I'm the last of our little group of passengers left in Kathmandu, Col and Jaap having both flown off to Thailand this morning, and I'm sitting in an Internet cafe just off Jochne, better known as "Freak Street". Freak Street, which runs south from Kathmandu's historic Durbar square, was once a mecca for visiting hippies but when I walked down it there wasn't another foreigner outside, and only a handful in its shops; the bar and restaurant-infested Thamel region a kilometre further north is the tourist ghetto now. I've been happily ensconced in Thamel for half a week now, and will be there a few days longer while I unwind from two months' back-to-back tours and try to write up my backlog of posts for this journal.
Thamel was rather quiet yesterday as lots of businesses remained closed or had limited trading hours owing to it being the last night of the Hindu Diwali festival, which in Nepal is generally called "Tihar". For that matter, Thamel has been far more subdued than expected (though I've yet to experience a non-festival night so this may be inaccurate); it's not Banglamphu or Kuta. Parts shut down fairly early and well before midnight many stretches of Thamel are dark; by a not-entirely unrespectable hour of the morning swathes of Thamel are pretty deserted. Still, there are things open 24 hours a day.
We crossed from China into Nepal on the 19th of October (Thursday), the first day of Tihar. Tihar this year was a little unusual, being six days long instead of the usual five days. On the first day, Kaag Pooja, rice was offered to crows. On the second, Kukur Pooja, dogs were decorated with garlands and tika (the facial paint) and offered food and worship. Apparently it's the only day that Nepali dogs get any respect; certainly a little make-up is not enough to make me any more of a dog person than I'm not now.
On the third, Laxmi Puja, candles and lamps were lit both inside and out, and an orangish path drawn from an outside lamp to the interior of a premises to attract the favour of Laxmi, goddess of wealth, and even a few days on you can still see traces of the paths. It's a general truth well known to arsonists everywhere that firelight makes ugly places pretty, and Thamel - not particularly ugly for a tourist ghetto - was no exception when thousands of additional lightsources warmed its streets and alleys. This night also coincided with the New Year of the Newari (the indigenes of the Kathmandu valley).
The fourth day ("Gai Puja") saw cows being honoured, though there were few - if any - cows to be seen on the city streets of Thamel. The object of the fifth day's worship varied: the Newari paid homage to themselves ("Mha Puja"), others to oxen ("Goru Puja") and/or their dung ("Gobardhan Puja").
Yesterday, the sixth and final day ("Bhai Tika"), saw sisters pay homage to their brothers by daubing their foreheads with tika; the brothers reciprocate with gifts. Jaap participated in one such ceremony with the family of the girlfriend of his locally-based friend Shashi, the girlfriend of his locally-based friend Shashi, and his locally-based friend Shashi* and returned with red tika plastering his hairline bloody - he'd had seven, each one representing a chakra but only the highest remained. [*I suppose I could have written "his locally-based friend Shashi, Sashi's girlfriend, and her family" but while that would be less structurally hideous, it would also be rather less true ;-]
As part of the celebrations they set up bamboo swings - just for fun and entertainment, I think, rather than for any particular religious purpose - with four huge poles planted in the ground, bound at the top. Off this frame, a seat is hung by rope. There were a few around Dhulikhel, and we saw one being used yesterday near the Bodhgaya Stupa.
New Years Resolutions? None, apart from my usual resolution to make no resolutions. New Years Resolutions tend to be broken which leads to unhappiness. Besides I have no shortage of long-term goals; it's short term decisions that I'm short on - where am I going to go in Nepal, and when? But that's a decision for tomorrow. Or the day after.
