February 1, 2015
We spent the first half of our day in airports and an airplane today, leaving Delhi – the second largest city in the world at 22.5 million people – for Kathmandu in Nepal. Nepal’s 90 long and deep valleys lead to the sea on its south end and to the highest mountain on earth (Everest) on its north end with Kathmandu sitting in “the middle hills.” What’s your mental image of Kathmandu, a small city in the mountains? The reality is a concrete jungle of narrow streets with cars, scooters, bikes, buses competing for space, rimmed by cobblestone sidewalks overflowing with pedestrians in a city of close to 2 million.
After our arrival, we walked to and around a major destination for pilgrims from the Himalayas, southeast and eastern Asia: the Great Boudha Stupa. The Great Boudha Stupa is one of the largest and most significant Buddhist monuments in the world. It is the principal center of Himalayan Buddhist worship and studies in the Kathmandu valley and a world heritage site. The environment surrounding the stupa is filled with the colorful exotica of monasteries, art stores, craft shops, prayer flags flying in the wind and crowds of pilgrims circumambulating the stupa in the belief that any entreaties and prayers that are made to it will be realized. It towers above the city like a wish-granting jewel.
Then our host, Father Greg Sharkey, SJ, who teaches at the Buddhist Studies Center in Kathmandu, gave us talk on the history of Nepal and Kathmandu and it’s religious topography today (majority Hindu with Buddhism being seen as one of the varieties of Hinduism). As a welcome gift he placed around each of our necks and shoulders a white scarf as we gathered in an evening circle of eucharistic prayer on the feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple. After, we enjoyed a happy hour and delicious meal prepared by Father Greg’s team of helpers.