Our team touched down in Kathmandu after a long two-day journey from Vancouver. We stayed in a beautiful and vibrant area of the city called Thamel at the lovely Hotel Thamel Park. After some much needed rest, we set off the next day to explore Kathmandu. It was easy to feel lost in the bustling city, especially with the few Nepali words we had only slowly begun to pick up! Luckily, we had Jaman, an aspiring Nepali medical student, to guide us.
We started with Swayambhunath - the Monkey Temple. Located at the heart of the city, Swayambhunath is one of the most sacred Buddhist pilgrimage sites. Here, we met a Nepali man who taught us much about the Buddhist faith as we walked three times around the temple, which is thought to bring peace. We learned that the eyes of Buddha, known as Wisdom Eyes, look in all four directions over the city. The curved symbol over the nose is actually the Nepali sign for “one”, which represents the unity of all things.
Next we visited Pashupatinath Temple, a Hindu site which worships Pashupati, a Hindu deity reincarnated from the god Shiva. The Pashupatinath temple is a place for Hindus to perform cremation and mourn their loved ones next to the Bagmati river. This occurs in full view of temple-goers and we were able to witness a ceremony taking place. The striking beauty and spirituality of this temple encouraged us to pause and reflect on our own perspectives of life and death.
We ended the day with a visit to the Creating Possibilities Nepal (CP Nepal) office where we met our longtime friend and partner Nura. We also had the opportunity to meet the students living in the Himalayan Children’s Charities (HCC) group home and learn more about the work that CP Nepal does. All of the young boys and girls we met in the home had been taken in as orphans. Each student shared with us their interests and passions as well as their aspirations for the future. We quickly learned that we were sitting amongst an extraordinary group of future doctors, artists, pilots, and more!
All in all, we have to say it was quite an incredible first day of our trip!
