Swoyambhunath

Three demonstrations were going on simultaneously in the city today. A bus driver accidentally killed a child, so there was unrest; a student got into a violent altercation with another bus driver and smashed the bus windows, so the bus drivers' union was demonstrating; and of course, the petrol situation demanded a strike. As a result the roads were blocked in at least ten places in the city--probably many more--and I had to walk most of the way back from the clinic (near Basundhara) to Boudha. It took me an hour, and that was because I was lucky enough to find a van running around Chabehl...otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten home until 8PM. It was a trip, literally and figuratively; masses of people walking down the streets, buses barricading the roads so vehicles were pulled off the side in front of buildings. What a mess! At least the weather is beautiful.

I've been reading an Osho book called "A new vision of women's liberation." At first some of his ideas seemed intriguing, if not exactly radical in today's world, but I also have some skepticism. His ideas about women don't ring entirely true. All in the name of education, I guess. It can't hurt to know what one of the most famous "gurus" of the age has to say about the question.

Most of the coming week will be spent outlining my study projects for this semester. I'm thinking the first will be on sex work and human trafficking, and the second will have something to do with the history of Pakistan, particularly Ghandara (specifically, modern day Peshawar and Swat). As it turns out, the scholar and professor who toured Swoyambhunath with us is a friend and colleague of Alfred Foucher's, and will be publishing with him soon. What a funny coincidence...for the past six months at least, the Indo-Greek kingdom has been a continuous presence; first it came up while I was working at RMA, then I did research on it for an art history course, and now I'm stumbling into treasures of travel writing and some more serious investigations. Just a few days ago I was scouring Vajra for more information (for some reason books on Pakistan are impossible to come by here), and came across a map drawn by Foucher of the ancient geography of Ghandara. And now I've met Hubert! Happily, one of the professors overseeing an independent study is an expert on Pakistan; it's his area of anthropological study, and I think focuses on archaeology. My assumption is that going further into this Hellenistic Buddhist art will lead to deep waters.

I admit that I'm already watering at the mouth to travel, but that pesky survival instinct (and rational thought) will keep me away for at least another year or two. Still, since first discovering the history of this incredible vertex of civilizations, I've had a gut feeling that I must go there someday. Now I have no doubt--even if it's just intellectual capriciousness...but I don't think it is!

Speaking of Swoyambhunath, it was a spectacular place. The stupa itself was impressive. More than that, though, is the insane history that is what makes it a spot equal in meditative power to Bodghaya to the Buddhists...all of the scholars and yogis who had a hand in making it the sacred site it is. We spent the most time in a smallish temple, not very fantastic looking on the outside (and even inside really, compared to others), called Shantipur. Under it in a locked chamber is supposedly buried a three-dimensional Chakrasambhara mandala, in which resides the spirit of the first Newari Buddhist, the Indian yogi Shantikar Acharya (8th century). Only five people--all of the vajra master caste--are allowed to enter this locked part of the temple. The place overall has a powerful atmosphere, but this temple was particularly peculiar.

Atop Swoyambhu is also a small, rectangular building, the inner perimeter of which is lined with white shelves, protected from the visiting public by black iron gates. On the shelves are statues and carvings dug up from beneath the stupa and around it. All of them are breathtaking, but one work caught my attention--and it turned out to be the single piece not from the local area. It was a gift from a museum in Pakistan dating from Ghandara; a seated Hellenistic Buddha. My heart leapt! What a joy to see it...the only one in Nepal, from what Hubert said. And I would never have known! There are too many incredible things about these places to mention, and that's only of what I know, which barely qualifies as a fraction of a fraction of the history.

Enough for now, brain boiling over.