Harrowing Journeys

Last week we watched a film called "Blood in the Snow". It consisted of interviews relating to a video shot by climbers in the Himalaya that shows Chinese Border Guards gunning down fleeing Tibetan refugees as they cross a pass toward Nepal. Yesterday we joined a volunteer conversation group with local students, mostly Tibetan refugees. Three out of the four people in my group had taken the same journey across the Himalaya as depicted in the film. One of the young men even had his group scattered by approaching Chinese Police and was left alone with his cousin to make the journey. They walked for 29 days, suffered frostbite, and were so uncertain of reaching Nepal that they thought they might die. But they did make it to Nepal, and then to Dharamsala, where they will study language and live with their own community. When they arrived they were granted, as all new arrivals are, an audience with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. They cried and he told them that there was no need, they were free.

Travelers' English

I've noticed certain people with kind of obnoxious verbal habits when traveling. Here they are in a pretentious list:

1) Using the verb "do" when referring to places visited or having intent to visit.
Yeah, I did Bandipur, or I'm hoping to do Thailand and South East Asia next year.
This implies to me that places are activities, or duties, like "I did the laundry", or a checklist, rather than actual real places where people live. Also, sometimes a place is criticized due to some preceived lack.
I hated Gorakphur, there's nothing to do there.


2)Using words like "they" or "them" or "these people".
They don't seem to mind bumpy roads. These people always rip me off.
Obvious. Generalizations.

3) Using baby talk when talking to non-native speakers.
Where bus station? How far Ghorka is?
Dropping out articles, scrapping prepositions, not conjugating verbs, or just messing up the order of the sentence. Often speaking these bizarre phrases a little too loud, even when the listener is clearly well spoken. Once even, after baby talk was responded to with a clear and reasonable answer, I was turned to and quietly told, "that's the trouble, sometimes they just don't understand".

Namo Buddha

click to enlarge

Pashupatinath, Kathmandu

The pyre was already laid and a man was busy soaking bundles of straw in the Bagmati River--the wet straw will help contain the fire and heat the pyre. I noticed a group of people walking down the stairs to the left, among them, supported by the sons, was the father, shrowded in orange robes, his face showing placcidly from beneath. They ascend the small platform and circle the pyre thrice--on the final round, the widow sobbing for for one last touch, supports her husband's feet clumsily, sweetly. Finally, the deceased is gently rested on the pyre. Many eyes are wiped. The sons strip to bare chests and wash briefly in the river, purifying themselves, and surround their father. The eldest has the fire, and leaning down together he lights the flame in his father's mouth. They stand a moment and begin carefully laying damp straw over the still body from head to the feet until he is fully covered, and just a thin whisp of ochre smoke rose from the head. The pyre is then set from beneath and slowly is enveloped in thick pungent smoke. It burns for some hours until nothing is left but ash, which is swept into the Bagmati unceremoniously and the platform is washed with river water for the next use.

[update] Heavenly Path; Lovism

Anyone know the meaning of these? I can guess, but who makes them? This circular symbol, and 'lovism' and the 'heavenly path', all appear everywhere around Nepal.


Last night, in Dhulikhel at the Nawaranga Guest house, Purna explained that Heavenly Path is kind of a sect of Buddhism called "Monokranti", led by Swami Picasa Anunda; he says they have some extreme purification acts, lke long-term fasting and isolation and hot-coal walking.

Here's a website that might shed some insight, though I can't navigate past the home page.
http://www.heavenlypath.info/