Muzzammil's Travels: Festival of Buddha Jayanti, Nagarkot Hill Station, and Pashupatinath Temple

This is Day 13 of Nepal Travelogue (May 25, 2013)
Day 12 Day 11 Day 10 Day 9

Day 8 Day 7 Day 6 Day 5

Day 4 Day 3 Day 2 Day 1

Was Buddha Born in Nepal?

Before the trip, while planning, I was excited to know that our dates coincide with a local festival: Buddha Jayanti, the birthday of Buddha; however, I had no idea that the event is also a bone of contention between India and Nepal! As can be seen from the banner above, Nepalese cry foul of its neighbor for not recognizing the Hiamalayan country as the saint’s birthplace. Instead, India claims the honor to her benefit.

Without knowing much about the controversy, we happily participated in the signature campaign which you may described as بغض معاویہ rather than حب علی! Interestingly, there were grumblings around as locals were skeptical of us; they might be confusing us with Indians!

The Festival of Budhha Jayanti

We spared Bhaktapur at the tail end of our trip as a local CSer assured us to show us the celebration around his hometown, which has an influential Buddhist population. But the guy ditched us at the eleventh hour, which was off-course disappointing because we would have better attended the event at Kathmandu’s Swayambhunath, which gets extremely vibrant during Buddhist festivals.

Rather than whining anymore, we decided having a walking tour of the town at our own.
ہمّت مرداں ؛ مدد خدا !

To our luck we found a big noisy procession at Darbar Square, the most notable aspect of which was the dummy of Dalai Lama; a crowned boy sitting on wagon’s roof maintaining a demeanor expected from a religious figure. Simultaneously, a troupe of boogies was dancing passionately on the deafening drumbeat flaring up the otherwise docile march.

Further roaming around took us to a monastery where the event was being celebrated rather decently. As per the tradition, women from around the community brought homemade food to be distributed among young students, or future monks. One of the organizers got excited to know that we came from Pakistan and candidly offered us the same food; a platter of daal bhaat and kheer. He further enlightened us that the brighter ones among these pupils will be given scholarships in Thailand. Ambiance inside the hall perfectly resembled to that in a typical Pakistani seminary although I never thought that there might be any influence of Buddhism on Islam, and that too in Pakistan. Or this may be a reflection of shared Eastern traditions.

Change of Plan
Although it was a happening first half of the day but things were not going as per the plan, mostly because we felt ditched by the CS guy. That resulted in a heated debate among us, the most obvious thing expected from a married couple regardless of the situation! Finally we both agreed to change the plan and ditch Bhaktaour in reply, where we earlier intended to spend two nights, and instead thought of visiting the nearby hill station Nagarkot.

Outside the gated city, we tried negotiating the sightseeing tour with a cab driver who referred us to a minivan. Good for us, as we wanted to checkout from the hotel and needed space for the luggage and Urooba’s souvenir shopping. We texted this change of plan to Kathrin, our kind host in Kathmandu, who was gracious enough to accommodate us for two more nights, before we flew back to Karachi. On the other side, the lady manager-cum-owner of Nyatapola Guesthouse, where we were staying, got vivid by this sudden change of plan and tried fleecing us the second night’s charge – unsuccessfully though.

Nagarkot – Kathmandu’s Murree

Nagarkot was to Kathmandu what Murree is to Islamabad, however, a lot less commercialized. So if you endeavor deep into Himalayas – e.g. Pokhara, Everest area, etc – there is no need, in my opinion, to bother visiting this resort town. Having said that, I must say the place is a good escape if one feels enough of the noise and pollution of Kathmandu.

We stayed there till sunset and then came down to Kathmandu and visited the enroute Pashupatinath Temple – a huge Mandir famous for royal cremations. It was getting darker and watching a dead body being prepared for incineration at the Shamshan Ghat was too explicit and nauseating for me. Perfect setting for a horror scene! Although Urooba was more composed and analyzing the scenario, albeit with a distance, from the the medical point of view. Nearby, I found a post-burial ceremony, which was easier for me to negotiable with. A band of musicians was playing some tradition rhythms, may be part of the local funeral rites, while the audience was sitting in the rather Western setting.

With this, we ended the day, and so did the Nepal trip, effectively speaking, as we spent the coming day rather uneventfully at Kathrin’s place before returning back to Karachi.