Namo Buddha

A Tibetan friend in Kathmandu highly recommended visiting Namo Buddha when asked about it. Actually, Jaeho has been there in 2002 and remembers his fantastic round-trip hike that starts at Dhulikhel धुलिखेल. In the morning, Jaeho went to Ratna bus park to take the bus to Dhulikhel located about 30 km southeast of Kathmandu. Dhulikhel is a small town as the administrative center of Kavre district and sits at an altitude of around 1550 meters above sea level. Dhulikhel is also a famous viewpoint, offering tourists a panoramic view of snow-covered Himalayas.

Lots of holy Buddhist pilgrimage sites are scattered across Nepal because Nepal is a birthplace of Buddha. For the Buddhists, Namo Buddha(1750 m), one of the most visited holy places along with Swyambhunath and Boudhanath in Kathmandu, is located south of Dhulikhel. The hiking trail to Namo Buddha starts by climbing the stone steps through the dense forest just in southeastern Dhulikhel and reaching the hilltop of Dhulikhel. And it goes up and down hills to Namo Buddha passing through the hamlets and crossing roads. It is about 2.5 hours hike from Dhulikhel. It had been the first hiking for Jaeho since he arrived in Nepal last October. 

The trail from Dhulikhel gave hikers a peaceful and panoramic view of the Himalayas. They also enjoy the beautiful scenery of hills, forests and typical local villages along the superb trail all the way. It was bright, sunny day but the snow-covered  Himalayas was hidden behind the clouds.

According to a Buddhist legend, Buddha was Prince Mahasattva in his previous life, the youngest son of King Maharatta. It was said that the prince offered his body to a hungry tigress here, which makes this site a holy place. The Stupa at Namo Buddha is believed to have kept the remains of Prince Mahasattva. 

Buddha was said to visit this village after his enlightenment. He made clear that he was the reincarnation of Prince Mahasattva. Buddha renamed this village as Namo Buddha, which literally means 'Homage to Buddha'. 

The Tibetan monastic community around the stupa appears to have grown and prospered significantly over the past 15 years, making Namo Buddha a holy destination for both Buddhists and tourists.   

It was really amazing for Jaeho to be able to find at least one villager and ask them for directions, which immediately helped him avoid getting lost. They were so warm and friendly.

Taemin's Move

Taemin 태민 is one of the finest Kpop dancers and singers. In this song, he reveals his own talent and musical identity so well. His song and choregraphy are flowing smoothly like a river.

[The English lyrics are shown on this site.]

Asan Tole

The traditional market is one of the best places to feel the local, authentic atmosphere everywhere. Surrounded by traditional and modern merchant buildings, Asan Tole असन टोल is located in the medieval marketplace in the central Kathmandu, which is just the most popular square where tourists can get a glimpse of the true daily life of Nepalese people. Asan means "Just There" and Tole is a street or square.

Asan Tole is one of the oldest, busiest markets, crowded with shoppers and sellers from early morning to night every day. It is also a major gathering place for commercial and religious activities. The crossroads for six streets that radiate from Asan Tole, the open-air market, are lined with many shops selling all kinds of household goods, rice, fruits, vegetables, dried fish, cassette tapes, clothing, incense, shoes, and spices, including saffron, cardamom, and many masala spices. 

The three-story Annapurna Temple in the southeast corner of Asan Tole is dedicated to the goddess of abundance or food grains. Annapurna is represented by a big silver jar called Kalash inside the temple for an image of Annapurna. In the north, across the square from this temple, is a two-story temple dedicated to Ganesh, an elephant-headed god.

The earthquake in 2015 unexpectedly struck Asan Tole, causing some old buildings to collapse. The above sketch was done from the east side of the square in 2002. This can be compared to the photo on the right, taken in 2017. The white tent-roofed building right in the middle of the photo was damaged at the time, and only the ground floor now remains. 

Kirtipur

Kirtipur कीर्तिपुर is the ancient Newari settlement that lies in the southwest of the Kathmandu valley. Uniquely located on the long hilltop ridge, where visitors can see the panoramic view of Kathmandu. Two famous Hindu mandirs(temples) are centered along the long hilltop. Uma Maheshwar sits on the higher hill to the north, while Bagh Bhairav(Photo) stands in the middle of Kirtipur. Despite the earthquake in 2015, fortunately, these two survived intact. As you wander around the town, you will find a number of amazing medieval buildings dotted along its backstreets. Besides, the community of Kirtipur is proud of its abundant historical and cultural heritage. Nonetheless, Kirtipur has been ignored by tourists for a long and is one of the least visited places in the valley. 

Historically, Kirtipur had been considered as an impregnable fortress enjoying a strategic, geographical advantage until the army under Prithvi Narayan Shah, King of Gorkha kingdom and later the first King of unified Nepal, launched its first attack on this fortress in 1757 and finally captured it, leaving heavy casualties and damage in 1768. The final victory in the battle to capture Kirtipur marked Shah's major turning point in his efforts to take the whole Kathmandu Valley. The photo on the left shows Uma Maheshwar mandir, a distant view from the lower street, and on the right, some Hindu temple on the way to Bagh Bhairav Mandir.

Kirtipur people hung the seized weapons like Kukuri knives and shields on the third-story exterior walls of Bagh Bhairav Mandir and celebrated the victory after beating off Gorkha army at the first battle. The rusty weapons could still be seen there as they used to be. The sketch was done in Jan. 2004.

On this visit, Jaeho was there together with his Nepali friend from Dhanusa district. He drove his motorcycle almost all day to meet Jaeho and got to Thamel safely the day before our visit to Kirtipur. After looking around Bagh Bhairav mandir, we dropped by the tourist information center. The center was ready to answer any questions about the history of Kirtipur. Asked about the spot where Gorkha army launched its final attack to take the besieged fortress. Bahiri Gaon, whose current location is near Kirtipur Bus stop as shown in the photo, was the attacking point. 

Chinese Noodle

After over a dozen years, the most unusual scenes in Thamel streets were many signboards with Chinese characters and swarms of Chinese tourists. Chinese money has rushed into Nepal in the process of recovery and reconstruction since the devastating earthquake struck Nepal in 2015. Chinese have been said to purchase the damaged or collapsed buildings in the commercial areas at a high price and rebuild new buildings whose purposes are accommodation, restaurant, and lease. 

Jaeho came across a Chinese restaurant in one of the backstreets in Thamel. Found Braised Buff Noodle(红烧牛肉面) appeared on the menu, not Braised Beef one. Beef should be used in this famous Chinese noodle, but it was replaced by water buffalo meat. Understood that beef is strictly prohibited among Hindus in Nepal. The taste was beyond expectations.

Osho Tapoban

In South Korea, the books on meditation used to win the heart of the public in the 70's and 80's. Out of all the spiritual Masters, Osho Rajneesh and Jiddu Krishnamurti were well known. Back then, a famous Korean poet translated a book of Osho's lectures on the quotes on Bodhidharma into Korean and introduced it to Korean readers. In those days, he was also into meditation and Osho, and often traveled to India and Nepal. Meanwhile, he became a disciple of Osho at the ashram in Pune, India, and later attended the funeral of Osho, the master. In the preface to his translated book, he described his experiences during his stay at a meditation center in the Himalayas, whose name was Osho Tapoban located in the western corner of Kathmandu valley in Nepal. The book impressed some Korean a lot, leading them to finally visit there on their own.

The only purpose of the visit to Nepal for the first time in 1994 was to look around Osho Tapoban and experience what it is like to meditate. Some days later, after arriving in Nepal, he finally got to Tapoban with some Nepali's help. He spent a few days there, meditating on the daily schedule. Guided by a Nepali meditation instructor, he was slowly accustomed to practicing Osho meditation, learning a bit about how to relax and relieve mental stress. Since then, he has visited Tapoban for meditation almost every year, but the purpose of visiting Nepal has been gradually changed from meditation to Nepal itself. Meanwhile, he actually had experienced various barriers to go deep into meditation and later managed to find the answer to the question by exploring Seon(선(禪), Zen in Japanese, Chan in Chinese) Buddhism. 

Osho Tapoban was also on the list of places to visit again after 14 years. Left the hotel in Thamel to head out to Tapoban on foot as before in the morning, looking around the familiar rural landscape. It must have felt like visiting your hometown again. Osho Tapoban has flourished a lot under Sw. Anand Arun's leadership is growing both in size and stature worldwide. He was glad to meet a staff member who recognized him. It was said that Sw. Arun stayed in Pokhara, where Osho Tapoban has one of its other communes.

Zorba the Buddha is the name of the restaurant at the gate. From the rooftop restaurant, visitors can view the dense primeval forest, which is called Nagarjun Ban, in which the great Buddhist master, Nagarjuna, meditated and attained enlightenment.

autumn ciff trail

Gaebiri-gil 개비리길 trail takes you the cliff side path along the Nakdong river near Namji 남지 at the southern province of Changnyeong-gun 창녕군 county. Namji is less than 50 minutes drive south of Daegu. The trail name comes down from a folktale about a dog that has been passed orally. Once upon a time, a mother dog gave birth to 11 puppies at an old man's place in a village near the river. Before long, he noticed one of the puppies was relatively smaller and weaker than the rest. That is why she had only 10 nipples so that one of them didn't always get the chance to nurse. A mother dog was able to nurse all the puppies but didn't make sure everyone was getting fed.

Later, the old man sold the 10 puppies other than the poor one on the market. He decided to keep her that he felt sorry for the baby. One day, the old man's daughter who had married into the family in the other village across the mountain visited his father, found the puppy and told him that she would keep the puppy. 

The two villages where the old man and his married daughter had lived were separated by the mountain next to the river. A couple of days later, the daughter was surprised to see the mother dog feeding the puppy. The dog was thought to have crossed the mountain and dropped by to nurse her cub! Since then, the daughter found out that the mother dog came feed her baby every once a day. Even when it snowed heavily, she came as ever.

The villagers were curious about which trail she had taken, so they chsaed her when she crossed the mountain. They were shortly surprised to see that the dog took a steep cliff path where the snow didn't pile up. Later, the cliff trail had became the major route for the two villagers to easily go back and forth between them, instead of going across the mountain hard. 

In Gaebiri-gil, Gae means a dog, Biri cliff, Gil path. These days, the trail has been maintained well for the hikers and tourists. Its whole distance is 6.4 km.

Sankhu

Sankhu सक्व was one of the Newari villages that Jaeho had wanted to visit again in 15 years. It is a traditional and peaceful village, not overrun with tourists. The local bus for Sankhu starts from the bus station near Ratna park. Sankhu lies on the northeastern corner of the Kathmandu valley, which was once known as an ancient trading post on the route between Lhasa in Tibet and Kathmandu. It retained the traditional Newari settlement and much of its medieval character. Unfortunately, however, the earthquakes in 2015 severely damaged 90% of the old buildings in Sankhu.

The Shree Ugratara Vajrayogini Temple, constructed in 1665, is located on a mountain slope about 1.5 km north of Sankhu. To reach this temple, hike north from Sankhu village and turn left off the paved road, as shown in the photo above. The trail, along with long ascending stone steps, leads to the temple. But took the wrong way and went straight. Because the memory of the trail he took 15 years ago was so faint, not until he walked further up the road, doubting if he was heading in the right direction, and finally asked the villagers for directions, that he realized he was on the wrong road. 

It was hot, and the northward road had broken here and there, and motorcycles, trucks, and buses often raised lots of dust. Got out of the wrong road first taken and returned to the right trail to the temple as the villagers pointed and walked on the path across the field as the photo on the top.

At the entrance of the temple where visitors climb the last stone stair, they face the main 3-roofed temple dedicated to the tantric goddess worshiped as Ugratara by Buddhists and Vajrayogini by Hindus together. A smaller two-roofed temple is on the right. Two temples are surrounded by old trees, sculptures, and statues. This temple didn't manage to avoid the earthquake disasters, either. The gorgeous 3-tiered roof of the main temple collapsed, and some tin sheets were temporarily installed instead. The wooden planks are seen to support the structure of damaged temples.

This sketch depicts the main temple with the nearby smaller one, which was done from the upper side behind it on Oct. 23, 2002. The old building from which Jaeho looked down during sketching was also reduced to rubble.

On the way to the bus park, with a villager's help, Jaeho went to a cave where the great Tibetan saint, Milarepa(1052~1135) was said to have practiced for a long time.

unfamiliar familiarty

Bought a pair of flip-flops for Rs 250 at a shop on the way to Asan Tole. It was fun to see Facebook logo printed on the insole. This rubber one is made in Nepal and felt so comfortable after being broken for a while.

Social media like facebook have kept going viral in Nepal as the other countries. It is common everywhere to see the smartphone users immersed in smartphones. Heard that the penetration and coverage of mobile phone in Nepal have increased rapidly. 

Many cyber cafes and telephone booths with ISD and STD written on their signboards were spotted along the streets at Thamel area in Kathmandu 14 years ago. This time I was confused as I was not able to find them when I wanted to make a call to Korea and looked for them at Thamel. But it didn't take long before I realized what happened there. That is why mobile phones have come into wide use in Nepal. ISD referring to International Subscriber Dialing and STD Subscriber Trunk Dialing were lost in the mists of time.

It is also the same situation in Korea in that the public telephone booths almost disappeared.  For few people who have not got mobile phones like Jaeho, living in Nepal and Korea became inconvenient.