Getting Away and Gaining Insight – A Writer Goes to Nepal

I could never have imagined the depth of experience two weeks in Nepal would deliver and I have no doubt that the sights, sounds, smells and memories of Kathmandu and points beyond will stay with me for a very long time.

My travels within this small country perched between China and India will no doubt enlighten my writing in surprising ways and I can’t wait to see what bubbles up over the next few years. But describing what I did and saw will be easier than trying to encapsulate the emotional experience of being in a Third World country for the first time. I’ve come home with a renewed sense of how privileged I am to live in a place where electricity, hot water and medical care are always at my fingertips.

The 36 hours it took to get to Nepal was like a passage to another time, another world. This is a country where cows roam the streets at will and killing one, even accidentally, is punishable by 20 years in jail. There is a large wild dog population in Nepal and they all seemed to spend their days sleeping comfortably on sidewalks or public monuments. I could hear them howling and barking at night as they did whatever wild dogs do in the dark. Sometimes I wasn’t sure the barking I heard was canine in origin. Sometimes it was a chilling sound.

I saw a variety of other types of wildlife in urban settings in Nepal as well — chickens, goats and monkeys seemed to be everywhere and how they all maintained their lives in the relentless stream of traffic was beyond me. In Kathmandu, at least, the streets were filled with all manner of vehicles and drivers seemed to have an intuitive sense of space and impeccable timing that I don’t think I could replicate.

I saw many historic sites in Nepal, and some were UNESCO world heritage sites, ancient and steeped in mystery. I also saw the country’s living Goddess, the Kumari, a young girl whose glance is rare and highly prized. Heading into the mountains I was part of a ceremony dedicated to the consecration of land on an organic coffee plantation and I was blessed by the Hindu priest who performed the ceremony. Buddhist monks at a mountain top monastery said prayers for me and my travelling companions, and the hand-made metal singing bowl I purchased at a traditional bowl maker’s shop was blessed by the abbot of another Buddhist monastery. At a book signing in a classical and very beautiful  garden, I met Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche, author of “Living Fully,” a book about finding calm and purpose in a modern world.

I took a small airplane ride along the spine of the Himalayas and saw Mount Everest from the air. I spoke with a miller’s daughter in a rural village. I witnessed a traditional witch doctor performing channelled healing rituals on people suffering a variety of ailments and I climbed to the sacred Temple of Wishes where people brought goats, chickens and pigeons to be sacrificed in the pursuit of their heart-felt hopes for their lives and those they loved.

In short, the kaleidoscope of life that swept past my eyes and heart in Nepal was dizzying and vast.  I’m home now and carried away again by the hectic rhythm of work and family, business and life. But part of me is still gazing out over the mountainsides and terraced rice fields of what is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful countries on Earth. The words will come.