Kali's ripple effect and the circle of life.

Its been about 5 weeks since I came back to Nepal after packing up my life in Australia.  Its a weird feeling being back and the energy about the place has completely changed.  Pokhara is almost a ghost town.  No tourists are here, businesses are closed or being pulled down or renovated. Lots of people wandering around not knowing what to do as business is so slow.  A town that is usually a buzz with tourists is quiet.  Although Pokhara wasn't really affected by the Earthquake it is important to note the ripple effect of the Earthquake has in fact rippled through everyone here in Nepal.. Businesses are affected and this undoubtedly means the families that the businesses feed and support are also suffering.  
Many people here work businesses to potentially feed and support not only their immediate families but their extended families as well, and in some cases half a village.

Getting back here has been an exercise in setting up my flat and trying to find a connection back into the relief effort... Its a new chapter in the relief effort, the focus has changed and my crew have also all left Nepal.  
The hardest thing right now is wanting and needing to get out into the field, yet Im stuck here waiting... Its Monsoon time, things have changed..... Kali has now released the Landslides, and water issues that will no doubt be affecting all the people who have not been able to rebuild yet..... When it rains here it pours... The roads become rivers and the thunder and lightening is like nothing Ive ever heard or seen. The noise ripples and rolls across the valleys and it is really frightening.  You can understand why the villagers are superstitious and believe the Gods must be angry when this happens. 

There is something about Monsoon time that forces you to stop and reflect, reevaluate your reasons and motivations and in a way you slow down a bit.  For someone from Melbourne Australia this is not easy, as we are so used to being busy on schedule and having Air conditioned cars that we can avoid the weather a little and keep our daily routines intact. The govt allows children here up to 33 days off school in Monsoon.  It is easy to understand why.  The roads become impossible and if you live in villages and have to walk to school and the rain starts, it can be a dangerous journey home trekking through the himalaya mountains trying to avoid sliding down the mountain or worse still, being caught in a landslide. 

Upon my return I felt the need to visit a town away from the tourist area about 2 hours drive further west in the mountains.  Baglung is a beautiful place high in the mountains near the Kali Gandaki river, famous for its rich king and temple to the Goddess Kali. 

The history of Baglung is noted from the 16th century.  The King Pratapi Nayayan of Galkot married the princess of Palpa. The king brought goddess kali along with him as dowry. Legend follows, nobody was able to carry the sword of Kali. A youth from Kunwar chhetri family was finally able to carry the sword. He was given the honorary title of Khadka ('khadga' meaning the sword). One night when the wedding procession reached where Baglung is today, the king had a dream. In his dream goddess Kali said she liked the place and wished to stay there. The king then built a temple in honor of goddess Kali and designated the Khadka as caretaker.  This was in 1590 B.S. (1533 A.D.). Significant population of Khadka Chhetris can be found in Baglung till date..
(THIS section above is copied from :  http://vn2011.blogspot.com/2010/12/baglung-natural-beauty-nepali-style.html )  

To this day the Baglung temple is one of the most beautiful temples surrounded in beautiful forest.  I needed to re-aquaint myself with Kali and to refresh my Nepali experience, so for me this is the place.  Sitting up high on the hill looking out across the valleys with its winding rushing Kali river I found myself feeling quite at peace as I chatted to my friend about all sorts of various things..  
This is the river they take the dead too.  They  are carried down the steep descent on Bamboo by close relatives and friends to be burned.  There is a ritual  performed and the son of the deceased must shave his head and not be touched for about 11 days, they can not eat anything but rice and no salt once a day.  It is a ritual and practice that has not been questioned or altered for 1000's of years and every villager that dies, that is remotely near this river, even if they must trek for days, is brought here.  Yet despite its association with the dead I find the river somewhat soothing and the loud rush of its water, cleansing as it washes away any trace of negativity.... Rivers are the life source of the planet.  The circle of life it seems is complete as it provides life and takes life. A bit like Kali always balancing creation and destruction, life and death.

Baglung is named as such after the tigers that used to live in this region, sadly they have moved on as humans settled the city... In Nepal every major region used to have its own King, proudly the Kings would have palaces and rule the surrounding villages.  These kings would often war with each other and over time eventually the the Kings were defeated by the mighty Gorkha King, he was the last king of Nepal ... oddly enough Gorkha was the epicentre of the earthquake.

After spending a beautiful 2 days in Baglung exploring the town and some nearby motorbike drives up the mountain, I found myself feeling quite at home here. Life is simple here.... It is a hard life for many as my friend likes to remind me, however I can't help but feel that despite the hard work there is a beauty and peacefulness in the simplicity of living in a community like this. People find joy in the simplest things and walking everywhere here is a way of life. 

Now as I return to Pokhara and start to focus on relief again I feel revitalised, inspired once again ready to work for and with my Nepali friends to restore, preserve and empower this simplicity and way of life.  Like the aboriginals of Australia and the American indians and other tribal cultures of the world, it is imperative that we learn from, preserve, support and protect these cultures.  There is so much to learn about how to live in harmony with our planet and I believe that these people who live off the land in a simple way hold the key to our future.  Through their stories, legends and myths we can find our way back to a more simple harmonious way of being.  We are not separate from nature, we are nature.