Family Trip to Nepal - Part 2
Note: Since the write-up is
really long, I divided it into two parts to make it more convenient and less tedious
for my readers :) Please read Part 1 first. Thank you for reading!
Day 5:
Since it was a tiring
journey yesterday, we were supposed to take rest but then we didn't. We hired a
cab and visited the Patan Durbar square where there were so many magnificent
structures but most of them were under construction since it was being destructed
badly by the 2013 earthquake. Still then, it looked so splendid, it had few
temples inside and there were also shops mostly of statues and handicraft items.
We bought several bronze statues from there. These statues are quite popular in
Bhutan for their good quality and fairly cheaper prices.
We then went to Thamel and then
ta-da its shopping time. Thamel is known to be the shopping centre of Katmandu
and there were so many tourists there, everyone at the shops were buying one or
the other trekking stuff, probably for their trek to the mountains, not sure
if January is the perfect month for trekking though. We bought a lot of silk
and brocade pieces for tego and wonju (our traditional dress), some winter
stuff and gifts for people back home. There were a lot of Chinese goods in the
market, from textiles, foot wears to carpets and cosmetics.
Since we reached the hotel a
bit earlier, My sister and I went to the Boudha Stupa to circumambulate while
others went to rest. We were in fact worried about not completing the 108
circumambulation.
Day 6:
Another long journey we made
to Halesi (Draphu Maratika). We hired a cab and started
around 6:00AM. Thank god for the hotel,
they arranged all the transportation for us. This time the road was pretty
good, they said the Japanese Government helped them build this road which had shortened
the initial distance by more than 3 hours. But the roadside restaurants weren't
very good and hygienic. The road made our journey much easy and speedy, bless
the Japanese Government. We reached Halesi around 3PM. It is such an
amazing place full of mountains believed to be visited by Gods/Goddesses and
there were a lot of caves where these divine beings lived and meditated. I
personally found the place very sacred and there were a lot of pilgrims there
as well. Some of them circumambulated the entire mountain, I wondered when they
slept since there were a lot of people till late night.
We went to a place called
Nagi directly where there was a cave believed to be a hiding place for khandu
Yeshi Tshogyal, consort of Guru Rimpochoe (as per the Buddhist beliefs) and
Goddess Parvati, consort of Lord Shiva (as per the Hindu beliefs) when they
went to Halesi to subdue the demons. Despite of the who, the place seemed
really divine and I felt like some super power still existed there. We had to walk for about an hour (with old
people in the group) from the road point. We passed through a beautiful typical
Nepali village. The people there looked after and took care of the sacred caves
and the little kids of around 8 to 10 years of the village gave us the
narration of these sacred caves. Simply Amazing!
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| The Nepalese Village we crossed as we walked towards Nagi Cave |
It was quite dark and cold
when we reached the hotel in Halesi. I believe the lodgings were not very good
a few years back, but now they had all sorts/ standards of hotels. However, the
water problem still persisted with morning and evening timings, though the
hoteliers said the water in the place was very holy, it is said to be from the
Lord Shiva's bathing pond. The restaurants were pretty good and hygienic. Not
sure if it was because of the divinity of the place or because of the long
journey, we had a very sound 8 hours sleep after a long time.
Day 7:
The schedule of the day was
to visit the sacred Draphu Maratika cave, do some
circumambulation, visit other sacred caves in the mountains and hoist lungdhars
(wind flags). I lost my consciousness when we entered the main cave, oh my
goodness, I felt the existence of great powers. I saw everyone in
my group was fascinated. It was all rocks (looked like Shiva ling, Nandu - Lord
Shiva's messenger, also there a separate rock that looked like Ganesha). I felt
like the rocks were breathing and talking to me. It was magic and all I thought
in the moment was that God is Real. We offered our prayers and prostrated.
There were also small stone/mud passages which were meant for
us to pass through. It is believed that if we get through those passages
without getting struck, our wishes could be fulfilled or we would be able to
repay our parent's deeds or we will go to heaven after death. However, if we
get stuck, we are believed to have done so many sinful things and we would
probably go to hell or simply remain stuck there forever. I passed through all
three :P. It looked like it would be really difficult for healthy or rather fat
people to get through the small passages, my mum didn't even give a try fearing
to get stuck there forever.
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| The main cave |
We then visited the lower cave where we could still spot Guru
Rimpochoe's foot prints, hand prints, print of Guru's hat and a big opening on
the top of the cave which is believed to have cracked when Guru Rimpochoe flew
from the cave after killing the demons.
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| The lower cave |
Though there were different beliefs but what I made out from
the talks of the monks who stayed there and the locals, most believed that Lord
Shiva (in Hindu) and Guru Rimpochoe (in Buddhist) are the same divine beings.
However, having read many books on this and having followed both the religion
(Buddhism and Hinduism) for long, somehow I am certain that these two great
beings are not the same and they existed in different era. Nonetheless, since
the place is so heavenly, I believed both the divine figures might have visited
and stayed in these caves but I presumed it to be at different times.
The other cave we visited in the afternoon was of Jetshen
Jampelyang - the goddess of wisdom, we then hoisted lungdhars on the holy
mountain. We were told that this holy mountain had many other holy places to
visit, places where gods and goddesses were believed to have stayed and
meditated one time, but due to short of time, we couldn't visit all. Someday, I
would definitely want to go back to this holy mountain and visit all the caves
and meditate.
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| The holy mountain and the Lungdhars |
Towards the evening we went to circumambulate the main caves and could complete five rounds before it became too dark and the chilly wind started blowing again. It was such a fulfilling day and we had a wonderful sleep one more time.
Day 8:
The next was another tiring journey back to Kathmandu but in
between we decided to visit Yarignye, another divine place and a cave of Guru
Rimpochoe. It was high up on a mountain and we literally had to climb the dusty
mountain on our 9 seater. I studied about this place in our history book of the
eighth standard. It is the sacred cave where Guru was believed to have
meditated before visiting Bhutan on the invitation of the Sedha Gyeb of
Bumthang to cure his ailment. There was a small village near this holy cave. It
looked like almost all the households owned several Bodhi trees. We met many
people selling Bodhi beads on the way. The beads were priced from Rs 500/- to
Rs. 50,000/- based on their color, size and shapes. We were told that they
would earn more than Rs. 2,00,000/- earlier for the same beads they were
selling for Rs. 50,000/- today. It was said that the fall in the price of the
beads was a consequence of more supply of the beads from countries like India,
China and Bhutan.
The Bodhi beads are said to have originated from this place.
In fact when Guru Rimpochoe meditated in this cave he couldn't look at the poverty
stricken people in the village who would die of hunger. So, when he left the
cave, he gave his Bodhi Beads to the people of this village and blessed them
with good fortune. These people are said to have prospered after that and lived
a wealthy life.
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| Guru's Shoes |
This place was another blessed place we visited in Nepal. There were big blocks of rocks, supposed to be Guru's scriptures and holy texts, as we walked slightly downwards from the road point towards this holy cave. There were so many divine prints engraved on the rock of the cave. On the way, we could see a print of Guru's shoes carefully framed in a glass box. We then entered the cave, on its opening we could make out the tigress's face on rock. Guru was believed to have flown on the back of the tigress to Bhutan. Inside the cave, we could see the prints of his religious objects and the beads.
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| The tigress's face on the opening of the cave |
Day 9:
Finally, our last day in Nepal came quite quick. We still had
so much to do, we had to finish off shopping, tick off the gift list, complete 108
circumambulation and also visit some other places on our list. However, we
agreed that we had to come back again to be able to visit all the places on the
list since we had very less time and so many things to do.
So, we decided to go to Boudha for the last time to offer
prayers and then shop around since the Boudha area had a lot of shops. We also
agreed to visit the Narayanhiti Palace on the request
of my sister. She has this thing for history. The place was worth the visit
though it was sad and haunting. We could still see the bullet marks and the
places where who had been shot that devastating night in Nepal's history. Apart
from that, the palace looked really simple and the royal family would have been
really humble.
We
had the best dinner (Thakali Thali again but a special one) after reaching
Katmandu that night. It was a kind of thanksgiving for the wonderful trip we
had in this lovely warm country. The people we met on this trip were very kind,
warm and all smiles.
I
love the place, this was my third visit but I would definitely want to go back
again with my family and visit all the places we missed this time.
Day 10:
And
our 10 days trip to Kathmandu came to an end. Our flight was at 1 in the afternoon.
While others packed and completed their final shopping (never ending shopping),
my sister and I went to complete the 108 circumambulation of the Boudhanath Stupa. And yes we finally completed.
I felt a deep sense of contentment and
peace. It was an amazing trip and it was even more amazing to be back home after ten long days to this clean air, familiar environment and happy faces.
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| Boudhanath Stupa on the last day of our trip. |
