This May Hurt (just a little.....)

I've received a few additional images from my Eyes in Nepal, Diwakar Maskey - I've learned a little more about some of the fascinating culture that it would apparently take a lifetime or 10 in which to achieve full fluency. But, for now, I'll continue to use this as good motivation for my next trip.

Following the Nepali New Year, one of the festivals that occurs in the Thimi area is the multi-day Balkumari festival. It's said that there is a festival, pilgrimage, or other ceremonial event for practically every day of the year for Nepal's complex cultural traditions.

In this event, a volunteer in a spiritual trance gets his tongue pierced with an iron spike. Good fortune to the village and to the volunteer will follow should he succeed in spending the whole day thus spiked. Interestingly, I've found one article referring to this tradition but it indicates no written history of it. In his article, the Tongue Boring Festival of Thimi, author Subhash Ram relates its traditional beginnings. I’ve paraphrased them here:

Once upon a time, Thimi was haunted by man-eating demons. The demons scared the living daylights out of the people, who eventually petitioned the royal palace to protect their lives. A Tantrik said that the demons could be punished by the charisma of lord Bhairab, so rituals were performed, and the demons were caught.

As punishment, in front of Lord Bhairab, with permission of the king, their tongues were pierced. Each of them was made to carry 108 flaming torches on the shoulder with small bells, and all were made to walk around the country. Afterward, each demon was exiled from the country. As a reminder to be good neighbors, and that those who distresses others will be punished in this way, the Tongue Boring festival is celebrated every year. But apparently now only one person volunteers to be the demon.....




Photos courtesy of Diwakar Maskey

Another Art Car Parade, come and gone...

(mirror car, pictured above: previous winner, and personal favorite)

This year (May 12th) was the 20th Annual Art Car Parade in Houston. I wasn't there. But I heard about it from some old friends. Might have been nice to have met with the ringmaster for this year's event, the Grandfather of Punk himself, George Clinton...but I'll just have to look at webpics/vids of the winners like anyone else who wasn't there to enjoy what can only be experienced. For a complete list of winners and entry photos, check out the Orange Show Foundation's site. Kudos on another year of rolling creativity!

More Festival Images from Nepal: Colecha Jatra at Thaiba or Funeral Procession: You Decide

Another festival update from my intrepid friend and fotog in the field in Nepal, Diwakar Maskey. This posting is for a Goat Festival in Thaiba, south-east of Patan near Kathmandu, en route to the Royal Botanical Gardens. I didn't even know there were Royal Botanical Gardens SE of Patan.

I enjoy Diwakar's update emails - they're more of a personal communication, and almost as a post-script, there will be an attachment with some photos and the name of the festival. I usually don't get much more than that information, the assumption being that I've been there a few times before, and everyone should be familiar with such events. I suppose we all have similar ethno-centric tendencies. What I do enjoy, though, is having to do a little research on my own to learn what a particular festival name is - emailing Diwakar back and making sure I'm getting my facts straight, or asking for more information. Usually, if I ask for a fact, I'll get a 3 page email response, with about a half-page of apologies for not including the facts in the first place, so I don't want to make anyone feel badly for not including them - and I do enjoy digging up the information.

At any rate, this festival was a hard one. "Colecha" more often than not has Spanish-language references. But I was able to learn from Diwakar it's 'just the traditional name of that festival'. "Jatra" is a Nepali term for Festival, and Thaiba is akin to the suburban Kathmandu location. So, mystery solved - it's a locale celebration. What we weren't able to figure out is what the story is in the photos. To me, it looks like a funeral procession.

So, I'll chalk this one up to:

(a) Colecha Jatra at Thaiba
(b) Funeral Procession at Thaiba
(c) Mix of Both
(d) Interesting Subject Matter Lost in Translation

Holi of Holies! March 3, Nepal - Holi Festival, Full Moon, & Lunar Eclipse. Can you say Trifecta Festival Event?

I've mentioned my friend Diwakar previously, who allows me to see what's going on in Nepal when I can't be there. It’s mostly festival-themed, though as hard as it is for him to refrain from presenting anything than a smiling, happy, positive correspondence countenance; sometimes we can share brief commentary in between the e-lines about progress with the country's attempts at a republic in the midst of maoist-led demands to break the strangle-hold of its dictatorial monarchy. But, I digress.

In early March, the globe enjoyed a full moon, and some parts more than others were able to enjoy viewing a full lunar eclipse. In addition to this, in Nepal, it was also the Holi festival. This is often a time of mayhem. Young people wear old clothes and finish the evening in a decidedly multi-coloured look. Holi, also known as the festival of colors, has roots in various Hindu myths and is celebrated in Nepal in a myriad of methods.

(this photo is a bit blurry: no tripod, pre eclipse)



I understand in prior days, people used to hurl buckets of paint at each other, or water balloons of dyed water. Nowadays, it seems, the paint seems to be more of the Halloween make-up version, and it seems to be relatively self-applied - at least from the start. The festival symbolizes the victory of good over evil and heralds the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

I like to think of it better thusly:
As nature blooms into the colors of spring, so do the people of Nepal!

Of course, many of the people - particularly the malefolk - seem dourly serious in the photos attached, this is fairly common. Most of my friends in Nepal are male, and most of my photos of them are similar in nature to those of men in the old west U.S. at the turn of the century - By God Serious. But this belies the nature of some of the warmest people on earth.

Even so, with the myriad of traditional theatrics that go on - you can see the tension in these young boys. They live with daily "disappearances", political ambiguity, an uncertain future, and being citizens of one of the 3 poorest countries on earth while their King is one of the richest rulers on the planet. They will either go into the army to fight the maoists, join the maoists to fight the corrupt government, become monks, become petty criminals to support their families, or become one of an ever-growing population of locals who feed off of the tourist industry. Tourism, incidentally, is suffering intermediary to long-term damage due to the violence that the maoists have embraced initially to get their message heard, but have been reluctant of late to release now that they have driven change in the country.






The future is less bright for the young women and girls of Nepal. Many are being forced into prostitution or kidnapped across the border into India, never to see their families again, doomed to an early diseased death. Gloomy, huh! And Nepalis, despite this, are still the most genuinely warm people you could hope to meet.

I hope that the leaders in Nepal working on an Interim Government truly bridge their differences and work toward a Republic, as they've stated, rather than let things disintegrate further into tribal friction and further fractionation of such proud, hard working, talented, culturally and geographically wealthy people.

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.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

The Lunar New Year begins February 18th, 2007, so Happy New Year of the Pig to those celebrating!

Bon voyage, Imp......

Third Snowfall of Winter

So, we had a winter storm earlier this week that was so much fun to watch blow in. It began Tuesday afternoon on Feb. 13th and settled in for good on Valentine's day. Most workplaces shut down on Tuesday afternoon, but I had a little presentation to give on Wednesday. Besdies, I walk to work. On Wednesday, I knew a number of co-workers wouldn't be there, but they would all be on the morning conference call, so I came in just in case I'd still need to put on my show. Turns out I didn't, but I did get to see what a nuclear winter might look like in a small town, minus the destruction and all. There were virtually no cars. In the main operations center, which runs around the clock, there were a few hearty souls, but other than that, the three buildings were empty. Even the cafeteria. I hadn't counted on that. I got a few little work things done, hung around long enough to hear that my presentation portion was postponed, hung around a little longer to get a few more little work things done and drink some of the coffee that I made, and decided that I was going to make the most of this free snow day off work. But not before sending a funny little email to my co-working friends about the irony of heading into work on a level iii emergency snow day to encounter none other than another hearty Texan first thing in the morning.

So I went back home to assess the work cut out for me for the day in daylight (it was still dark when I went in).

Here, you can see my lovely reindeer skin, rabbit-fur lined boots I picked up when on assignment in Norway. I Super Duper Love these boots.



Before even getting to the house, I approached via the back alleyway, through the back garage, to grab the snow shovel - thinking I'd clear a path from the garage to the back deck. My first few scoops told me this might take a while.

Then I looked up toward the back deck and groaned. And then thought, "thank God I don't live in Oswego, New York."

A handy self-shot. I know, in typical me-fashion, absoLUTEly nothing matches, but EVERYthing has a story. Hat: from a trip to go camping in Rocky Mountain National Park where my gear got diverted to Atlanta, and I could either mope about it, or buy new stuff and go camping anyway, which I ultimately did, and with enough nice whining, even pried a flight voucher out of Continental for the inconvenience. What you can't see are the gloves that came from that same trip. The balaclava thing that is rolled down for this photo: found on a trip to Orrestrand beach in Norway in winter. Headphones: New Zealand. Scarf: Singapore. I know, of all places, right? Well, they're the most wonderful quality wool.... Jacket: Norway. Glasses: Wal-mart, circa 1996, camping trip emergency. I was on a camping trip in the Texas hill country, had a little too much to drink a little too close to a campfire, and my glasses were somehow a casualty. Next morning, I drove an hour into town to find a super-Wal-Mart, showed them my charred glasses, from which they were able to clean a lens and take a reading. I had a new pair waiting for me at the end of that camping trip just in time for the drive back home. Front teeth: Houston, 2005. Originals were chipped out in Kansas in 1978 when playing with a friend but I was afraid that if I told my parents about this, they'd make me stop playing. Next morning, with a nerve danging from the stub where my whole tooth used to be, when I took a big swing of orange juice, I felt the presence of God via Raw Nerve. Emergency weekend dental visit and "temporary bonding" later, I had two new temporary front teeth that were supposed to last "a couple of years". 27 years later, I chipped them pretty badly on a bike accident on the Ho Chi Minh bike trail in Memorial Park in Houston. Decided to spring for a real veneer job, but that young dentist in 1978 did a great 'temporary' job. And here I thought I was all out of good stories........

Hope the snow (or lack of it) is just as you like it this winter......

Third Snowfall of the Winter

Here, you can see the same flowerpot as below, but after our "blizzard" weather event dumping 10 inches of snow overnight earlier this week. Another inch and I wouldn't know where the flowerpot was in the yard.

Second Real Snowfall

So, this year it appears we're getting our snow in February. This was the second real snow we got, about 4 or 5 inches. This is a flower pot that came with the yard. I've not touched it. My mom planted some pansies in it. But otherwise it leaves me alone, and I leave it alone - this is LOW maintenance gardening. Here, you can see by the base of the pot what our secondary snowfall was like.

Thank Heaven for Snow!

Earlier in February we got a little snow. A fellow Texan co-worker, Gary, and I made BIG plans to play outside at my place after work. It was to be a BIG deal. Hot chocolate, cookies, and snowman supplies - including non-toxic paint instead of coal for snowman eyes and buttons. And some Calvin and Hobbes classics for inspiration. Except this was only about 4 inches of snow, and it was super-fine powerdery stuff that would make talcum powder seem like grease. With this stuff, you couldn't even make a snowball. Of course all of our Ohio old-fuddy-duddy co-workers knew this, and rather than take delight in the fact that two adults were experiencing the joy and anticipation of 5-year-olds, many of our colleagues found it more enjoyable to piss on our anticipation. We were unstoppable in our plans, though. Snowman plans or no, by God, we were going to play in the snow. So we made a snow angel or two, and spent the rest of the time outside using a few garage implements to design patterns in the snow. Unfortunately, footprints got in the way. But the hot chocolate was DARN GOOD, anyhow.......dag nab-it!!

Now Time for a Stretch....

And, Two Floods in January

At some point in the new year, we went through 6 weeks with abnormally high rainfall resulting in 3 flood events for the city. Only one resulted in my back yard looking like this. In fact, this was what it looked like after I got home from work - it was worse in the morning falling the all day and all night rain. The rainfall amount? A measly 2.3 inches. 2.3 INCHES! How lame. I come from Houston where 10 inches in a half a day might cause a problem for the evening commute. The good news was that my back yard accumulation was gone overnight, and didn't reach my deck.

Finally! The Christmas Shot

OK, so I had to wait until February when we actually had snow to take this shot, much to the chagrin of my neighbors who have all since packed away their Christmas decorations. But I refused to put mine away until I could snap a few shots of the house done up with lights framed with REAL SNOW.

December Decor

Well, I've finally done a bit of decorating....Here's a daytime shot, but my tree at left looks pretty pathetically decorated - ala "A Charlie Brown Christmas". That strand has a whole middle section that is not functional for some reason. The rope lights around the columns are crooked - I know - but the paint / epoxy on them is recent, so I don't want to fasten them too tightly and make any impressions in the paint, which needs to cure through the winter. Note the newly stained deck flooring -

And here's the evening shot - it's a little blurry, didn't use a tripod. I suspect I'll have to get more creative with my red light hanging when those strands stretch out a bit. In our current cold front the fireplace is getting regular nightly use - currently my favorite aspect of the house! That blob of light at the top is a lighted wreath in the upstairs "camping room" window.