Wednesday 15th, we meet the rest of the NGO INFO Nepal coordinators, Asim and Bicky and several relatives of theirs (all males) who not so muchwork for the organisation as they’re willing to help in order to practice their English on the volunteers. The headquarter is just opposite the Guest House, overlooking Thamel Paknajol street, on a second floor of a modern but battered four storey building that houses also a beauty parlour, the Kathmandu Chef Association and a disconcerting ‘Platonic Academy’.
We buy the stationary for the seminar and I make the 1250 photocopies needed for the folders the teachers will receive. Some of the shops have a ‘power cut time table’ on the wall so one can organise life around such a schedule, but most of the people tend to suffer them in a rather fatalistic way, just shrugging and waiting with gloomy eyes for the electricity to come back.
Once the copies are ready I go back to the headquarters to organise them into folders together with Bicky and Asim.
After that we all feel like having a break and decide to go sightseeing. They take us to Swayambhu temple, set atop a conical hill from which to enjoy a sweeping view of the Kathmandu valley. While tourists have to pay a Rs 50 admission ticket, we just flash our newly acquired volunteer card and the doors open wide for us.
The ancient stupa is the most profound expression of Buddhist symbolism in Nepal and it is believed to date back to the fifth century, probably used for animist rites even before Buddhism arrived in the valley two thousand years ago.
Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, the area surrounding Swayambhu has become home to hundreds of Tibetans in exile and Tantric Buddhists consider it the chief ‘power point’ of the Kathmandu Valley. Buddhist pilgrims make a full circumambulation (kora) of the hill, queuing up to spin the huge fixed prayer wheels and the 6000 smaller ones that encircle the perimeter or either twirling their own hand-held ones, always moving around clockwise.
According to Buddhist scriptures, the Kathmandu Valley was once a snake infested lake until ninety one aeons ago a perfect, pristine lotus flower appeared on the surface of the lake, which the gods proclaimed to be Swayambhu (self-created), or in other words, the abstract essence of Buddhahood. Manjushri, the bodhisattva of knowledge, drew his sword and cut a gorge at Chobar, south of Kathmandu, to drain the lake and allow humans to worship. As the water receded, the lotus set on top of the hill and Manjushri established a shrine to it, and with it its first civilization.
The stupa harbours an immensely complex physical representation of Buddhist cosmology, and the purpose of walking round it is to meditate on this. The whitewashed dome (garbha) symbolises the womb or creation. Set in niches at the cardinal points, statues of dhyani (meditating) Buddhas correspond to the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, and a fifth placed at an angle, to the sky or space.
Each represents a different aspect of Buddhahood. At each sub-cardinal point sit female counterparts, who in tantric Buddhism represent the wisdom aspect that must be united with the compassionate male force to achieve enlightenment. The cube (harmika) surmounting the stupa surrounds a thick wooden pillar, which is considered a phallic complement to the female dome. The eyes painted on it are those of the all-seeing Adi-Buddha (primordial Buddha) staring in all four directions. Between the eyes a curl of hair (urna) and emanating from the urna a miraculous light in the shape of the Nepali figure ‘one’, conveying the unity of all things. A spire of gold disks stacked above the pillar represents the thirteen steps to enlightenment, while the gold plaques (torana) above the painted eyes show the five dhyani Buddhas known collectively as the panchabuddha.
The stupa is surrounded by an array of shrines and votive items, most of which have been donated by merit-seeking kings and nobles. The twin shikra known as Pratappur and Anantapur were installed by King Pratap Malla during the seventeenth-century dispute with Tibet. The story of the king’s gift and his subsequent victory over the Tibetans is engraved on the twin bells in front of the shikra.
To call it the ‘Monkey Temple’ as it is known among tourists, would be, to put it mildly, a simple trivialization of this incredibly beautiful temple. But the monkeys do the trick and Almudena is absolutely delighted with having them jumping around and going about their monkey affairs.
Back to Thamel street and we’re knackered, but we still have to buy the CD player because tomorrow we’re off to my placement in Dhulikhel where I will be conducting the seminar. We get on a tatty taxi that surfs us through the madness of Kathmandu traffic and after much negotiating and bargaining at a shop we manage to buy a flashy tacky stereo system for the organization.
After such a long and eventful day we all go to bed.
Alma is fast asleep by my side.
The praying wheels are spinning.
The devoting candles are burning.
The stars are shining.