vaga #6/7 one day with Lama

PART VII

KATHMANDU VALLEY

After circumventing several alternatives with Lama in which he insisted the best was to take a bus and stay at his house since you could not go there and back in a day not because of the distance, but because of connecting buses and then the walk to his hamlet. The idea of staying over without knowing anything about anything I avoided it at all costs, but the desire to know and his enthusiasm in inviting me ate away at me. We finally came to the solution, and it was that we waited for Peter to arrive and renting a taxi for three was convenient for the whole day. Peter arrived and took a day to recover from jet lag, and we set off on a Wednesday at 6am in a small 30-year-old Suzuki heading to Kathmandu valley. Lama calls me "mom" and Peter "brother", to this day we talk and he always asks about his "brother"

We started off for about two hours along a very winding mountain road paved with steep ravines. I'm a mountain road person, and I love to drive on them, but here it was something else. At first, I was quite nervous pinching Peter during a few overtakes of more than one truck at a time in the middle of the curve, with the ravine half a meter away, zero visibility and not only once. It is the system, it is done with caution and everyone cooperates in facilitating overtaking whether truck or bus or car on both sides, in the end one relaxes. The driver, a boy of no more than 22 years, looked like he had practice and everything was done at a very low speed. It was nice with Peter sitting in the back and being able to catch up on so many things since we hadn't seen each other for over a year.

The landscape of the narrow valley between hills and hills, was essentially all downhill. The different views of the valleys were diffuse, a lot of smog and again by the dirt roads. There was also nowhere to park to take pictures. Lama told us that the road only had 5 years of construction, !!! plop !!!, it was one of the exits from Kathmandu to the south-east, and not lost in the immensity of the Himalayas, far from civilisation. They used to walk, only 5 years ago !!! Plop again !!!!

We left the main route and began to climb a hill, a one way dirt road. We stopped in a hamlet to buy some fruit, vegetables and water at a kiosk on the street, there it occurred to me that we should also arrive with something for lunch. It turned out to be a success, I did not take photos of that stop because it was intimidating since we were out of all tourist areas, and they did not take our eyes off us. An hour to continue getting up with the car that barely reached the top, and reheated to then go down and then up, and with the rattle of the back seat where you are with your kidneys in your hands. In rainy seasons they are inaccessible, it was December, the rainy season is between June and September. We will have crossed about three cars in more than four hours on that road before arriving in his village, and we had to move a fallen tree to be able to move forward.

Halfway up one of the summits of a hill and change of valley there was music, some motorcycles were parked, flags crossed in the street and several boys made us stop. They talked to Lama. It was a Hindu holiday, I asked which one it was, it is only of this community, he answered. We were invited to share and receive blessings. Lama told us that it would be right to accept the invitation because it would be disrespectful to ignore them in their ceremonies that are of joy and blessings for your good. Lama is a Buddhist and without any problem participates with great seriousness. Under a large open tent were offerings, altars and the faithful. The tent was over decorated with red, orange and different pink colours. Many pennants, not Tibetan, but pennants of party ornaments. It's three days of festivity.

We stayed for half an hour, about ten men were taken under the tent and the three of us were placed near the altar, which was a platform, to be blessed. On the altars there are photos of their loved ones who had left that year and many offerings, such as potatoes, eggs, flower petals, incense, coloured powders, holy water and whatever else there was.... Saturated on all three sides and at some point a priest arrived as I saw a chair on the stage that was very decorated. For them, it was also a stir to have us there, and they all came to look at us. I gathered the courage and asked Lama very timidly if it was possible to take pictures, he asked them, and they said yes, I quickly passed my cell phone to a young man who was looking at us very curiously. First,they use rice on the forehead dyed red with natural powders (they make rice flour and wet it, so it sticks) and it is very thick, it is used so thick for ceremonies, men and women, the rice for daily living that they use on the forehead, are just a couple of grains, then a garland of flowers "marigolds" around our necks,  a typical Hindu scarf, sacred orange with designs of goddesses in red, then they put some red powders on our heads and shoulders. Each act with a prayer to each one while they put it on you. They were older men performing our blessings, prayers, and they were different for each one. It gave me pleasure and pride to see Peter respectful, so serious as he received each offering and thanked each one. After all, he was  an 18-year-old boy, and he had dignity. No whispers, no nudging, neither later in the car some almost expected comment, or at the end of the day a comment like "how crazy are  all those blessings and rites that we had to participate in". Now exaggerating, he is a boy raised on internet games and fast food and who has not seen anything similar in movies, nor did he imagine that in the twenty-first century these things happened, and it was his turn. I felt he had a great respect for a different culture, religion that he did not understand it, although he refused to take a picture alone.

Behind the tent about thirty women in a closed circle singing, praising, and semi-dancing to the beat of the music and songs around the circle, to which they threw food and rice. Impossible to approach, we could only watch from afar, all dressed in red sarees, although it was quite cool, it was necessary to have a good parka, !!! what a mystery !!!! I was left with strong images and felt a moving energy.

resumed our route and stopped for an hour to visit a sacred Buddhist cave. It is very common for Buddhist monks to retreat to the caves to meditate. Sometimes for long periods with little water and a lot of silence. Some eventually become sacred and the monks depart to others more silent and withdrawn. In this place we walked about 20 minutes to get to it. We walked along a hillside, there were some houses and a sea of Tibetan flags. As one approached the cave the passage narrowed and the flags are crowded, and overlapped, layers on layers, the photos speak for themselves.

flags and flags feel how they moved, every thousandth of a second and a new image, non-stop for days, nights, weeks, months, years, with heat, cold and rain, never rest or almost never

before entering the cave a lady received us, gave us  a white scarf and a prayer, after that rite we  entered. Peter with his white handkerchief received the prayers before entering

Upon entering, it was impossible not to feel reflection, a cave of 6 x 6 meters and 3 meters high, it was not dark because there were hundreds of small candles lit. The lady in charge now inside was the one who took care and maintained as it should be, we were the only ones at that time, and it is rare that tourists appear, usually it is the elders who live in the surroundings. Lama indicated the steps to follow starting with lighting a candle, then you put holy water on an image of Buddha, at some point you light incense, and you end up lighting other candles in another corner before leaving. The atmosphere it produces inside with those hundreds of small flickering, yellowish lights was overwhelming. It can never run out of candlelight, neither day nor night. Peter didn't take any pictures because he felt it didn't correspond, and I did the paparazzi way with no  time to focus on anything, just click wherever and whenever. There was also another very narrow adjoining cave, barely fitting one person with scriptures inside and with religious relevancies.

these icons in the cave I had never seen them before, they are all for protection

coming out of the cave

resumed the walk, half an hour down another hillside and the same, full of flags flying in the air, until we reached another semi cave where a hermit lived, he had no monk's clothes, he let us pass, a room of about 8 meters. square, he had a tremendous bong, and little else in his room. We continued walking we turned into a slope of the hill and there was another place of prayer, a cavity in an open rock, there it was not so impressive, it did not make me want to take photos. Many images remained in the retina and stories that Lama was telling us that are too many and some were already lost in memory.

Leaving the cave of the hermit and walking down another hillside and the flags here flew as much as they could, the noise was constant, not like the murmurs of the other valleys more protected from the wind, yet the wind was not strong. The flags were thin and witnessed the slightest breeze, here the noise, rather the sounds were saved in a video.

Returning to the car after an hor and a half of visiting caves and walking through hillsides and full of impresions, I need a stop for my heart and eyes since my state of emotion had it full, saturated. the car stop its march and he showed us where his hamlet was from above, it was located on the sideof a hill. Everthing looked very dry.

We drove as far as we could, put down the foodstuff and then walked a little to the houses and again here came other experiences, surprises and who knows what will be in store for us. A hamlet of about 20 houses, two or three quite good made from stone with two and three floors, the rest of adobe.

A hamlet with a few labyrinth-like alleys,  the houses were built spontaneously without any order. Of course, you can see the disaster left by the earthquake. There is no help from the municipality or anything. Only two are being fixed by themselves at a snail’s pace, and others were forever abandoned in their ruins. More than three years had passed since the earthquake. Lama's house where he was born and formerly his grandparents' house was in good condition, I don't know if it was affected by the earthquake. I went on to find out  that they are all relatives, essentially three families, and they had been there for generations. The last photo a symbol the top floor an unclear image of some protective soul.

vaga#1/28 "annex Ochre annex", a chapter visually dedicated to the "ochre" colour of these adobe houses and they complements it with more images of the place

It was three in the afternoon, Lama took us to his house, introduced us to his mother who lived alone. She was a pretty woman, young, and she looked tired, marked by the harshness of life and loneliness of her close ones, the father lives in Kathmandu as a Master in art school, I did not see her smile and she barely talked to Lama. The adobe house consists of a room with a tight packed earth floor, a wide bed, a small table for gas cooking. A second floor that I imagine is styled in Nepal is the cellar, they keep the rice, bedding, firewood there ....... I thought of the invitation to sleep over !!! PUFF!!! from which I was saved, it would have been on the dirt floor with a blanket, at night it is cold, it is winter. And always my terror is the bathroom. Outside the house they had buckets of water, you had to look for a hose away from the village. He showed me the shack on the side of the house that would be the cesspool toilet. The house was one of the large adobe, had a window and the door that is left open all day for light. There is an electric light, one plug per house, which they use to charge the cell phone or rice cookers. There are no light bulbs and there is internet signal for phones.

Lama began to cook, see to the goats, helped his mother in whatever she needed. It was an afternoon of warm sunshine so exquisite those you only get in winter, and we sat outside to enjoy the sun with the playful kids that are loose and that enter and leave the house like any domestic dog. We sat for more than half an hour, I started to take pictures without crossing with anyone, because no more than 20 people live there. There are no children, no youths, no families, no men, only the elderly. Lama explained to me that there is no means of work for young people, I wondered what they could do there, no possibility of producing income, agriculture barely has water, there is no school. That is why the children go to a school where they get close to a family, the mothers leave with them, the men go out to the city for work. I thought a lot, that it could be done and there is nothing that can be produced, maybe make crafts with clay, because there is clay or basketry because there are some plants that can be used, but there is no crafting tradition in this community. Before, when the rains were frequent, and they could live on agriculture, as many communities in Nepal subsist on self-cultivation, here they can’t because of the lack of water and someone to work it, I only saw Lama had goats. When the old people die,  I think that it would be abandoned, and I imagine that there are many of these hamlets in the same conditions in this part of the valley. No work, little water, only old and semi-destroyed houses. Nor is the land worth it as such.

outside Lama's house we enjoyed playing with the goats we remembered the many we had on the plot at home

A man crouched some distance in front of us, he was the uncle, then two older women taking in the pleasant and warm winter sun outside their houses, peeked out and looked at us, they soon began to smile and at the end approached us. I took out the mandarins, and we went out to distribute them with Peter, then another  two old ladies arrived  for the mandarins more than anything else. The mandarins, were a success, we ate them together, we took pictures, another uncle showed us a medal, a ball of something, they were his jewels, which he appreciated very much and asked me in universal sign language to take a picture with them, I did it and I sent them to Lama.

one of these photos I have used in"vaga #1 languages"  from this day, the shadows are very nice

They called us for lunch, put a mat on the floor, and we sat around, the mother, the young driver and us. A large plate made of thick aluminium metal filled with lentils, broccoli, carrot and something green. Lama asked us if we wanted cutlery, good thing, we accepted at once, they eat with their hands. Everything in silence, no water is offered or served. Lama left everything clean and washed, and we prepared to leave. The mother never expressed anything, withdrawn in her silence and I imagine that two foreigners arriving at her home was not comfortable for and that she did not even speak the word "OK", because in that hamlet the word is not known.

When leaving the house Lama told us that we must wait for the blessing of the mother, first Lama, so we learned how to follow the protocol, you bend over, and she puts rice on your forehead, a sacred scarf and a prayer, in the end it was Peter's turn and I managed to take a picture. He challenged me because it wasn't appropriate to be doing those things, but I would know that he would thank me in time.

When leaving the house Lama told us that we must wait for the blessing of the mother, first Lama, so we learned how to follow the protocol, you bend over, and she put rice on your forehead, a sacred scarf and a prayer, in the end it was Peter's turn and I managed to take a picture. He challenged me because it wasn't appropriate to be doing those things, but I would know that he would thank me in time.

I end with a photo of great personal significance