Namaste. Welcome.
In India and Nepal, the greeting of choice is
Namaste, the two hands pressed together
and held near the heart with the head gently bowed as
one says, "Namaste." Thus it is both a spoken
greeting and a gesture, a Mantra and a Mudra. The hands
held in union signify the oneness of an apparently dual
cosmos, the bringing together of spirit and matter, or
the self meeting the Self.
In Sanskrit "Namas" means, "bow, obeisance, reverential
salutation." "Te" means "to you." Thus
"namaste" means "I bow to you."
Tour Information
During February 2005 Willem took a vacation
(with Gate1Travel.com) through North India and
Nepal, visiting Delhi, Jaipur, Agra, Khajuraho,
Varanasi, Kathmandu and other places.
Our group consisted of 36 people, all
from the USA, plus an American tour manager, located in
Delhi. We either flew or went by two air-conditioned coaches
to the various areas.
Detailed stories and photos can be found
under each heading from the menu on the left. Information
on India and Nepal continues underneath the map below.
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India
Geography:
India is bounded on the north by Afghanistan, China, Nepal,
and Bhutan; on the east by Bangladesh and Myanmar and
on the west by the Arabian Sea and Pakistan. New Delhi
is the country’s capital.
The length of India from
north to south is 1,900 miles, from east to west it is
1,830 miles. The Indian Peninsula forms a rough triangle
framed on the north by the world’s highest mountains,
the Himalayas, and on the east, south, and west by oceans.
Its topography varies from the barren dunes of the Thar
Desert to the dense tropical forests of rain-drenched
Assam state.
Population and
Religion:
With more than 1.1 billion inhabitants in 2004, India
ranks second only to China among the world’s most
populous countries. Its people are culturally diverse,
and religion plays an important role in the life of the
country. About 83 percent of the people practice Hinduism,
a religion that originated in India. Another 12 percent
are Muslims, and millions of others are Christians, Sikhs,
Buddhists, and Jains. Eighteen major languages and more
than 1,000 minor languages and dialects are spoken in
India.
History:
For hundreds of years, India was home to massive empires
and regional kingdoms. British rule in India began in
the ad 1700s. Foreign domination engendered Indian nationalism,
which eventually led to India winning its independence
in 1947. Split from Pakistan at independence, India struggled
with its Muslim neighbor over border differences and Hindu-Muslim
relations. India and Pakistan fought two wars over the
Jammu and Kashmir region, and the status of the territory
remains in dispute. India’s federal political system
has been a democracy for more than 50 years,
Castes:
The caste system is pervasive in India. A caste is a social
class to which a person belongs at birth and which is
ranked against other castes. People generally marry within
their own caste. In rural areas, caste may also govern
where people live or what occupations they engage in.
In traditional Hindu law texts, all castes are loosely
grouped into four varnas, or classes. In order of hierarchy,
these varnas are the Brahmans (priests and scholars),
the Kshatriyas (warriors and rulers), the Vaisyas (merchants,
farmers, and traders), and the Sudras (laborers, including
artisans, servants, and serfs).
Since the Independence
the importance of caste has declined somewhat in India.
There are no particular castes linked to the modern professions
of bank clerk, postal worker, teacher, and lawyer. Yet
castes have shown no sign of disappearing altogether,
mainly because of the system of marriage. Almost
all Hindu marriages in India are arranged, and
almost all arranged marriages occur between people of
the same caste. Only a handful of young people make "love
marriages" across caste lines, and many suffer socially
when they do so.
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