Our neighbors down the road are having a raucous party this evening, and blasting Nepali pop. It's louder than most of the noise in the Bronx! Still, the music is fun--like a hybrid of bhangra, Grease-style pop, and Buddha Bar mixes.
Yesterday I was so out of it that I left Sushila waiting for the second time in a row, so I missed another Nepali language lesson; my cell phone was dead and I came home late (around 9) so Ama-la had been worried. For the first time since coming here I felt really discouraged, guilty about letting people down. There was a familiar desire to huddle under the covers and isolate myself. Even though we had momos for dinner (and guests), I felt so bad that I just wanted to go to bed. Popo-la seemed to see that I was upset--he told me to sit next to him, and made me eat five extra momos. He's such a wonderful presence! I also got to talk with some friends at home before going to bed, which definitely lifted my mood.
According to one of the Buddhist books I've read, one of the qualities of wealth that a Buddhist initiate needs is the ability to feel shame for things he's done wrong. Correct remorse will bring good karma instead of bad. I guess I felt the correct remorse, because everything seemed to put itself right today, and I feel much more like myself. After breakfast popo-la took tsampa (ground barley)--the consistency is like wet sand, cohesive but grainy--and did a cleansing for Patricia, Tais, and myself, taking threads from our clothes at the end. Later he'll take the tsampa pieces to a monastery and the monks will do puja (ceremony) to clear obstacles in the year to come, and our energy will get some benefit from it. Amchi-la also offered to take a few names of some dear friends who have been in bad circumstances lately from me, to lamas in India for pujas there, so they'll have prayers said for them. I'm grateful for the generosity people are showing in this way.
As usual, medicine lessons are covering lots of ground. Cause, mode of entry, and classification of illnesses are a few of the concepts we've been studying in the last couple of days. According to Tibetan medicine, there are two classes of cause of illness. The first is the distant and the second is the proximate cause. The distant cause is further classified into general and specific. The general distant cause is ignorance, which is responsible for the varying afflictions that arise in sentient beings. For example, someone who enjoys smoking cigarettes becomes addicted, which causes disease; it is ignorance that is the final cause. For those who claim to "know the risks and not care", examine the word more closely--it contains the word "ignore"! The specific distant cause of illness is the Three Poisons, or the afflictive emotions of attachment, hatred, and delusion. These correspond to proximate causes of illness, which are the three humors: wind or lung (attachment), bile or tiba (hatred), and phlegm or peken (delusion). The karmic influence on health and illness is also very interesting, but there is so much philosophy and detail that I won't go into it.
Since we've just begun studying dietary behavior in depth, I'll post some of the more common foods and tips. First some fun weight-control trivia: apparently if you drink your beverage before eating a meal, it will help you lose weight or stay thin. If you drink during the meal, it helps to maintain your current body weight. If you drink after the meal, it helps you to gain weight and assists with digestion. Speaking of drinking, it used to be that rainwater was considered the best kind of water to drink. Now, of course, with acid rain etc., it isn't; hot boiled water is the best. I can attest to the surprisingly apparent benefits of drinking it--it's soothing to the digestive system and in general. I recommend it. (Note that it should be drunk on the same day it's boiled, not after.) It's also good for asthma and hiccups!
Also, here's a surefire cure for diarrhea (which has been proven more effective than both Western and Chinese remedies). Boil water and make rice. Grind the rice in the boiled water. Put in a bit of salt, boil more on a low flame for 30 minutes or so. Keep stirring/grinding and boiling until it becomes like a porridge and all the water is dissolved. Put in a whole banana, cut up of course (use two if the diarrhea is super bad) and stir until the pieces are completely dissolved. Mix thoroughly, let it sit for about five minutes. Add a bit of boiled water, just so it isn't too thick. Add one spoon of butter and make sure it's totally dissolved; boil for about ten more minutes. Then drink it and the diarrhea will be gone! If that's just way too time-consuming or the case isn't so bad, just eat some bananas--it works like a charm. (Tibetan medicine is focused very much on digestion and digestive problems...which is good for the poor weak stomachs of the foreign students who come to study in the community!)
A few more random bits: green peas are bad for women with menstrual problems or ovarian issues, but good for high blood pressure. Lentils made into a paste will help skin irritations. Mutton is good for syphilis. Milk is good for tuberculosis, chronic fever, and diabetes, but bad for the mind. Radishes and carrots increase digestive heat, which is generally good for digestion (unless, I suppose, there's a pre-existing imbalance or disposition for one).
Aside from medicine, after only two classes with Sushila, I'm better at speaking Nepali than Tibetan! That might be largely because we're only learning conversational Nepali and not addressing the written language at all, but it's still exciting. We spent some time at the end of class talking about the energy problems here. I've wound up discussing it with almost everyone recently. The rumor is that starting sometime in February they're going to increase the load-setting to 11 hours a day...that means no electricity whatsoever for basically half of every day. Pretty crazy. Any business that hasn't scraped up the 25K-60K Rs it costs to buy a generator or an inverter is going to have a really tough time. How are people going to refrigerate food? In the winter, while temperatures are practically 0 degrees, this isn't so bad; but in the summer, when it's 90 degrees every day--nobody will be able to keep dairy or meat in the house. It's unbelievable. Ke garne? Jiban Nepal maa yestai gaaro. (What to do? Life in Nepal is hard...)
Sushila thinks that the people in the Terai region who are fighting for autonomy (there were bombs yesterday; but it's some 8 hours away from here by bus) are probably remaining unwilling to negotiate because they're being either provoked or supported--silently and invisibly--by the Maoists or certain government candidates, to prevent the elections in April. The people who are currently members of the "parliament" have very comfortable lives, and have for the last 5 years of what's been essentially anarchy. They don't want to give up their status and wealth. It's certainly in their favor to kick up this conflict and prevent the elections from knocking them out of their seats. It's happened before that an official who is not elected to his party position pops up not long after as a high-ranking member of another party. It's quite a crazy situation.
One of Tais' friends from Brazil, Patricia, has been staying here at the house visiting for the last week. She's been living in India (Bhir I think); she's a Shiatsu therapist and M.D. It's been a pleasure hanging out with her and Tais together. Hopefully we can stay in touch.
Last note: in a burst of longing for familiar reading, I read Women in Love over the past day or so. At first I found Lawrence to be an enjoyable if excessively lush writer (though he came earlier, I read Baldwin first, and it reminded of that style), but towards the end of the book his didactic philosophical tangents started to get irritating instead of romantic. After closing the book, I felt a little bit dismayed that for all its ambition the novel turned out to be the kind of vain, almost pessimistic dreamy junk as most romance novels. Still, he did capture--or at least successfully allude to--some real truths about women, men, and the inevitabilities of life, at least of the few I know. For his time I'm sure he was indeed a visionary, but without defending my opinion with literary criticism (how unenlightened), I wasn't too charmed by it. I think I'll go back to the Upanishads without any more interruptions.
Goodnight!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Around
The last several days have been punctuated with (inevitable I suppose) digestive sickness. It's all for the good my digestive system, I'm sure.
On Saturday we had a tour with a really phenomenal guide, Anil Chitrakar, who isn't even a guide by profession really. He's done so much important work that I can hardly remember the bits and pieces we heard about! For one thing, he teaches at Stanford (he himself studied engineering at the University of Pennsylvania) and broadens the minds of budding inventors and engineers by bringing in history, urban planning, anthropology, architecture, and a general spirit of great compassion and unselfish goodwill. He's also the founder of both Kathmandu 2020 and Crafted in Kathmandu.
The tour was of Patan, one of the three city-kingdoms of the old Kathmandu Valley, and it was certainly far from being a touristy type affair. We saw the real guts of the city, such as is possible for two hours or so anyway, and spanned the ancient and the modern not only from beginning to end but also within each courtyard and home. That's unavoidable, since the Valley seems in a way to be nothing less than a tumultuous fusion of time periods and ethnic flavors, but he brought out the individual workings of each construction in a really enlightening way.
Anil spoke a lot about the challenges of actually managing this diverse and precious place, especially with the unending political difficulties. It was entertaining, but far more important, a really educational experience...not in the narrow sense of getting a general glimpse of where I'm staying for these 5 months--though I did get that--but in the broad sense of getting a lasting insight into the responsibilities of living in a sacred place (which everyone on Earth does) and managing its relics and resources (which everyone should).
After lunch we caught the second half of a concert at the newly opened Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, which was nice except for the growing gloomy cold, and that I got sick a few minutes into the second set and had to run off. Still, I got to hear Mariano (the sax player) and his group playing at the Hyatt across the street on Sunday, because their playing at brunch was so amplified that all of Boudha got a free broadcast. I'm not too sorry, though, because by evening my stomach was under enough control to go to Upstairs with Yanik, which turned out to be absolutely great. We heard some of the best young jazz musicians I've encountered anywhere, and had the pleasure of hearing a visiting jazz vocalist, Beate, who's brand new to KTM as well--she'd only been in town 5 days, from Germany. The band was "hot", "jumping", every other old and new jazz term I can think of...they were vibing off each other so well, it really gave the place an atmosphere; with every track, but I particularly liked "All of Me". I hope we can see them again next week.
However...Sunday I was laid up with stomach ills again, and only had one class, which turned out to be more than enough, because I got to Tenzin's around 3 and didn't leave until nearly 7. Admittedly we spent a good two hours just talking, and she taught me how to make sugar tea, but it was a strong lesson as well. It was a wonderful afternoon. Today was the reverse--no Tibetan, but medicine; a very quick and thorough class. I really enjoy studying with the Amchi. It takes a lot of attention and review to grasp anything concrete, because the methodology and science has to be dug up from terms that can easily become vague and indistinct, or just conceptual.
It's approaching bedtime, almost 10, so off I go--like the lights will at 6AM because of loadsetting!
On Saturday we had a tour with a really phenomenal guide, Anil Chitrakar, who isn't even a guide by profession really. He's done so much important work that I can hardly remember the bits and pieces we heard about! For one thing, he teaches at Stanford (he himself studied engineering at the University of Pennsylvania) and broadens the minds of budding inventors and engineers by bringing in history, urban planning, anthropology, architecture, and a general spirit of great compassion and unselfish goodwill. He's also the founder of both Kathmandu 2020 and Crafted in Kathmandu.
The tour was of Patan, one of the three city-kingdoms of the old Kathmandu Valley, and it was certainly far from being a touristy type affair. We saw the real guts of the city, such as is possible for two hours or so anyway, and spanned the ancient and the modern not only from beginning to end but also within each courtyard and home. That's unavoidable, since the Valley seems in a way to be nothing less than a tumultuous fusion of time periods and ethnic flavors, but he brought out the individual workings of each construction in a really enlightening way.
Anil spoke a lot about the challenges of actually managing this diverse and precious place, especially with the unending political difficulties. It was entertaining, but far more important, a really educational experience...not in the narrow sense of getting a general glimpse of where I'm staying for these 5 months--though I did get that--but in the broad sense of getting a lasting insight into the responsibilities of living in a sacred place (which everyone on Earth does) and managing its relics and resources (which everyone should).
After lunch we caught the second half of a concert at the newly opened Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, which was nice except for the growing gloomy cold, and that I got sick a few minutes into the second set and had to run off. Still, I got to hear Mariano (the sax player) and his group playing at the Hyatt across the street on Sunday, because their playing at brunch was so amplified that all of Boudha got a free broadcast. I'm not too sorry, though, because by evening my stomach was under enough control to go to Upstairs with Yanik, which turned out to be absolutely great. We heard some of the best young jazz musicians I've encountered anywhere, and had the pleasure of hearing a visiting jazz vocalist, Beate, who's brand new to KTM as well--she'd only been in town 5 days, from Germany. The band was "hot", "jumping", every other old and new jazz term I can think of...they were vibing off each other so well, it really gave the place an atmosphere; with every track, but I particularly liked "All of Me". I hope we can see them again next week.
However...Sunday I was laid up with stomach ills again, and only had one class, which turned out to be more than enough, because I got to Tenzin's around 3 and didn't leave until nearly 7. Admittedly we spent a good two hours just talking, and she taught me how to make sugar tea, but it was a strong lesson as well. It was a wonderful afternoon. Today was the reverse--no Tibetan, but medicine; a very quick and thorough class. I really enjoy studying with the Amchi. It takes a lot of attention and review to grasp anything concrete, because the methodology and science has to be dug up from terms that can easily become vague and indistinct, or just conceptual.
It's approaching bedtime, almost 10, so off I go--like the lights will at 6AM because of loadsetting!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Dinner talk
Despite being sick, I'm awake later tonight than I have been pretty much since arriving here. The last two days have been quiet in the sense that I've been sick (and staying home), and also an ongoing ruckus, because the government suddenly raised oil prices by 150Rs. The price has already gone up twice besides this in the last two months so the student unions etc. are protesting in the streets, burning things, etc...in fact, they were throwing rocks at the Hyatt hotel (which has electricity, oil, water, etc. in abundance and is exempt from all the loadsetting and so on). The students finally got what they wanted, for once, because they lowered the price back to what it was (1100Rs, which is still up 200Rs from the original price).
There has been some stimulating dinner conversation recently, first regarding the awkward position geographically--and therefore politically--of Nepal, being crunched between China and India. China's chance to control India through water, i.e. the Yellow River in Tibet, is one reason that India has not formally recognized His Holiness as being the official government in exile of Tibet. Aside from the contentious water issue, though, they are both major powers in the region, so as Tais said, fighting is pointless--it's like conflict between Russia and the United States. Another topic, probably even more sensitive, is the markedly lackadaisical attitude of many of the monks and nuns here in Boudha. While those in Swayambhunath are supposedly much better, there are all sorts of contradictions in nature and violations of vows going on in the local monasteries. There are a lot of monks and nuns who have friends outside the monastic community, who wear fuzzy monkey socks, designer shoes, trendy jackets, etc. that violate dress codes, and own fancy cell phones and even motorbikes.
What is most strange, though, is that I've seen a few monks walking down the streets with what appear to be girlfriends, and it's not my eyes deceiving me--there are plenty of young monks (and maybe nuns, though I haven't seen this particular violation among the women) who seem to be perfectly at ease with having romantic relationships outside the monastery. According to Ama-la, a lot of these monks are coming from Tibet or Dharamsala, where the monastic orders are strict and there is no wiggle room for following laws and taking vows seriously. Those who want a more relaxed and lenient environment come to Kathmandu, particularly Boudha, to escape what they feel are constrictions of their natural lives. I confess to finding a lot of the behavior I've observed around the stupa quite surprising. The difference is clear when a man is holding himself back from engaging in typical daily life and when one's behavior is indistinguishable from a layman; the only way to tell he belongs to an order at all is his robes, under which you might see Converse, Puma, or even Gucci.
Meanwhile, I finished one of the books on my reading list and now I'm moving on to finish the Upanishads, which I'm very much looking forward to. Maybe I'll actually achieve my reading list goals for this semester!
There has been some stimulating dinner conversation recently, first regarding the awkward position geographically--and therefore politically--of Nepal, being crunched between China and India. China's chance to control India through water, i.e. the Yellow River in Tibet, is one reason that India has not formally recognized His Holiness as being the official government in exile of Tibet. Aside from the contentious water issue, though, they are both major powers in the region, so as Tais said, fighting is pointless--it's like conflict between Russia and the United States. Another topic, probably even more sensitive, is the markedly lackadaisical attitude of many of the monks and nuns here in Boudha. While those in Swayambhunath are supposedly much better, there are all sorts of contradictions in nature and violations of vows going on in the local monasteries. There are a lot of monks and nuns who have friends outside the monastic community, who wear fuzzy monkey socks, designer shoes, trendy jackets, etc. that violate dress codes, and own fancy cell phones and even motorbikes.
What is most strange, though, is that I've seen a few monks walking down the streets with what appear to be girlfriends, and it's not my eyes deceiving me--there are plenty of young monks (and maybe nuns, though I haven't seen this particular violation among the women) who seem to be perfectly at ease with having romantic relationships outside the monastery. According to Ama-la, a lot of these monks are coming from Tibet or Dharamsala, where the monastic orders are strict and there is no wiggle room for following laws and taking vows seriously. Those who want a more relaxed and lenient environment come to Kathmandu, particularly Boudha, to escape what they feel are constrictions of their natural lives. I confess to finding a lot of the behavior I've observed around the stupa quite surprising. The difference is clear when a man is holding himself back from engaging in typical daily life and when one's behavior is indistinguishable from a layman; the only way to tell he belongs to an order at all is his robes, under which you might see Converse, Puma, or even Gucci.
Meanwhile, I finished one of the books on my reading list and now I'm moving on to finish the Upanishads, which I'm very much looking forward to. Maybe I'll actually achieve my reading list goals for this semester!
Monday, January 21, 2008
COLD!
Today was my second day of yoga, and for some reason all day my attention has been fading in and out. I keep drifting into idle thoughts, or just zoning out altogether. Maybe it's because of the cold that the whole house seems to have caught--Tais and Ama-la aren't feeling great either. Amchi-la said it's a combination of the winter chill and the seasonal change; nothing to do but drink tea and keep as stable a body temperature as possible. Given that we go through winter in the morning, summer at noon, and winter again in the evening, that isn't so easy. Meanwhile, I spent the morning with Tenzin plodding along with Tibetan language, since the resistance to studying has caught up with me now that we're getting into combining the grammatical and the colloquial. I don't know if I was right in assuming I could handle studying two languages at once; we'll see next week.
While the challenge of studying language has steadily increased, studying with Amchi-la is consistently intense. There are unfathomable depths to the theory of the five elements/three humors. Now that we've passed the basic history, there are sets of numbers of various things to memorize and comprehend, already even more than in the neuropsychology class I took with Dr. Kluger. Examples: 5 conditions for conception, 5 elements in the sperm/egg at conception, 7 bodily constituents, 3 excrements, 3 methods of addressing imbalance, 4 factors leading to disturbance, 6 tastes, 3 post-digestive tastes. And then related to the 3 nagis, defects, dokshas, or principal energies--wind, bile, and phlegm (also known as lung, tiba, peken or air, fire, earth)--there are other sets. There are 5 types of each principal energy, 8 potencies or qualities, 20 characteristics (6 for wind, 7 for bile, 7 for phlegm), and 17 secondary characteristics; there are 7 bodily types based on these combinations. And this is just a fraction of what we've gone through so far, in...four lessons. Not including any of the various scholars' theories on each set, and a million other things, including discussions of death, bardo states, rebirth, karma, global warming, and a great many details of the menstrual cycle, conception, and fetal development according to the elements and dokshas.
Aside from that I'm exploring the beginning of practicing Ashtanga Hatha yoga (the other branch of Ashtanga is Kundalini yoga...which is the only kind I've been exposed to before). Hatha is basically the physical, though it's not just asanas; it doesn't directly work with energy channels or chakras. Which is fine with me--I have enough madness going on to worry about spiritual supersensitivity right now. Rupesh, the instructor, is wonderful. He's very perceptive, he can gauge effort and attention precisely, and he's easygoing without being easy on me. He said that the cold I seem to be developing (including cough and fever) are partly because of the cold and the pollution, but also partly because of the yoga; it brings out the toxins in the body and will probably continue to do so in this way for a couple of days. I'm not turned off by the idea, but I really hope the weather will warm up soon; I hate being a slave to the temperature.
While the challenge of studying language has steadily increased, studying with Amchi-la is consistently intense. There are unfathomable depths to the theory of the five elements/three humors. Now that we've passed the basic history, there are sets of numbers of various things to memorize and comprehend, already even more than in the neuropsychology class I took with Dr. Kluger. Examples: 5 conditions for conception, 5 elements in the sperm/egg at conception, 7 bodily constituents, 3 excrements, 3 methods of addressing imbalance, 4 factors leading to disturbance, 6 tastes, 3 post-digestive tastes. And then related to the 3 nagis, defects, dokshas, or principal energies--wind, bile, and phlegm (also known as lung, tiba, peken or air, fire, earth)--there are other sets. There are 5 types of each principal energy, 8 potencies or qualities, 20 characteristics (6 for wind, 7 for bile, 7 for phlegm), and 17 secondary characteristics; there are 7 bodily types based on these combinations. And this is just a fraction of what we've gone through so far, in...four lessons. Not including any of the various scholars' theories on each set, and a million other things, including discussions of death, bardo states, rebirth, karma, global warming, and a great many details of the menstrual cycle, conception, and fetal development according to the elements and dokshas.
Aside from that I'm exploring the beginning of practicing Ashtanga Hatha yoga (the other branch of Ashtanga is Kundalini yoga...which is the only kind I've been exposed to before). Hatha is basically the physical, though it's not just asanas; it doesn't directly work with energy channels or chakras. Which is fine with me--I have enough madness going on to worry about spiritual supersensitivity right now. Rupesh, the instructor, is wonderful. He's very perceptive, he can gauge effort and attention precisely, and he's easygoing without being easy on me. He said that the cold I seem to be developing (including cough and fever) are partly because of the cold and the pollution, but also partly because of the yoga; it brings out the toxins in the body and will probably continue to do so in this way for a couple of days. I'm not turned off by the idea, but I really hope the weather will warm up soon; I hate being a slave to the temperature.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Yoga etc.
This morning was my first yoga lesson. I don't feel any regret that I scheduled it for 6AM, because despite being unusually comfortable in bed this morning around 5:45, getting up was well worth it. My body has so enthusiastically endorsed this new schedule of "early to bed, early to rise" that I can't mentally mope about it. I'm realizing more and more how fortunate I am to have one-on-one lessons with these teachers, because they're all phenomenal in their own way and I'm learning faster than I ever have before. If I devote all my free weekday time to studying, I don't even know what state my mind will be in a week from now, let alone when I come home.
Last night was great too. Yesterday was my first day off (and weekends consist only of Saturdays here), so I spent the heat of the day reading at the stupa and went to a party with Yanik and Tais in the evening. It was an interesting experience and quite fun...all these kids in their 20s hanging out and schmoozing with their parents; the hippies and so forth from the 1970s who settled here when marijuana was legal and raised their kids to be true citizens of the world, wandering souls, very laidback, and definitely the type to have good fun more than once in a while. It was also amusing how the same political banter went on as it does in the States, particularly among the "young intellectuals", but it seems a great deal more interesting in Nepal than it does at home!
I've noticed that people who speak English as a second (or third...or fourth...) language pick up one particular speech mannerism very quickly--saying "you know" to punctuate their sentences, probably because it's actually useful for someone who isn't entirely fluent. I find that people who aren't native English speakers generally tend to use the language in a clearer, simpler, and more direct way, regardless of how flowery or effusive their style might naturally be. On the other hand, maybe that's a cultural thing and not a byproduct of using a foreign language. It's still refreshingly lovely to be around so many people who mind their own business and help you to mind yours.
I've been going through the postcards of various mandalas and Buddhist deities with a fine-tooth comb...there's a store by the stupa that has probably a hundred or so, with little blurbs on the back, i.e. "It is said that Avalokiteshvara's head split into ten from grief and despair when he saw the extent of wickedness in the world and the utter hopelessness of saving all people," and "The mandala of the wrathful Vajrapani symbolizes victory and control over the fire elements." The quality of the cards themselves aren't great, but some of them are good enough, and for 10Rs (...maybe a nickel or so) it's worth it to have some inspired decoration on the walls in my room. My sudden remarkable affinity with Manjushri (who besides being the God of Wisdom happens to be considered the divine creator of the Kathmandu Valley and the God of Speech, Learning, and Science according to various sources) continues to deepen, so I'm going to do some research on "him" when I have time.
Now I have some serious studying to do before I meet with the Amchi this afternoon. My stomach isn't feeling great, which I attribute to the insane!! cab ride home last night--every bump in the road was equivalent to the bus incident that resulted in a lawsuit when I was in middle school. We flew across the city faster than I knew was possible in a car. Time is getting short, so I'm going to study. I look forward to having a chance to get online and catch up with people, send some emails, etc.--but the last couple of days have been really busy and I don't know how devoted I'll be to regular communication soon...
Last night was great too. Yesterday was my first day off (and weekends consist only of Saturdays here), so I spent the heat of the day reading at the stupa and went to a party with Yanik and Tais in the evening. It was an interesting experience and quite fun...all these kids in their 20s hanging out and schmoozing with their parents; the hippies and so forth from the 1970s who settled here when marijuana was legal and raised their kids to be true citizens of the world, wandering souls, very laidback, and definitely the type to have good fun more than once in a while. It was also amusing how the same political banter went on as it does in the States, particularly among the "young intellectuals", but it seems a great deal more interesting in Nepal than it does at home!
I've noticed that people who speak English as a second (or third...or fourth...) language pick up one particular speech mannerism very quickly--saying "you know" to punctuate their sentences, probably because it's actually useful for someone who isn't entirely fluent. I find that people who aren't native English speakers generally tend to use the language in a clearer, simpler, and more direct way, regardless of how flowery or effusive their style might naturally be. On the other hand, maybe that's a cultural thing and not a byproduct of using a foreign language. It's still refreshingly lovely to be around so many people who mind their own business and help you to mind yours.
I've been going through the postcards of various mandalas and Buddhist deities with a fine-tooth comb...there's a store by the stupa that has probably a hundred or so, with little blurbs on the back, i.e. "It is said that Avalokiteshvara's head split into ten from grief and despair when he saw the extent of wickedness in the world and the utter hopelessness of saving all people," and "The mandala of the wrathful Vajrapani symbolizes victory and control over the fire elements." The quality of the cards themselves aren't great, but some of them are good enough, and for 10Rs (...maybe a nickel or so) it's worth it to have some inspired decoration on the walls in my room. My sudden remarkable affinity with Manjushri (who besides being the God of Wisdom happens to be considered the divine creator of the Kathmandu Valley and the God of Speech, Learning, and Science according to various sources) continues to deepen, so I'm going to do some research on "him" when I have time.
Now I have some serious studying to do before I meet with the Amchi this afternoon. My stomach isn't feeling great, which I attribute to the insane!! cab ride home last night--every bump in the road was equivalent to the bus incident that resulted in a lawsuit when I was in middle school. We flew across the city faster than I knew was possible in a car. Time is getting short, so I'm going to study. I look forward to having a chance to get online and catch up with people, send some emails, etc.--but the last couple of days have been really busy and I don't know how devoted I'll be to regular communication soon...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Pollution, and Amchi-la
My brain hurts. Didn't sleep well this morning after the usual 3 AM jolt, because of the freezing cold, and if it weren't for the Winter Silk and fleece and lots of hot tea I would be an icicle. The air pollution and cold are a killer combination, and my sinuses are not pleased. Anyway, after Tibetan class I wandered around the stupa for a while and picked up a little book on mandalas. The store also had the film on the Karmapa, Living Buddha: The True Story, that I've been searching for (in vain until now) since last April--even RMA didn't have it. Actually, these kinds of films on various high lamas and rinpoches are all over the place here. They're impossible to find in the States and I may stock up while I'm here.
This afternoon was my first real lesson with the Amchi. We sat and read and discussed the history of Tibetan medicine for two hours that felt like two days--hence the brain pain. He knows so much! It's overwhelming. I've spent the evening in kind of a daze, mostly from the mental exertion. There's all kinds of common sense to concepts and legends that would be considered nonsense by most Western doctors. Truthfully, some of what I learned today seemed relevant to an explanation of the very origins of the world, not just Tibetan medicine.
However, it wasn't all the kind of deep concepts that I find so attractive...there was a lot of talking about the various kings and physicians who composed and compiled and commented on the four basic texts of the Tibetan medical tradition (the Root Tantra, the Explanatory Tantra, the Oral Transmission Tantra, and the Last Tantra...and then the concluding and analytical chapters), which are comprised of a total of 156 chapters. We covered so much ground that I'm finding it impossible to figure out what to write here, either as a sample or a summary. Disregarding the origin of the tradition in Tibetan history, since that's quite a specific study and probably not interesting to anyone but a student, I suppose I'll mention some little things.
The first international medical conference held in Tibet was at the Samye monastery (which happens to be the location of Mikel Dunham's book of photographs). The conference included scholars of medicine from India, China, Greece, Turkistan, etc. and the Tibetan science of healing took the essence of each of these and combined them in the formation of its own unique system. That in itself is very interesting, as it contains one of those paradoxes that inevitably mean something true is at hand: the Tibetan medical tradition is both particular to Tibet and definitely unique and internally developed; however, it was the first to synthesize the knowledge of the most learned physicians in neighboring nations--which clearly include giants of not only the ancient but also the modern world.
Amchi began to teach me about hot and cold disorders, and the types of principal energies, but these were sidenotes to the historical narrative, so I won't mention them here yet. Still, it's worth mentioning now that there are three traditional materials used for Tibetan medicine: mineral material, plant material, and animal material.
For a few centuries already, animal material has not been used, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama's emphasis on ecological preservation has cemented this. (In fact, Amchi was quite passionate about H.H.'s sole merit in keeping the medical tradition alive, particularly through popularity in the West, and from where I stand this is a perfectly true view of things...as opposed to the stance of some Tibetan doctors, who believe their individual efforts of lecturing and giving seminars in Europe and the States are responsible for the surge of continental interest in Tibetan medicine.) However, the proportions are not equal between the two types of material that are still used; about 99% of remedies are entirely herbal, and the 1% mineral material is used for precious pills. "Precious pills" have heavy metals like mercury in them, which sounds frightening, but there are very careful and meticulous methods of detoxifying these metals for use in medicine in the Tibetan system.
The electricity in Boudha just went out. I don't remember whether I mentioned before that the government has recently instituted power cuts, meaning no electricity six hours a day, at arbitrary times, Monday through Saturday. It's romantic to study by candlelight, but the novelty is wearing off and my eyes don't appreciate it much either.
The weekend is approaching, and I will be glad to rest and relax for a couple of days...but I have a good 20 hours until then, so it's bedtime now.
This afternoon was my first real lesson with the Amchi. We sat and read and discussed the history of Tibetan medicine for two hours that felt like two days--hence the brain pain. He knows so much! It's overwhelming. I've spent the evening in kind of a daze, mostly from the mental exertion. There's all kinds of common sense to concepts and legends that would be considered nonsense by most Western doctors. Truthfully, some of what I learned today seemed relevant to an explanation of the very origins of the world, not just Tibetan medicine.
However, it wasn't all the kind of deep concepts that I find so attractive...there was a lot of talking about the various kings and physicians who composed and compiled and commented on the four basic texts of the Tibetan medical tradition (the Root Tantra, the Explanatory Tantra, the Oral Transmission Tantra, and the Last Tantra...and then the concluding and analytical chapters), which are comprised of a total of 156 chapters. We covered so much ground that I'm finding it impossible to figure out what to write here, either as a sample or a summary. Disregarding the origin of the tradition in Tibetan history, since that's quite a specific study and probably not interesting to anyone but a student, I suppose I'll mention some little things.
The first international medical conference held in Tibet was at the Samye monastery (which happens to be the location of Mikel Dunham's book of photographs). The conference included scholars of medicine from India, China, Greece, Turkistan, etc. and the Tibetan science of healing took the essence of each of these and combined them in the formation of its own unique system. That in itself is very interesting, as it contains one of those paradoxes that inevitably mean something true is at hand: the Tibetan medical tradition is both particular to Tibet and definitely unique and internally developed; however, it was the first to synthesize the knowledge of the most learned physicians in neighboring nations--which clearly include giants of not only the ancient but also the modern world.
Amchi began to teach me about hot and cold disorders, and the types of principal energies, but these were sidenotes to the historical narrative, so I won't mention them here yet. Still, it's worth mentioning now that there are three traditional materials used for Tibetan medicine: mineral material, plant material, and animal material.
For a few centuries already, animal material has not been used, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama's emphasis on ecological preservation has cemented this. (In fact, Amchi was quite passionate about H.H.'s sole merit in keeping the medical tradition alive, particularly through popularity in the West, and from where I stand this is a perfectly true view of things...as opposed to the stance of some Tibetan doctors, who believe their individual efforts of lecturing and giving seminars in Europe and the States are responsible for the surge of continental interest in Tibetan medicine.) However, the proportions are not equal between the two types of material that are still used; about 99% of remedies are entirely herbal, and the 1% mineral material is used for precious pills. "Precious pills" have heavy metals like mercury in them, which sounds frightening, but there are very careful and meticulous methods of detoxifying these metals for use in medicine in the Tibetan system.
The electricity in Boudha just went out. I don't remember whether I mentioned before that the government has recently instituted power cuts, meaning no electricity six hours a day, at arbitrary times, Monday through Saturday. It's romantic to study by candlelight, but the novelty is wearing off and my eyes don't appreciate it much either.
The weekend is approaching, and I will be glad to rest and relax for a couple of days...but I have a good 20 hours until then, so it's bedtime now.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Update
It seems that every day will be as busy and intense as I decide to let it be. Today felt like a week. I got up late, almost a quarter after seven (I can't believe that's sleeping late) but compensated with a good 45 minutes of sitting before breakfast. My room smells wonderful; I got a beautiful oil lamp yesterday and some jasmine oil, so it was very pleasant to be inside despite the cold. It's a good thing I got some calm moments in before going out, because today was really packed. My lesson with Tenzing was fantastic, but super hard, because we went through all the superscribed and subjoined letters, as well as the prefixes, suffixes, and post-suffixes. Without going into the gory details, suffice it to say that there's a ton to remember. We only got about fifteen minutes of colloquial Tibetan in at the end, but plenty to remember there too: kale phep (go slowly), kale shuk (stay slowly), shu(k)ten jag (goodbye), sangni jelyong, jela jelyong, jema jelyong. Disregarding sounds and shapes, there are a lot of similarities to Hebrew in the way the Devanagari script is constructed, though it's much more complex. Silent letters, and the relation of sound to breath according to each letter...it's fascinating.
I left Tenzing's feeling very uplifted because we had done a lot of work. Instead of going home, I found myself at the stupa, where I was drawn into a thangka shop. I had intended to just browse, but got into a conversation with the guy who owns the place, who happens to also be a painter and teacher of painting. His uncle apparently is a very well-known painter; he was invited to Washington recently, and one of his paintings was sent to the Smithsonian by request. Quite impressive if it's true. Anyway, he was really excited when I displayed my (negligible) knowledge of the varying quality of the paintings, and wound up showing me about ten different kalachakra mandalas. He even gave me a little quiz to see if I could put them in order by quality (which I did correctly, woohoo). There's a gorgeous one of Manjushri that I really felt attracted to, but I'm going to wait it out. Anyway, the man--Pasang Lama Lopchan--took me up to the studio where the painters employed by the store work. I got to watch them painting and get an in-depth explanation of certain scenes, particularly the Wheel of Life and Death. It was a gorgeous environment; the room was covered in thankgas...Buddha Sakyamuni, green Tara, white Tara, kalachakra mandalas, Avalokiteshvara, Yama, all sorts.
By the time I looked at my watch it was past noon and I was late to meet Yanik, so I ran home. I barely had time to catch my breath before he arrived. We were both late to go meet Amchi Namgyal, so we didn't get a chance to eat lunch with Ama-la and the family. We went with Amchi to what I've dubbed his "headquarters"--school and home--and he gave us a tour, including the storerooms where all the raw materials are kept. As Yanik said, the smells were totally intoxicating. It was practically a healing experience just inhaling the air infused with all those herbs. We saw how they put coating on the ball pills, among other things, and the classrooms. It was a very pristine and dignified place. I look forward to visiting again at some point soon. Then we had lunch--more momos...Ama-la made them last night too...I'm going to turn into a momo if I keep eating like this.
My mom and I both thought I was going to lose more weight in Nepal...I can safely say that that was an uninformed assumption and that anyone living with a Tibetan mother will never lose weight unless they are severely ill.
Now I've been studying for two hours with Tais at the Hyatt hotel across from the house, because it's the only place around that has electricity. The hours of powerlessness (that sounds very poetic, eh?) are from 6-9 today, which is terribly inconvenient. Lucky for us the rich tourist folks' haven is right across the road and we can come squat in the lobby for a few hours!
I left Tenzing's feeling very uplifted because we had done a lot of work. Instead of going home, I found myself at the stupa, where I was drawn into a thangka shop. I had intended to just browse, but got into a conversation with the guy who owns the place, who happens to also be a painter and teacher of painting. His uncle apparently is a very well-known painter; he was invited to Washington recently, and one of his paintings was sent to the Smithsonian by request. Quite impressive if it's true. Anyway, he was really excited when I displayed my (negligible) knowledge of the varying quality of the paintings, and wound up showing me about ten different kalachakra mandalas. He even gave me a little quiz to see if I could put them in order by quality (which I did correctly, woohoo). There's a gorgeous one of Manjushri that I really felt attracted to, but I'm going to wait it out. Anyway, the man--Pasang Lama Lopchan--took me up to the studio where the painters employed by the store work. I got to watch them painting and get an in-depth explanation of certain scenes, particularly the Wheel of Life and Death. It was a gorgeous environment; the room was covered in thankgas...Buddha Sakyamuni, green Tara, white Tara, kalachakra mandalas, Avalokiteshvara, Yama, all sorts.
By the time I looked at my watch it was past noon and I was late to meet Yanik, so I ran home. I barely had time to catch my breath before he arrived. We were both late to go meet Amchi Namgyal, so we didn't get a chance to eat lunch with Ama-la and the family. We went with Amchi to what I've dubbed his "headquarters"--school and home--and he gave us a tour, including the storerooms where all the raw materials are kept. As Yanik said, the smells were totally intoxicating. It was practically a healing experience just inhaling the air infused with all those herbs. We saw how they put coating on the ball pills, among other things, and the classrooms. It was a very pristine and dignified place. I look forward to visiting again at some point soon. Then we had lunch--more momos...Ama-la made them last night too...I'm going to turn into a momo if I keep eating like this.
My mom and I both thought I was going to lose more weight in Nepal...I can safely say that that was an uninformed assumption and that anyone living with a Tibetan mother will never lose weight unless they are severely ill.
Now I've been studying for two hours with Tais at the Hyatt hotel across from the house, because it's the only place around that has electricity. The hours of powerlessness (that sounds very poetic, eh?) are from 6-9 today, which is terribly inconvenient. Lucky for us the rich tourist folks' haven is right across the road and we can come squat in the lobby for a few hours!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Enjoying a honey latte...
I'm updating from the Java Cafe in Thamel, where Tais and I are hanging out for a few hours before dinner back at home in Boudha. After an intense lesson with Tenzin this morning (I really can't believe that I've learned almost an entire new alphabet in two days--I should be getting language credit for this), we spent an hour just talking. She has an interesting perspective on how the Tibetan language is becoming a fusion of Tibetan, Nepali, and Hindi here in Kathmandu; and how the younger generation doesn't use formalities or really the same language at all as the grandparents' generation. Apparently the young people here don't greet one another, not even with tashi delek, and using "real" (old) Tibetan with them will only get blank stares in response. Tenzin's own story is quite interesting itself, having studied and grown up in India and now being in Nepal for a decade or so, where she teaches at a monastery. Though she has five uncles rinpoche, she studies Buddhism with a teacher outside the family, which she said is common for people who come from families with lineage connections...funny.
Home for lunch (Ama-la is a great cook) and then to the stupa for a few hours in the afternoon. It's overwhelmingly wonderful and surprisingly comfortable to be in a country where so many people are devoutly spiritual, and public spaces are just overflowing with ritual and prayer. It's such a different approach to "religion" than the neurotic kind of clinging that characterizes religious observance in New York, let alone the kind of self-righteous piousness that seems to inevitably accompany such observance. It's so much more about the individual's choice and their own internal work, which makes space for there to be a real sense of community. I feel respected not by specific people but simply by virtue of being in a place where--so far--most everyone is just not interested in analyzing other people. Not to say that people are disinterested...people are very friendly! It's just a such a different vibe.
Still, it's only been a few days, and I've been guaranteed by more than one person that I'll get sick of everything here in a few weeks. I'm not counting on it one way or the other. Right now there are too many beginnings yet to...begin...to make any kind of predictions. Tomorrow is my first Tibetan medicine lesson with the Amchi, and Sunday is my first yoga class. On top of that, I have plenty to study already from working with Tenzing.
Side note: Vidhea has apparently done some really interesting work concerning trafficking of women and girls in South Asia. She told me about an article she wrote and interviews she conducted with women who had been trafficked, and some people she knows who have worked with the issue in various capacities. I'm psyched about having the opportunity to interview her at some point, as well as meeting anyone she knows. If this becomes a focus of my time here, I will definitely be happy. It seems that wherever a door closes a window really does open.
Nike! or...
Simja nango! (goodnight in Tibetan!)
Home for lunch (Ama-la is a great cook) and then to the stupa for a few hours in the afternoon. It's overwhelmingly wonderful and surprisingly comfortable to be in a country where so many people are devoutly spiritual, and public spaces are just overflowing with ritual and prayer. It's such a different approach to "religion" than the neurotic kind of clinging that characterizes religious observance in New York, let alone the kind of self-righteous piousness that seems to inevitably accompany such observance. It's so much more about the individual's choice and their own internal work, which makes space for there to be a real sense of community. I feel respected not by specific people but simply by virtue of being in a place where--so far--most everyone is just not interested in analyzing other people. Not to say that people are disinterested...people are very friendly! It's just a such a different vibe.
Still, it's only been a few days, and I've been guaranteed by more than one person that I'll get sick of everything here in a few weeks. I'm not counting on it one way or the other. Right now there are too many beginnings yet to...begin...to make any kind of predictions. Tomorrow is my first Tibetan medicine lesson with the Amchi, and Sunday is my first yoga class. On top of that, I have plenty to study already from working with Tenzing.
Side note: Vidhea has apparently done some really interesting work concerning trafficking of women and girls in South Asia. She told me about an article she wrote and interviews she conducted with women who had been trafficked, and some people she knows who have worked with the issue in various capacities. I'm psyched about having the opportunity to interview her at some point, as well as meeting anyone she knows. If this becomes a focus of my time here, I will definitely be happy. It seems that wherever a door closes a window really does open.
Nike! or...
Simja nango! (goodnight in Tibetan!)
Monday, January 14, 2008
Wandering
Yesterday I went to Boudha for the first time. I briefly met Ama-la, and Amchi Namgyal and Tenzing, my Tibetan teacher. We didn't really get a chance to interact because Yanik was escorting and we didn't have much time. However, I got to see the stupa for the first time...it was a brilliant sight. This enormous white structure with blinding gold at the top, monks everywhere, chanting coming from every direction, prayer wheels spinning all around the walls. We did a kora and headed back to the Passage House, where I spent the afternoon doing work that I didn't manage to finish before leaving the States.
Today was a big day, moving in with my home stay family. It was also the first day I got to branch out, and thus forced to go it alone in the wilderness of Kathmandu. I woke up obscenely early, around 3:30, running away from another dream. If this keeps up my dream life is going to become more confusing and intense than daily life. I got up around 7 and spent some time online in the morning, then met my Nepali teacher--we decided to split the week so I do three days of Tibetan and two days of Nepali. I asked to do that because Nepali seems quite easy to pick up and I would love to be proficient in the language by the time I leave.
We got to the home stay house around 12 and had a leisurely lunch. Tenzing came over and we walked back to her place together, where we worked for an hour an a half. Out of that hour and half I got a (very basic) familiarity with the thirty Tibetan consonants--mind you, disregarding all vowels, superscript, and subscripts--and learned a few basic questions and answers:
Kerung ki tsen kare yin?
Nga Miki yin / Nye ming Miki yin.
Kong ki tsen kare rey? / Kong su rey?
Kong Yanik rey / Kong ki tsen/ming Yanik rey.
Kerang kane yin?
Nga ari ne yin / nga ari wa yin.
Kong kane rey?
Kong nepal ne rey.
All I have to say is...this is a frustrating language. It's tough to learn, especially since I have zero exposure to it in a colloquial way. However, with study, I have faith that it's possible to...learn something. Haha. Tenzing is very patient.
After the lesson, I walked around Boudha by myself. I did a few koras (circumambulations) of the stupa and got quite lost on my way back home. In fact, I might have been stuck out before dark were it not for an American woman wearing monk's robes and a lot of pierced jewelry. She was walking with her daughter, who was maybe five and clearly had a developmental disability or illness of some kind. She kindly offered to walk me back to where I needed to go, so I swallowed my natural paranoia. The little girl grabbed my hand and dragged me most of the way, and I let her, snot and spit be damned--according to a learned rinpoche, one of the requirements to study Tibetan medicine is to not consider excretions of patients as filth.
On the way, the woman told me how her son had also been sick and had died after a lot of futile treatments with Western medicine. When her daughter was born, she decided not to stay in America and do the same thing, so she came to Nepal a year ago. Since then she's used only Tibetan medicine--they live in Boudha--and she's been taking her daughter to various lamas and rinpoches. Last year her daughter had been getting seizures. When she finally got to see a particular high rinpoche, the girl had two severe seizures in a row, like never before; then the rinpoche said that she would be okay, and she hasn't had a seizure since. The woman talked to me about how karma and health are related, and how surgical removal of tumors and such doesn't do anything to the karma, so disease will return in some form. About then we reached the house, so we said goodbye and that was that. It was an unexpected encounter.
Another woman arrived shortly after I got home from Brazil; Tais. She's in her 30s and studying at the monastery nearby. We get along swimmingly so far and had a good time hanging out with Popo-la (grandfather) tonight during the dark hours, sans electricity! We also walked around the stupa for about twenty minutes after dark, which was beautiful and very different from the daytime bustle.
Now I'm exhausted and am going to bed!
Today was a big day, moving in with my home stay family. It was also the first day I got to branch out, and thus forced to go it alone in the wilderness of Kathmandu. I woke up obscenely early, around 3:30, running away from another dream. If this keeps up my dream life is going to become more confusing and intense than daily life. I got up around 7 and spent some time online in the morning, then met my Nepali teacher--we decided to split the week so I do three days of Tibetan and two days of Nepali. I asked to do that because Nepali seems quite easy to pick up and I would love to be proficient in the language by the time I leave.
We got to the home stay house around 12 and had a leisurely lunch. Tenzing came over and we walked back to her place together, where we worked for an hour an a half. Out of that hour and half I got a (very basic) familiarity with the thirty Tibetan consonants--mind you, disregarding all vowels, superscript, and subscripts--and learned a few basic questions and answers:
Kerung ki tsen kare yin?
Nga Miki yin / Nye ming Miki yin.
Kong ki tsen kare rey? / Kong su rey?
Kong Yanik rey / Kong ki tsen/ming Yanik rey.
Kerang kane yin?
Nga ari ne yin / nga ari wa yin.
Kong kane rey?
Kong nepal ne rey.
All I have to say is...this is a frustrating language. It's tough to learn, especially since I have zero exposure to it in a colloquial way. However, with study, I have faith that it's possible to...learn something. Haha. Tenzing is very patient.
After the lesson, I walked around Boudha by myself. I did a few koras (circumambulations) of the stupa and got quite lost on my way back home. In fact, I might have been stuck out before dark were it not for an American woman wearing monk's robes and a lot of pierced jewelry. She was walking with her daughter, who was maybe five and clearly had a developmental disability or illness of some kind. She kindly offered to walk me back to where I needed to go, so I swallowed my natural paranoia. The little girl grabbed my hand and dragged me most of the way, and I let her, snot and spit be damned--according to a learned rinpoche, one of the requirements to study Tibetan medicine is to not consider excretions of patients as filth.
On the way, the woman told me how her son had also been sick and had died after a lot of futile treatments with Western medicine. When her daughter was born, she decided not to stay in America and do the same thing, so she came to Nepal a year ago. Since then she's used only Tibetan medicine--they live in Boudha--and she's been taking her daughter to various lamas and rinpoches. Last year her daughter had been getting seizures. When she finally got to see a particular high rinpoche, the girl had two severe seizures in a row, like never before; then the rinpoche said that she would be okay, and she hasn't had a seizure since. The woman talked to me about how karma and health are related, and how surgical removal of tumors and such doesn't do anything to the karma, so disease will return in some form. About then we reached the house, so we said goodbye and that was that. It was an unexpected encounter.
Another woman arrived shortly after I got home from Brazil; Tais. She's in her 30s and studying at the monastery nearby. We get along swimmingly so far and had a good time hanging out with Popo-la (grandfather) tonight during the dark hours, sans electricity! We also walked around the stupa for about twenty minutes after dark, which was beautiful and very different from the daytime bustle.
Now I'm exhausted and am going to bed!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Day One
This morning I arrived in Singapore and took the four-hour flight to Kathmandu. I stayed awake and spent the entire time studying Nepali, which came in handy when I got the to airport ("Batrum kahah cha?!"). Somehow when I went back to the phrasebook after a break, the language seemed more accessible. Maybe it's because I was half-dreaming during the whole flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, though I can't remember much of anything I dreamed. Aside from studying, I also got a spectacular view of the Himalayas for about 45 minutes as we came in for landing. Under the sky was a distant, endless horizon of snowcapped mountains above a long line of blue and purple peaks, and finally dark green hills with dirt plateaus and rippling stairs of sand just under the plane. The camera couldn't capture it through the window, so I just took in the view as an ephemeral experience.
Unexpectedly, it was about 70 degrees when we landed. I took a taxi into Kathmandu (only about 20 minutes) and to the Passage House, where Vidhea and Yanik live. We chatted a little about the electricity situation--though Nepal has the second-highest potential for hydropower in the world, the governmental nonsense and corruption has put the country in a position where the electricity is sold to India and then sold back to the Nepalese at a higher price. Unfortunately, that means that electricity here is not only unsteady, it's steadily unsteady! They cut electric power for six hours, six days of the week. How inconvenient. I guess it results in a lot of power piracy.
After lunch Yanik and I went out walking around the city, which was exhausting. I was quite energetic when I arrived, but our tour of Thamel--the tourist area--totally wiped me out. The place is insane! It really is another world. The traffic is crazy and crowded--no directions, no lanes, lots of speed. Honking is like a paralanguage here. On top of the vehicle traffic, the pedestrian traffic is unbelievable; people are packed together like sardines, moving in schools and barging their way through crowds at random. It's madness, and there are colors everywhere, competing smells and sights...a full-on assault on the senses.
I'm craving a nap now, but it's already almost 6, so it's better to stay up so I can wake up at 5:30 or 6 AM tomorrow (both because of my yoga classes and because, as Yanik says, Kathmandu is a "morning town"). One last note before signing off for today--the air pollution here is horrific, and I plan on wearing a mask SARS-style to protect my delicate lungs. It's far worse than NYC--apparently one of the top three cities in the world for air pollution, which is certainly not a statistic to advertise. To balance that, however, Bhaktapur, which is only about 40 minutes away (one of the three kingdom cities), is one of the cleanest cities in the world. Maybe the cleanest, actually, given its size and such. Interesting, no?
Tomorrow I meet my host family and teachers. Shubaratri (goodnight)!
Unexpectedly, it was about 70 degrees when we landed. I took a taxi into Kathmandu (only about 20 minutes) and to the Passage House, where Vidhea and Yanik live. We chatted a little about the electricity situation--though Nepal has the second-highest potential for hydropower in the world, the governmental nonsense and corruption has put the country in a position where the electricity is sold to India and then sold back to the Nepalese at a higher price. Unfortunately, that means that electricity here is not only unsteady, it's steadily unsteady! They cut electric power for six hours, six days of the week. How inconvenient. I guess it results in a lot of power piracy.
After lunch Yanik and I went out walking around the city, which was exhausting. I was quite energetic when I arrived, but our tour of Thamel--the tourist area--totally wiped me out. The place is insane! It really is another world. The traffic is crazy and crowded--no directions, no lanes, lots of speed. Honking is like a paralanguage here. On top of the vehicle traffic, the pedestrian traffic is unbelievable; people are packed together like sardines, moving in schools and barging their way through crowds at random. It's madness, and there are colors everywhere, competing smells and sights...a full-on assault on the senses.
I'm craving a nap now, but it's already almost 6, so it's better to stay up so I can wake up at 5:30 or 6 AM tomorrow (both because of my yoga classes and because, as Yanik says, Kathmandu is a "morning town"). One last note before signing off for today--the air pollution here is horrific, and I plan on wearing a mask SARS-style to protect my delicate lungs. It's far worse than NYC--apparently one of the top three cities in the world for air pollution, which is certainly not a statistic to advertise. To balance that, however, Bhaktapur, which is only about 40 minutes away (one of the three kingdom cities), is one of the cleanest cities in the world. Maybe the cleanest, actually, given its size and such. Interesting, no?
Tomorrow I meet my host family and teachers. Shubaratri (goodnight)!
Friday, January 11, 2008
The Euro
Here I am in Frankfurt. Just paid $7 for .5l of water. Slept through the whole flight, from before takeoff to post-landing, and I think the stewardess thought I was drugged. By the way, Singapore Airlines has only attractive, tiny women working as flight attendants, and they wear pretty dresses that emphasize their tiny attractiveness. I've never seen such lovely uniforms before. I bet even my grandmother would approve (and as she mentioned at brunch yesterday, she wouldn't let my father join the Brownies as a kid because she doesn't approve of uniforms). Anyhow, I've gotten almost exactly 8 hours of sleep. Hopefully the next leg of this flight (to Singapore) will be a bit more productive.
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