This time around, blog entry, Kathmandu 5/21/2013i

Paton Dubar Square idol, near Kathmandu, Nepal

This time around we have chosen the fifth floor of the Karma Travelers Lodge.  

Our shanty room opens up to a courtyard of urban sprawl and roof top views; twin size beds receive light and air from both sides of the room, screened windows let a cross flow of breezes filter in 

and it has become pre monsoon month.

It may rain torrents like yesterday as we splashed through puddles viewing the Paton Dubar Square temples.  They where magnificent ancient buildings however, even in the downpour, while heavy rains kept coming.......we jumped from one overhang to another missing the rain but got to see its work, its relentlessness.

Almost as immediately as these rains fell, the sun came out.  Steep waters are sucked into the gutters leaving roads with only patches of wet remembrances.  Muggy, humid days but extreme dry too comes and goes......weather changes from a quick setting to another.

This time around, I sleep better.   Kathmandu shuts down by 11 pm; noises subdue and the place slumbers.  The whole district is blanketed with a stillness of quiet.  And, this time around, I rest with everyone else.

Paton Dubar Square 

Tibetan Pilgrimage - Pekor Chode Monastery

The Pekor Chode Monastery was founded in 1418 and is a twenty minute drive located near Lhasha, Tibet.  When we visited the monastery, it happened to be one of the holidays marking the draping of the thangka.  This only comes about once a year.  Hundreds of Tibetans could be seen making their walk clockwise around the stupa (called circumambulation) and some continued on by walking against the large wall (pictured below) where the thangka was displayed.  They do this to obtain merit and to put themselves on the right path.  You can see the picture of the Buddha icon of the thangka in the photo, whereas in the video, the image of the Buddha was already removed in a matter of a couple of hours while I was there on the grounds.  I was taken by the uniqueness of the Tibetan people.  You can see many of the pilgrims in the original dress, with their prayer beads, prayer wheels and some prostrating by stretching themselves on the ground and rising up again.

draping of the Buddha Thangka