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| Himalaya in six ways |
Himalaya
Nowhere in the world there’s such a great diversity of the flora and fauna as on Himalaya’s southern slope where, on a distance of only 60 kilometres, you can encounter from rhinoceros to snow leopards, from bamboo forests to the mosses of the great heights, as the altitude varies from 150 m in the southern plain to peaks of over 8000 m.
In this exotic landscape is placed Nepal, a dream destination of the mountaineers, photographers but also of those who want to discover a civilization completely different from the western one. It is a country of contrasts but also of tolerance, of diversity but also of uniqueness, a country with warm and hospitable people, curious and respectful.
Kathmandu
Pedestrians and rickshaws, greengrocers stalls and cars, motorcycles and souvenirs, hawkers and bicycles, all in a Brownian hallucinating movement, on the narrow streets of the Thamel quarter from Kathmandu. An incredible human agglomeration which moves without an obvious haste but very efficiently under the given conditions. The entire life takes place on the street. I even wonder why they have build their houses, most of them left unfinished, if all this exhibition of the housework is made on the street. Also in public are exposed scenes from karma sutra, on the exterior walls of the Hindu temples, in contrast with the acknowledged sense of decency of the Nepalese women.
The Sherpas
The population comes from the east of Tibet. Being nomads, they used to spend the summer breeding herds of yaks on the pastures of the Tibetan plateau and in the winter they used to migrate to the southern valleys of Himalaya. It seems that the appearance of the potatoes cultures in the middle of the 19th century was the catalyser for the stabilization of the Sherpa population on the southern slope of the mountains. At the beginning of the 20th century the poverty and the searching for a job drove a large part of the population outside Nepal to Darjeeling, in India. From here the first conquering expeditions of these people recruited them and due to the skills and adaptation to the high altitude mountaineering they gained international fame. The most popular is undoubtedly Tenzing Norgay, the conqueror of Everest, together with Edmund Hillary.
The porters, the spine of the trade on the mountain valleys, have no longer been Sherpas for a long time. When the tourism developed, they became lodge owners, guides of high altitude or store owners of mountaineering equipment.
Dhaal-bhaat
The Nepalese have probably the highest number of taboos regarding the food and the way of eating. They eat only with their right hand, without any table linens. The left hand is used only for activities which they consider dirty. Another taboo says that once you touched the food with your lips or hands can no longer be offered to someone else. You cannot drink from someone else’s glass.
The most popular dish is dhaal-bhaat, made up mainly of rice, around which are put some pieces of boiled potato, a spoon of spinach, some vegetables and you can pour over lentil soup. You can spice it as much as you like. Chapatti is a thin flat loaf of bread, made of wheaten flour, roasted directly on the hot kitchen range. A very tasteful Tibetan food is “momo” – meat balls boiled in water and served with spicy sauces.
When the food is good you want to lick your …“table linens” and even the plate.
Prayers
The Tibetan Buddhist believe that saying the prayer “Om mani padme hum” loudly or in your mind, will invoke the benevolent power and the blessing of “Chenrezig” – the embodiment of compassion. Seeing this mantra in the form of a text encrusted in the „mani” stones has the same effect as when it is evoked.
There are a few things which are as beautiful as the prayer flags waving in the wind. A dance of light and colour taking to the sky the noblest prayers addressed for all the human beings. There are not simple pieces of a coloured rag with strange drawings on them but elaborated mantras from ancient times which vibrate when the nature breathes and fill up the sky with blessings addressed to all the living beings from this earth.
The roof of the world
In the middle of the 19th century India’s geologic service discovered that what was named XV peak on Himalaya’s maps was actually the highest peak on the planet. Because it was not found a local name for the respective peak this was named after a chief of the geologic service, Sir George Everest. The altitude was calculated at 8848 m. Only later it was discovered that the Sherpas and the Tibetans had a name for that peak which was transliterated as Chomolungma – the name of a local deity that lived on the mountain. What is interesting is that the Nepalese haven’t had a name until 1956 when a Nepalese historian invented the name of Sagarmatha which in translation means “the heavenly vault”.
- published: January 2008, on www.fotomagazin.ro
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