In Celebration of New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival: Parades!

Dustin' off the mitts after a bit of climbin'.

Oh I am missing my Jazzfest these days!

Although my experience of parades and religious processions of various sorts in Nepal cannot compare to what I've witnessed (and done) on the streets of New Orleans during the magnificent celebration of the pre-Lent carnival anticipating Mardi Gras, two parades last week reminded me of the fun of getting out in the street, maybe a little drunk, to beat some drums and yell and throw things at God for whatever reason, in whatever form, may it be Bacchus or Rato Macchendranath or the Buddha.


MERIT BUILDING PROCESSION BY THE BARAGAON VILLAGERS:

Shot taken from my balcony looking north towards the Kathmandu Valley. A line of about five hundred Newari villagers from nearby Baregaon coming to make offerings to the images of the Buddha in our monastery. The villagers have recently erected a new stupa (reliquary mound built as a basis for worship for future practitioners), and to commemorate the great even they walked on an all-day long procession to all of the surrounding villages to have darshan (holy vision) of the images of the Buddhas and other dieties and to make offerings to gain merit.

The local lovelies: Newar women wearing their traditional black saris.

Beat them drums! The wicker tray on the ground is the pile of offered rice, coins, food, candy, candles, incense, etc. given by the villagers in circuit.


THE FESTIVAL OF THE BODHISATVA KARUNAMAYA/ RATO MACCHENDRANATH:

The chariot of the red Karunamaya (popularly known as Rato Macchendranath).

The wheels of the chariot go round and round... slowly, some days not at all. When Karunamaya comes to your neighborhood, it is important for your family to provide a feast for all visitors (friends and relatives from other places), and to generally party. I dropped by the large family of some Newar Dharma friends of mine, and was forced to eat a plate of 6 kinds of blessed food from a ritual and then a 10 course feast tray. If I hadn't been vegetarian, it would have been a 14 course meal!

Ganesh, the obstacle clearer, is probably the most ubiquitous deity dwelling in the Kathmandu Valley, and here he is (as is common) enshrined on the streetside in the form of a rock that resembles an elephant head.

A local village low-caste girl (who I mistook as a boy at first) waiting by the pile of offered food as the offering procession goes by. She patiently sat there until the monks gave her some of the food, and she happily skipped away. A beautiful but hardened face for the young age.

Here the great chariot has run amok into the neighborhood homes, and a crane is pulling it loose from the roof. The locals won't fix the chariot until it falls completely over (which is as dangerous as it sounds, people die in this festival all the time), so it is still marooned in Jyatha Bahal as far as I know, inching along as the locals heave on the massive ropes, taking windows and watertanks with it.

A lovely stupa in pastel colors, near the Sundhara (Golden Waterspout) in Jyatha Bahal, Patan.

Every festival has its vendor of gaudy Chinese toys! This guy is probably wearing all white as he is in mourning for one of his parents.


CUTE MONKS PHOTOS OF THE WEEK:

Living in the monastery has truly tested my personal boundaries. I thought living with my brothers in a New Orleans Mid-city shotgun house was bad. I no longer have any privacy at all. The little monks come in my room whenever they like (I can't lock it as they have to come through to gain access to the roof). They take small things as they like (vitamins, incense, lighters, matches, water bottles, candles, clippers, razors, etc., which can be aggravating at times. I can't blame them, though. They share everything and don't realize that everyone doesn't always share everything. Anyway, a few of the monks found my camera and had some fun, about which I didn't discover until uploading the photos on the computer. Luckily for us, they took a couple of good ones, including this glamour photo of Rabjam, age 14.

The monk Ratna Mangalam, one of my best English students, teaching one of the new monks from Ilam, Nepal, how to read the Tibetan script.

Hair, Lunar New Year, and Temples

I am headed back up to Chapagaon today after a few days in Boudhanath visiting friends and attending the Lunar NewYear festivities. Today should be a slow day of reflection and meditation, as it is Ash Wednesday, after all, the first day of the Spring fasting and planting season.

My birthday is on Saturday, and I plan on celebrating it with a Tara offering ritual (Female Compassionate Buddha of Liberation, who clears obstacles and grants long-life), and a feast with all the monks at the Chapagaon monastery. It is a nice way for me to give them a party. After the feast and some digestion, we will have a soccer tournament!



SEVERING HAIR, SEVERING ATTACHMENT:

As all things, my dreadlocked hair is definately impermanent. Phagchog Rinpoche decided to demonstrate this to me in a direct way last week with a quick haircut, my first in almost six years.

After my hair cutting blessing by His Eminence Phagchog Rinpoche. I have been offering my obscuration and defilement saturated locks to power places in the Kathmandu Valley with a prayer for purification.

Self portrait as of new haircut today.

But at least I didn't shave my head and become a monk, like this little guy, our youngest addition to the sangha in Chapagaon. Now there are 45 monks at the monastery!

Cute monks playing on a tree, photo taken by other cute young monks. They are pretty good photographers, sometimes.

More cute monks in front of a doorhang, taken by other cute young monks when I wasn't around.



LUNAR NEW YEAR PHOTOS:

May the New Fire Hog year 2007-2008 be auspicious for all, may our obstacles for selfless action be dispelled for the sake of all beings!

A charming little Tibetan girl eating some ice cream her own way. Since its Tibetan New Years, her parents have her all dressed up in a brand new red chupa (Tibetan ladies dress).

The great stupa Boudhanath, in the neighborhood I have lived in for part of the last three and a half years. A Nepali guy has shimmied up the pole in the foreground to hang some new prayerflags, as it was Tibetan Lunar New Year (Losar).

Some of the young monks I am working with in Chapagaon all dressed up in the ceremonial yellow robe at the Lunar New Year festivities in Boudha. Some of them have only been monks for about a week, at the tender age of six...

A monk dancing at the White Monastery in Boudha for the pre-Lunar New Year festivities.

The great Chokling Rinpoche, the incarnation of the last of the 108 major treasure revealers of Tibet Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa, presiding over the Cham Lama dancing last week at the White Monastery.

The protector dieties dispelling obstacles for the coming Lunar year.

Monks chanting in assembly at the rituals for anniversary of the death of Orgyen Tulku Rinpoche at the White Monastery.


RANDOM SHOTS AT TEMPLES AROUND KATHMANDU:

A bell in a traditional Newari Buddhist courtyard (Bahal). Before the 15th Century these courtyards were inhabited by ordained monks, but now they are used for lay rituals done by lay preists. There are a number of beautiful old chaityas (Buddhist devotional monument) in the background.

A nighttime shot of a Krishna temple in Hadigaon, east Kathmandu.

This statue of Nagarjuna (Phagpa Ludrup) in an old Bahal in Kimdol, is said to be about 400 years old, and is also said to be the only one of its kind in the Kathmandu Valley. The great 2nd Century Indian Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna developed the tenets of the Madhyamika (Middle Way) philosophical system, treasured by most Himalayan Buddhists as the highest and most subtle explanation of reality possible.