Happy Belated Maha Shivaratry

My friend Diwakar in Kathmandu, Nepal keeps me tuned in to goings-on when I'm not there. I've often told him that I'd love to see a year's worth of ceremony and festivities in Nepal. So, this year, with a little digital help, he's helping me see that from a half a world away.

Maha Shivaratry is, pardon the pun, a high holy day for the Shiva sects of Hinduism, was celebrated mid-February this year, I'm told. It commemorates the marriage of Shiva to Parvati. In Nepal, at Kathmandu's Pashupatinath temple, the surrounding hills are cloaked with bonfires the night before the celebrations to the lingham of Shiva begin.

Within the temple, there is a maintained space for the sadhus for the festival. These naked or near naked ascetics representing various sects of belief like the Kanphatta yogis, Naag sadhus, Kundan sadhus, Bairagis and Nirmad sadhus congregated in their allocated space within the temple complex.

For Shivaratri, tradition is that the sadhus - who traditionally smoke ganja on their chillums as part of a meditative process, originally - become the main attraction. They can be seen puffing away - stoned, dreadlocked, bearded (no shearing of any hair) wearing garlands of beads on their ash-smeared bodies and, for the last few decades, have become a photographer's delight. More so at Shivaratri than at any other time of year.

After the hippie trail discovered Shangri-La and Himalayan ganja biscuits, Nepal quickly became known as much for its tolerance and wild-growing stands of marijuana as for its mountainous hiking or its heartwarming culture. The dope destination mentality has significantly reduced over time, but there is always a stream of people who rarely seen ganja usage in a religious manner on a festival occasion, in public, in such a culturally different situation than possibly their own.

As a result, many sadhus perch in the woods across the Bagmati River to be accessible especially to curious tourists prohibited from entering the Pashupati Nath temple premises and also to local youths - in true Shivaratri style and spirit - wanting a puff of the "Shiva buti". (Now that's some holy pot!)

Interestingly, in Nepal, apparently ganja usage has declined so much that the local youth are as curious as the tourists. Free sampling the Shiva buti by the sadhus has raised concern in Kathmandu over whether restrictions should be placed on future Shivaratri festivals. Which is terribly ironic - because just an hour outside of the city, marijuana grows wild in 8-foot tall stands in the foothills of the Himalayans, as many a rubber-legged hiker can attest.