The river is considered quite sacred to Indian Hindus as it is a tributary to the Ghanges. The bodies are lain down with their feet uncovered so the water can gently lap at them, washing away any sins and preparing them for their ascent to heaven clean. When all the family have arrived the funeral can commence –it is the right of the oldest son to set the funeral pyre of the father.






Some people are asking what happens to the ashes...well the pyre is checked for any remains, then if there is only charcoal left, the river is just over the edge :)