I am now in Kathmandu Nepal. The last time I was in Nepal was in 1969 when Charles and I stopped for a few days on our way to Delhi after a memorable visit to Kabul. It was a small town then, with great open fields set among old buildings, large temples, and trees dripping with bats. There are very few similarities between the old town of the earlier time and the large sprawling city that sits today in the middle of a ring of mountains that comprises the Kathmandu Valley.
This visit is to participate in a 10 day writer’s workshop and exploration of the area led by Laurie Wagner, a “Wild Writing” proponent from California with whom I did some earlier on-line classes, and James Hopkins, a long-time U.S. expatriate with many years of meditation and monastic study in this heartland of Vajrayana Buddhism. An ideal combination for me, writing, meditation and exploring an interesting part of the world.
Bidur picks me up at the airport and will be our guide throughout this adventure, a local man with a strong academic interest in the culture and history of the region. We arrive at the Hotel Vajra, an attractive place in a garden setting which will be our home for the first 3 nights. In the afternoon, I meet our leaders and 5 fellow participants, 4 from the U.S. and one from right here in Kathmandu, although “fellow” is not quite the correct word as all are women, although we will be joined by my old friend Bill in 2 days time.
We have arrived at an auspicious time, the Hindu Diwali festival, the “festival of lights”, which is honored here by a week of celebration in Nepal as well as in its more well-known form in India. The majority of local Nepalis are Hindus who have adopted Buddhism as part of their religious practice and so combine both worship to the Hindu deities and reverence for Buddhist thought, with large temples and stupas throughout this city and the country. Large and small monasteries and nunneries of more traditional Buddhist sects also are part of the landscape which we will visit.
Tonight is the major Lakshmi Puja, when lights are everywhere and Rangoli, or traditional folk-art designs, are created with colored powders and paint on the entrance of homes and shops to invite in the Goddess of wealth and prosperity for another year. So our group heads out into a busy part of the city to experience this event, which for most of our group is their first entrance into the intense sensory immersion of the culture of this part of the world.
We were asked in one of our first writing sessions to describe something of this experience which is hard to put Into words as the bombardment of images is so strong. Imagine this: Twinkling fairy lights above the sidewalk on a crowded street in Kathmandu, lined on both sides with brightly lit modern high-end shops selling 24 karat gold jewelry for dowries and weddings. People are everywhere inside and out and brightly colored images of flowers are drawn or in the process of being created on the entrance the the shops and houses. Inside we can glimpse families celebrating this Diwali festival together while outside a young woman paints a mandala with colored paint and powder to draw into the home or shop the blessings of the Goddess Lakshmi, often with a votive candle in the center and decorated with live flowers. Crossing the crowded street to the other side there are sidewalk sellers offering paints and powders, bits of this and that to allow the creation of the traditional and temporary art on the sidewalks. It is a time for families to be together and enjoy the sparkling world.
We walk into a slightly less crowded area where inside a shopping mall there are young people dancing to the sound of a loud electric band in the center. Nearby there is a temple with rows of votive candles lighting the steps and people coming with floral offerings to pray.
On the streets tall new buildings are lit with strings of varied colored lights, cascading down from the rooftop to the ground. There are the sounds of music and the motor bikes and people happily calling to each other, with the smell of incense from offerings in the air, all reminding me of the different world I am in. We are totally saturated with the strong experience of this evening when we finally return to our hotel and some blessed rest.
In the morning, we join together at 6 am in a magnificent room at the top of our hotel for the first of our daily meditation sessions, guided by James. The room is a four-sided mandala with windows on all sides with a view of the hills surrounding the city. It is hard not to feel wonder for being here, now. For the indelible vision of the rising red sunrise outside the windows, with pink turning to gold as we sit together weaving our oneness in this time of peace and quiet, feeling gratitude for the beauty around us, the Tibetan paintings on the ceiling and the warm light outside that moves into all of us with our ensemble of rising chests as we breathe in and out together. This will be a remarkable journey.
