Up and Out

This morning I walked around the stupah multiple times to warm my bones and wake my mind up before I sat down at a café to write this post. I was brought to center by the clicking of the prayer beads, the swish of the turning prayer wheels and the faint sound of birds chirping, which fades behind humming mantras that are chanted to remind oneself to have a kind and compassionate heart for all beings. There are always hundreds of candles lit day and night and the smell of the incense that passers by light as part of their morning ritual has become a comfort; the candles appear to be lit for community, to be utilized by all. It was a pretty typical morning in Boudha, especially since I can no longer go for runs (because of my back pain) so I have been forced to find other ways to bring myself to center to start the day.

Apartment!

I love Boudha and I love my apartment. It is beautiful here and the culture is wonderful. I am working on my research but it is proving to be more difficult than I originally imagined. I am still really interested in my topic and I am eager to see where it takes me, but I have approached a few speed bumps that are steeper than I initially bargained for when writing my proposal. I may need to do a bit of reworking and refiguring soon. The elections are today! But, there has been a bandh (strike) for over a week now, so technically nothing is supposed to be open and no cars are supposed to drive, which makes research in the field nearly impossible. I have had a few interviews now though and things are starting to pick back up. It is a very exciting time to be in Nepal, this is the first democratic election in 10ish years and I am eager to see how it goes. The strike (initiated by the Maoists) is supposed to scare people into not voting because they wouldn’t feel safe leaving their homes, and most public transportation is barred from use. There are also numerous bombs going off, none of which have affected me, throughout the country serving as yet another scare tactic. The election is definitely not being welcomed by all there are posters of burning ballot boxes pasted around from one of the parties, huge issues with voter registration and various other things that affect one’s ability to vote…even if they want to. It will be interesting to see what comes tomorrow after all is supposedly said and done.

Emily's Didi casting her ballot

My research comes at an interesting time with the elections and whatnot. I am looking at the role of the government and other institutions in creating poverty, and producing social norms that marginalize certain communities. The caste system was technically outlawed 7 years ago, but under the interim constitution, which has since been abandoned so casteism is still extremely relevant in Nepal. Some political platforms are working against such discrimination, but everything is subject to change after today.

Anyways, since moving to Boudha and beginning the ISP period, I have had numerous enriching experiences outside of my research, don’t tell my program but most of my time has actually been spent exploring Nepal outside of anything related to my independent study. For example, I went to a metal festival! It was really scary but really fun and a cool experience. I went with Jacob and Mollie and we (especially me) did not fit in whatsoever. Actually, there was one guy at the festival who recognized me from having seen me in Boudha earlier that day! The two of us were probably the only people at the festival that would spend anytime, much less live, in Boudha haha. Crazy things were yelled and the last band, a metal group from Poland called Behemoth, was dressed in costume and was really freaking scary. Moshing(sp?) broke out everywhere and I held on to the fence at one point to avoid it, but I also HEADBANGED and it was really fun!

What else… on a completely opposite front I have continued going to mediation, which is a lot easier now that I live 5 minutes from the monastery, and I also went to a teaching by an amazing Lama and I continue to learn and fall in love with Buddhist philosophy. I don’t have wifi at home, but I have spent time cooking for myself and reading 100 Years of Solitude (thank you Malia!) and have been enjoying living alone(ish).

My birthday was a couple of days ago and it was amazing! I have made such good friends since coming to Nepal and felt so much love coming from home and from here on my birthday. Emily made me a bracelet and gave me crocheted ear warmers from one of the women’s empowerment organization that she has been working with and studying, Mollie gave me the most beautiful earrings that I have been eyeing, and Mollie, Haley, Roberta, Amanda, Jacob, Megan, and Louise and I all ventured up to Nagarkot for the night! It was a lot of fun, we played cards and all put our mattresses together on the floor and slept in a pile watching Crazy Stupid Love. At dinner they gave me a bottle of wine and had a birthday cake for me… there aren’t very many ovens in Nepal so it was actually a birthday pancake but it said “20 years Happy Birthday Manisha” and Manisha in devnagari all written in chocolate. I have no idea how they pulled it off but it was so sweet!

In the morning we all woke up at 4:45am and walked for an hour to see the sunrise over all the Himalayan ranges. I even saw Everest! The moon on our walk was glowing bright orange resembling the sun, and I watched it set behind the mountains, something I have never even imagined before. It was a really good feeling to walk, even though we could have driven, because I could feel my body and mind waking up with the sun rising and the world waking up around me.

looks small, but it's REALLY far away.

Ear warmers from Emily! Haley on the left

I have continued to settle into Boudha and have developed a strange affection for the hoopla that is the rest of Kathmandu. Boudha is a world heritage site, which means it is also a breeding ground for tourists, which means that there are more beggars as well. In the beginning I felt really uneasy by all of beggars and I didn’t know how to react to their insistence and I didn’t know what I was contributing to by giving them money (there is a lot of corruption in the begging industry here in Nepal) and the whole thing made me really uncomfortable. But as I become a part of Boudha I am recognized by more and more people and have developed a sweet sort of relationship with some of the people asking for money. I give food when I have it, but otherwise we just share a moment of conversation, a namaste, and/ or a warm smile.

bedroom

kitchen

living room

Sorry for the poor image quality, these are all coming from my phone.

I'm alive, makes me feel like I took happy pills and time stands still

I have been wandering through the himals for the last few weeks, but I am safely back in Kathmandu now! It was an absolutely incredible experience. I have been dabbling and babbling trying to determine the best way to express it all in words; to do it some sort of justice. I don’t know if it is possible but I am going to try… I will mostly use photos as a guide (which also won’t ever do it justice, but may come closer?).

Pokara

First, I drove up to Pokara and from there trekked for two days, staying in Guest Houses and Tea Houses and eating none other than daal bhat (per usual) until I reached Tuckuchhe; here I lived with the most incredible family for a little over a week. Tuckuchhe is a small village tucked beautifully in the middle of the Annapurna region. Everything felt right living and experiencing village life. My family was wonderful; I absolutely loved my Baabaa and my Didi and my Bahinis. No one spoke any English so my Nepali improved leaps and bounds throughout my time there. Part of my field work while I was there was conducting an interview on someone’s life story, charting someone’s kinship, drawing a map of the village, and researching something that is pertinent to the village.

For the life’s story I interviewed my Baabaa. He has lived such an incredible life! He used to be the mayor of the village and has 6 children, all of which are dispersed around the world, and in inter-caste marraiges, except for the one… my Didi who is 26 and cringes at the idea of ever getting married (not very typical-Nepali). She is studying to be a teacher in Kathmandu. The Thakali people (the people of Tuckuchhe) are a drinking caste; they have their own language, and their own unique and beautiful culture. In my house they distilled chichi raksi, apple raksi, and oat raksi (raksi is homemade liquor). Every night my Baabaa got so excited about sharing with Libby and I (we lived in the same home) and having us try all of the different raksis.

Libby, Didi, me, Baabaa

I had so much fun with my family, every night we would laugh and talk and sit around the dinner table for hours sharing and hollering with laughter (oftentimes at the miscommunications that were so frequent). When I interviewed my Baabaa for the life story project it became a family affair, everyone joined in to listen! I cannot remember the last time I laughed so hard. In fact, one of the things I asked him was to reflect on his happiest moment in life, and he said it is moments like this, where family is together laughing and having fun. Even madam (her and her family live in the house), who never comes out to join in with family activities was laughing and having fun with us, he said he never sees her laugh, and that he would remember this night forever. I became very close to my Tuckuchhe very, very so fast.

From the front of my house

My Didi was also incredible. We had amazing conversation and shared stories about ourselves and things that have helped shape who we are. We talked about how our differences between our cultures’ and created a forum for any questions to arise with the assurance that we would give an honest answer. One day, literally all day, we sorted 100 kilos of beans (black, red, good, and bad) and just talked the entire time. (Hence the improvement in my Nepali.)

Using rocks to grind spices for apple crumble

Tuckuchhe is known for apples, the Mustang region supplies all of the apples to Nepal, and of all the villages, Tuckuchhe has the second most! Literally all but one family there has apple orchards. So, naturally Libby and I thought it would be a good idea to teach our Didi to make apple crumble, slightly more difficult without an oven but totally do-able! She loved it and we climbed up a nearby mountain and had a picnic to eat it!

Also in front of my house

apple crumble

Throughout the home stay I was able to engage in village life and help with chores; I carried 25 kilos of potatoes on my head down a huge mountain—from the farm up top all the way to my home; I sorted all those damn beans; helped garden; etc. etc. etc. I really loved the manual labor and I loved that everything you could possibly need was available in the village, or even likely within a single families’ garden/farm/animals. Everything I ate, my family grew, and the eggs came from the chickens that often sat beside me while I was doing my homework.

Needless to say, a week was not enough time, and I already miss my Tuckuchhe family dearly.

The trek was also really spectacular. We walked for four days after the home stay, making our way back to Pokara once again. We passed through a completely new ecosystem every day, Nepal is so diverse and so magnificent; a single day has not passed that I haven’t fallen asleep completely impressed and awe-struck by this country. Despite all of the diversity— in its people and environments and life, it strives for unity… Which can become sticky, because in an effort to unify it is often the minorities, or the marginalized that are forgotten, but in many regards it achieves unity in this diversity with incredible grace. That is something I need to remember when I start researching how social norms have been created to marginalize certain communities based on the once institutionalized caste system. It will be exhausting at times, I’m sure, but if I can maintain this balance of love for the culture and people and an academic understanding of where progressive change could be made, it will be all the more rewarding!

On the trek, we were able to reach Poon Hill, which is in Ghorepani, and overlooks the Annapurna range. Our entire group hiked up the hill at 5am in order to catch the sunrise. It was completely worth it. Watching the sunrise has come to be one of my absolute favorite things, and the experience was completely surreal. The Himalayas appeared to be floating above the clouds, and we were right there with them. Directly in front of me was Annapurna I, to the right Annapurna South, and to the left Dhaulagiri (the 7^th tallest mountain on earth). The trek to that point the day before was the most difficult walk I have ever experienced. We inclined 1 mile vertically in 7 hours! The entire trek was uphill, and we were carrying all of our belongings on our backs! The hardest part is that when you are walking, there is no way to take a break unless you are stopping… I am used to being able to walk if I exhaust from running, but there was no way to reboot when you have to walk up hill for that long. However, it was amazing and even in the difficult times it was so much fun and so rewarding and I was around really great people. Everyone in the group made it within 8 or so hours! So awesome!

After our trek we flew from Pokara to Kathmandu. The view from the plane was outstanding; we passed over huge himals! Driving to pokara takes about 8 or 9 hours, but the flight is only 25 minutes… which just goes to show how terrible the roads are here and how mountainous it is. When we returned to Kathmandu our wonderful teachers were waiting for us (they trekked the way there, but came home early). I cannot say enough about how amazing our teachers are, they have played a pivotal role in my happiness throughout the program. Anyways, when we returned all of our teachers were there and they were cooking up a Thanksgiving meal for us!! We had pumpkin pie, and mashed potatoes, and turkey (I don’t know how they pulled that one off), and so many delicious sides. Such a warm, and thoughtful welcome back to Kathmandu.

Since then, I have been spending a lot of time at home. We finished up all of our finals last week and this weekend/ so far this week has been Tihar, another festival. Each day we do puja and worship something different, Day 1: Crow Day 2: Dog (all of the street dogs were wearing flowers and tikka!) Day 3: Laxmi puja Day 4: Ox puja Day 5: Bhai tikka (little brother). On Laxmi puja I spent the whole day helping clean (to invite laxmi in, who is the goddess of wealth and good fortune), playing cards, and making so many sweets! They dressed me up in a kurta too, which was really special because it was my Didi’s kurta that was given to her by her fiance’s mom the first time they met. Today, bhai tikka, we had coffee in the morning, then all got dressed up in saris (you can tell the importance of the day by what we are dressed in), and worshiped our bhais. It was actually so much fun! My baabaa is pretty relgious but no one else takes the tikka and puja too seriously. My aamaa for example, started yelling to my baabaa, “Hurry up laxmi puja is today not tomorrow and Manisha is getting tired!” because it was already midnight on Laxmi puja and he hadn’t finished his initial worshiping. Once, we all got around to it, we laughed for most of it and joked about how our baabaa was putting tikka on my camera and other material things. Today, for bhai tikka we got to wear rangichangi (colorful) tikkas. Me, and my three sisters all tried to work together to put the tikka on my brothers and it was a mess but really fun! Then, they put tikka on all of us and did the same worshiping thing. After that we all ate our weight in dried fruit and nuts and spent the entire afternoon on the roof playing cards. I loved every minute of it and I am really sad to move out tomorrow. I have really bonded with my family and I feel very close to them now.

Tomorrow morning I am moving to an apartment in Boudha where I will live for the next month while I conduct my research. It is a really awesome opportunity to be on my own for an entire month, on my own schedule, researching what I am interested in! I am really sad to leave my family, but I plan on coming back either for dinners or at the end if I can finish my research early. I am excited to live in Boudha though! I will get to cook for myself (which is good and bad, I will miss my aamaa’s cooking!) and I will have direct access to all of the Buddhism I want! I plan on continuing my meditation course and auditing other courses with Maria at the monastery.

apple orchards

Didi and our bahinis dressed us up! Libby is wearing traditional Thakali clothing, and I am wearing Sherpa clothing (both outfits were used for weddings)

Sunrise

Rhododendron forrest

Thanksgiving lunch