A festival of remembrance

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Saturday was a special holiday in Nepal. Nepal has many holidays, and the Newars have even more. This holiday is for families
who have had someone pass away within the last year. Because Ben's mother had passed away, our family needed to participate
this year. Rather than a holiday in the festive sense of the word, this occasion is a spiritual requirement and is observed
by both Hindus and Buddhists. The ritual takes place at one of Nepal's most important temple areas, known as Pashupatinath.
People from all over the country came to take part in the festival, and some reports estimated that 200,000 people were
sleeping in Pashupati the night before. Hoping to meet with less crowd, we left after 8 in the morning. Even arriving later
than most, we were greeted by an almost unbelievable swarm of people. Pashupati is a large temple complex, with acres of land, and paths meandering through forests and around a major river bed. The requirements of the festival are that people follow specific routes through the complex, stopping at 12 major temple sites while offering grains and flowers.
Almost as soon as we arrived, Ben decided that we shouldn't stay long. We had Lilia with us, and 10 other family members.
Several of Lilia's cousins were there, and they were taking turns carrying her. Once we reached the inner area of the temple
complex it was obvious that staying together with the others was not going to be possible. In the center of the area, a man
with a loudspeaker gave ongoing announcements about lost people, or people who had already left the temple. He would say
things like Durga Bahadur Shrestha , from Kirtipur village, your uncle has already gone home・ Some families were sitting
on the ground, doing their death pujas right there at the temple site. Others were walking the route according to the
dictates of the tradition. Traditionally the full walk should take about 3 hours.
Ben, Lilia and I left soon after we arrived, leaving the rest of the family to follow the path according to tradition.
On our way out we saw some people carrying a body to be cremated. Pashupati is the major cremation site in Nepal, and
one of the holiest cremations sites in the world. I felt badly for the family of the person who had died, having to
facilitate the death rituals during such a chaotic festival time. I couldn't imagine how they would be able to get the
body into the temple area through such a thick crowd, and how they would manage the cremation once they got there.
We took a taxi to another major temple complex known as the Boudhanath stupa. We didn't have our camera so we will go
there again and take pictures. We have actually planned to go there this Saturday to light lamps for Ben's Mom and also for his brother in law, who coincidentally died only a few weeks after his mother did.


Lilia would like everyone to know that she was sick lfor a few nights and throwing up. We think the reason that she got sick
was because she ate some tomato sauce with uncooked cilantro in it. She is better now, and full of energy again.

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Photos

Ben's family
Here are some of Ben's family in line at one of the areas they were required to visit. We were gone by then.

The crowd
This photos barely gives a sense of the scope of the crowd there that day.

More crowd
Maneuvering through a crowd of this level really takes a certain level of skill. Most Nepalese can manage very easily. Ben, having been out of the country for so long, isn't interested in trying, especially with Lilia in tow. From these picture you can get a little sense of the historic nature of the temple site. We will return again on another day to explore the area in detail.

Comments

[Elaine Garan]

Festival
It's wonderful that Maiya gets to not just have this experience but that she'll have this chronicle of what she did when she was 5 years old. It's something that she'll have for her whole life. It's nice to that she got to participate in the memorial service for Bir's mother. I'm going to Santa Cruz to visit Chris for Christmas. Tell Maiya I have new options for her and that I'm sorry she was sick although I can't figure out how raw cilantro can make someone sick! Love and miss you all.