Newari fest!

My friends Ber and Mayke with our Newari food

I have to start out by saying that I have no idea what was celebrated today.

However, it was very enjoyable, and held a couple of surprises.

I was invited out by Damu (our host here in Banepa) for a day at the temple--Chandeswori temple, that is. According to Lonely Planet, this temple marks the spot where Parvati (in the form of Durga in the form of Chandeswori--Hindu gods are confusing) defeated the evil Chand. According to Damu’s wife, it marks the spot where a man chopped into a tree in the jungle which bled, so they knew it was a god. Either way, big temple. A family had a light festival today, which involved lighting lots of butter lamps and little pyramids of butter and cotton and five giant bowls filled with (not kidding) 26000 hand woven oiled wicks. You even got to stir the 26000 wicks with a big stick. Talk about pyros.

Me being a pyro.

I also *drum roll, please* got to go into the temple. I was very hesitant about this, since non-Hindus aren’t allowed within the temple proper, like, ever. But they let us go in today, and if anyone wants to know about it, email me/message me and I’ll talk your head off; my inner anthropologist was going nuts. It was so cool. Crowded, smoky, and confusing, but cool.

After the ceremonies we went off to have a Newari style breakfast (fried chapati--called puri-- and curried chickpeas). Then we bummed around a while, looking at gardens and touring the local hospital (it has a nursing school, Mum!); until it was time for a Newari style lunch (beaten rice, curried potatoes, buff meat, pickled ginger, roasted soybeans and peanuts, and a weird lentil donut). I thought after all of this, dinner would be optional, so I went home to while away the afternoon reading, but Damu had other plans. When I didn’t show up for dinner at the temple, he personally came to get me on his motorbike and I was jetted back to join in the (I’m not kidding) fifth round of dinner; the building near the temple where people literally feast isn’t your typical community hall that seats hundreds, so people have to take turns. This time there was tomato soya ball yumminess, coca cola with raksi, tarkari, soup, pickles, three kinds of meat, syrupy donut balls called gum-jum-something-or-another, and the famous local curd that’s close to yogurt. Since I had not anticipated another feast and had snacked on granola and tinned tuna (separately of course), I came back one stuffed goose. But as always, it was a great experience, and I’m grateful for the awesome people that make it happen stuff like this happen every other day here.

That Sunday I took a trip to Panauti, where I got to see the cool Durbar square, and a second square with temples built where two rivers (and a third invisible river) converge, and where there was a funeral taking place. The rituals, which included everyone walking down the stairs to rinse their feet in the river, were interesting to see, and I felt a little awkward just sitting and watching, but everyone else on my side of the river was just staring at the event; plus, I really wanted to take part in some little way since my Grandpa Coley had died just a few days before and I didn’t get to go to his funeral in the States. After getting a little emotional (and doing my best to explain why--in Nepali--to the people staring at me), I went to several jewelry shops and consoled myself by buying chura (bangles) and a pair of silver earrings. It was a nice trip, and I even got some nice new views of the Himalaya.

One of the squares in Panauti with lots o temples