Bhaktapur and Durbar Square

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Bhaktapur is 20 miles east of Kathmandu and is world renowned for its elegant art, fabulous culture and indigenous lifestyle. The city has its gem in the Durbar Square -a World Heritage site listed by the Unesco. Strewn with unique palaces, temples and monasteries best admired for their exquisite artworks in wood, metal and stone, the palatial enclave has bewitched pilgrims and travelers for centuries. Adding to the mesmerizing environs are the holy Himalayas that make the backdrop of the city.

5 Story pagoda on Durbar	Stairs to the pagoda	Datta Treya Temple
Woman in palace window	Lakshmi watching over birth	Temple eating tree
Durbar Square River Goddess	Flooded basin on Durbar Square	Laundry basin
Neighborhood Buddha	Granddad, -son and "Mother India"	Masks store on Freak Street

		Signs on a wall. The last one is the OM sign. Listen here to its sound. Om is the main symbol of Hinduism. Most religions indicate that creation began with sound ("In the beginning was the word..."). For the Hindus & Buddhists, Om is the primordial sound, the first breath of creation, the vibration that ensures existence. Om sign signifies God, Creation, & the One-ness of all creation.

The sign before that, the Swastika, is one of the oldest symbols in the world.  The name is derived from the Sanskrit word S-vastik, which means "conducive to well being". In Buddhism, a Swastika represents resignation. Usually found in the images of Buddha on his chest, palms, soles or feet. To Hindus, the swastika is called the sauvastika, which symbolizes magic and purity. Ganesha has it in the palm of his right hand and in his book.

The swastika was a symbol for the Aryan people. The Aryans were a group of people who settled in Iran and Northern India 5 - 8,000 years ago. They believed themselves to be a pure race, superior to the other surrounding cultures. Hitler stole this concept for his own blond hair, blue eyed "superior Aryan race", with the swastika as symbol. In Mein Kampf he writes: "in the Swastika we see the mission of the struggle for the victory of Aryan men, and at the same time, also the victory of the idea of creative work, which in itself is, and will always be, anti-Semitic."

Pashupatinath

Pashupatinath is to the Hindus in Nepal what Varanasi is to the Hindus in India: a sacred city, where Hindus come to die and be cremated. The Hindus believe that dying and being cremated in Pashupatinath and having your ashes scattered in the Bagmati river will give you salvation. The water of the Bagmati is sacred. It eventually flows into the holy Ganges river.

A corpse is brought in	Body is prepared for cremation	Another person is laid down to die with his feet in the holy river
The flowers are thrown into the river and a match is already lit	Last prayer	When we leave there are 4 pyres burning

Thamel

Thamel is an area in Kathmandu, which is totally dedicated to tourism. Bars, restaurants, expensive and cheap jewelry, silk and Kashmir stores, street vendors, internet cafes and massage parlors. I had some very nice and very inexpensive meals here. I also bought most of my gifts here. From $100 silver and turquoise necklaces to beautiful $1coral necklaces.

Five hundred years ago, the westerners thought how clever they were by trading exotic spices for cheap beads and mirrors here. Now we are buying back the beads and other shiny trinkets for top $$$ and Euros.

Typical street in Thamel	Typical store	Powder colors
Jewelry. $100 and up	or, less than $1 each	Telephone cables. Can you hear me now?
Snake charmers	Rickshaw taxi

Just before our departure from Kathmandu back to Delhi, the local travel agent gave us all a Khada (yellow silk shawl) to wear on the flight. This was supposed to protect us from bad karma. Fours years before, this same flight was hijacked and eventually (after some killings) ended up in Kabul, Afghanistan. The shawl did its job. We landed safely in Delhi 2 hours later.