Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Swayambhu and Dashain

Swayambhu
Went to Swayambhu with some friends the weekend before our Annapurna trip. Swayambhu is another Buddhist stupa, like Boudha. It is smaller, but it's on a hill so there's a better view.

Jiwan and I copying the statue between us - a photo that would have happened had my family been there.

Steep stairs up to the stupa

The iconic stupa with the Buddha's eyes.


The 4 of us with a view of Kathmandu in the back: Me, Jiwan, Adarsha, and Lina

This picture is for mom. Last two times we were here, she took a picture of Kyle and I in front of the blue door. I made Adarsha take the picture with me because he looks the most like Kyle.


Dashain
Dashain is one of the biggest holidays here. People have work and school off for a few weeks. Many people in Kathmandu return to their original villages, so the city seemed a little empty. This time of year is similar to Christmas/Thanksgiving time back home. My didi had school off and my birth sisters went back to my birth village for the big weekend. My class was in town for the big day of Dashain, but we missed the last week of it.

I'm still a little unclear about how and why Dashain is celebrated, but I guess that goes for xmas and thanksgiving a little bit too (for me at least). Anyways, on the big day, everyone wears nice clothes and travel around to relatives houses to get blessed. At the end of the day you end up with a giant tikka on your forehead. In some families, kids get money from families. Sometimes it's only girls, sometimes the kids give money to their elders. Older people bless the younger people. So, my hajur buwa (grandpa) gave many blessings. Because he isn't too mobile, my family didn't travel too much, other family came to us. I really liked Dashain (and many classmates liked it for similar reasons) because it definitely felt like family-time/holiday-time and I definitely missed that xmas morning feeling or that content feeling after eating thanksgiving dinner with everybody. I got a few blessings and ended up with ~400 rupees and a big tikka. The bills I were given were new and crisp, and in small denominations which means....bus money!! The buses don't take 1000 rupee notes (they don't have the change to break a 1000 for only 15 rs), but that's all the ATMs spit out. ke garne. 

One day was a blessing for cars. So my buwa told me to go outside to look at their blessed car and motorcycle.



Getting tikka from my hajur buwa.

 ping khelnu: Swinging! These big swings are built from bamboo shoots and kids go swinging in them. I have no idea what there significance is, but they were every where, and kids were flying super high.

No comments:

Post a Comment