James Dean is alive and well...

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As you may already know I've already met some interesting folk in Kathmandu. On Wednesday I met two more...

After 2 and a half weeks in Nepal, I decided it was time to visit Bodhnath Stupa, one of the largest and most important Buddhist Stupas in the Sub-continent and easily one of my favourite places in the country. Bodhnath lies in Boudha, a district that is home to a large community of Tibetan refugees and the area is crawling with activity; robed monks of all ages make their way clockwise around the stupa, women in traditional Tibetan dress spin the numerous prayer wheels that surround the base, butter lamps are produced and lit, locals feed pigeons and children chase them, all underneath the watchful gaze of Buddha's all-seeing eye.

It was a drizzly day so I decided to bite the bullet and pay for a taxi to take me there. Most taxis here are tiny little white Suzukis with incense burning on the dashboard and religious trinkets hanging from the rear view mirror. They don't run on a meter, instead you must negotiate your fare before you get in. As I sat down I instinctively reached for the seatbelt, which of course wasn't there. From previous experience I know that hanging on for dear life is all part of the fun, until we got to a busy intersection and the driver quickly put on his seatbelt. As he made a u-turn into 2 lanes of oncoming traffic I understood the sudden concern for his safety and felt miffed that he had a seatbelt and I didn't. Still, I arrived safely to the familiar sound of 'om mani padme hum' resonating from every alley way, tea shop and monastery.

I circled the stupa a few times, each time making eye contact with a slightly tubby, friendly faced Buddhist monk. On the third time he smiled at me and introduced himself as Lapsung. He told me he lives at a gompa (monastery) nearby and after asking why I am in Nepal he offered to take me for a visit. When I obliged it was clear from his reaction that people rarely take him up on this offer. Sitting in the grounds of the gompa, through limited English and sign language we exchanged stories. Lapsung told me how he had come to reside in Boudha. He is a Tibetan monk and was imprisoned by the Chinese police for 30 years before finally escaping a few months ago. He communicated that he is blind in one eye due to the poor conditions he faced whilst in prison. He showed me numerous bullet wounds and explained that his sister had had both hands amputated whilst in prison, although sign language wasn't sufficient enough to explain the exact reasons behind this. Eventually, with help from some outsiders and a bit of bribery, Lapsung and a few others managed to escape his captors and walked for weeks to make his way to the refuge of Boudha. As we were talking he handed me a small clay stupa that he had clearly made by hand and urged me to put it in my bag. Along with this he took off a thin woven necklace and placed it around my neck. I waited for Lapsung to ask me for a donation to the monastery but it didn't happen, these were genuine gifts of a friendship formed through mutual respect and interest. As I made my way towards the gompa to take a look around, Lapsung waved goodbye before disappearing around a corner. I was left shocked by his story and honoured that he had chosen to share it with me.

After a few more rotations of the stupa I sat down on a bench and watched locals queue up to buy seed for the pigeons. The sound of the seed being thrown attracted hundreds of the creatures, which in turn attracted a handful of children who delighted in chasing them, causing them to fly away en masse and creating a flurry of feathers to rain down on me. It was quite a comical cycle and I was happy to sit and watch this for a good 20 minutes before a 60 year old Indian woman came and sat next to me. Her English was superb, as a result of spending 30 years living in England and practising law. The only thing that seemed a little odd was that she would check her reflection in her tiny, jewel encrusted compact mirror every 30 seconds. The woman, who did not give me her name told me about her younger years, sharing a flat in London with a few friends, which for a brief time included Christopher Walken. She explained that Christopher was 'into Buddhism in a massive way' and over the years had met many important Buddhist figures, including the Dalai Lama. Everything up until this point had been fairly believable. She then told me she knew a few things that had changed her opinion of the Buddhist faith. According to her, Christopher Walken had been let in on the secret that the highest Lama in Nepal is actually James Dean, who decided to abandon his movie career in exchange for enlightenment. James Dean's number one priority now is helping out 'illegal' US immigrants by providing them with stolen Nepali and Indian passports, which she cited as the reason for checking her reflection so often; to make sure she was still who she thought she was. As our conversation came to an end I realised we had been sat there in the rain for quite some time. We said our goodbyes and I left to meet a friend.

Being a solo traveller, it is tempting at times to stay contained inside your own little bubble and avoid speaking to people. But after meeting these two characters I was so glad that I opened myself up, and I couldn't imagine anywhere else that I could have had these two very different but equally memorable conversations within the space of one hour, another reason that I love this country so much.

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