Air, Landier, and Sea

Namaste from Nepal!

Today we arrived after a boat ride and a 5 hour flight from Maldives and headed straight into the cities of Katmandu and Patan.

While in the States some may say Madonna is a Goddess, today we got to meet the Living Goddess of Patan.

We took a bus tour (which was meant to be a bus ride, but our guide was quite chatty) from the airport to the house of the goddess.

We learned that 80% of the country, which is about 30 million in population, is Hindu, 15% are Buddhist, Sikh, and Jain, and then 5% Christian. The Living Goddess is a Hindu goddess.

On the way, our guide told us things like how his father died during the pandemic, but overall it’s easier for his family that way, and how the earthquake destroyed half his house. Despite all this, he was quite upbeat and would end every story in “What can you do?”

Unfortunately, the sad stories got worse when we met the Living Goddess.

I think most of us were expecting to see an adult. I personally imagined it like meeting a Mother Theresa-like figure, or the Dalai Lama. Someone who is doing good work.

The Living Goddess of Patan is a 9 year-old girl. She will have this title until she reaches puberty and then a new little girl will receive the title.

In order to be the living goddess, a girl must be in the Buddha’s family line. So she is Buddhist but becomes a Hindu goddess.

She lives with her parents in a house provided by the government. Her parents are responsible for performing daily rituals with her, and then she sits in her chair all day long, and people come get blessed by her.

We were shown how to bow as she places a red dot on your forehead with paint, and that’s the blessing. Our group’s gift was paid already, but everyone else that comes must give a donation to the goddess.

I know this is a cultural thing, but it was hard for our group to experience this. We learned this little girl (who may start as young as 5) has teachers come to the house, she can’t go play outside, and she has no friends. She only has her parents.

When people are in the house, she is unable to speak. She only speaks to her parents. 

Our guide later told us the way the girl is selected is based on 32 characteristics- all related to her physical body. One man in our group even clarified that it has nothing to do with intelligence, acts of service, etc. Other than physical characteristics, astrology also determines who the next Living Goddess is. In fact, it’s 99% accurate, according to the guide.

Once she reaches puberty, the Living Goddess goes back to living her “normal life”.

Our whole group was really saddened by this experience.

After that downer, we took a tour around the city. We stopped at various locations and saw some of the metal work that’s used for statutes in Nepal.

Throughout our tour, we noticed a lot of stray dogs. Dogs to Nepal are like cats to Rome, except there seems to be no dog ladies taking care of them. The dogs are very cute and mostly just sleep, not bothering anyone.

One of the women in our group accidentally got close to one, although she didn’t disturb it at all, and our guide panicked a bit. Since our guide spared no sad detail, he informed us that all the dogs are unvaccinated and uncared for, so if we get bit it will be “an issue” since we would have to get a five dose Rabies treatment (little did he know that Bryce and I came prepared so we would only need two doses). What can you do?

In addition to the myriad of dogs, we also couldn’t help but notice the massive amounts of electric wires clustered throughout the city. We have no idea what they’re for, but we don’t envy the person in charge of resolving any issues with them.

We ended our tour at the art school, which was much more of an upper than our Living Goddess visit.

This school is run by the Lama family line. So there are lay-Lamas and then the holy Lamas.
The lay-Lamas (which is the group that runs the art school) do the work of the Dalai Lama (good man the Lama).

The Dalai Lama and other Buddhist monks spend time creating elaborate sand art, then brushing it away to symbolize the impermanence in life. So they got that going for them, which is nice.

This art studio of masters and students then draws and paints those sand artworks.

They also showed us how they make the canvas. They take cotton cloth, stretch it, apply yak glue, then sand it to create canvas. They then pencil the drawing and then paint all the tiny details.

It was so much gorgeous work. The work includes three different styles- the meditation circle, deities, and then more elaborate circles (I can’t remember the name of this type).

Lastly, we headed back to the hotel, and we’re greeted by a group with musical instruments.

Bryce, now a picture taking enthusiast, said “Let’s take a photo!” Which he thought would mean we stand close to these men, but oh no they were much more inclusive than we thought. The man with the dreads then proceeded to wrap his hair around me while Bryce tried to discourage him by saying “Umm no? No thanks?”

That translated to the man trying to include him in the hair hug, to which Bryce plainly refused.

It was like those people who drape the giant snakes around their shoulders and then charge tourists to take a photo holding it.

In both instances- whether a snake or dreadlocks, I really have no interest (which you can likely tell from the awkward photos).

The men were very sweet and gave me a very kind blessing following our photo shoot. However, we decided keeping social distance is probably a good rule of thumb for the rest of our trip.

Speaking of thumbs, our hotel was quite beautiful, and our door even greeted us with an A-Okay!

This hotel also celebrated us with cake and decorating our room. Somehow they even knew it was our 4 month “anniversary”.

Overall, our trip to Nepal was enlightening and gave us a lot of appreciation for what we have and how extremely fortunate we are.