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 lecture on the quotes on Bodhidharma into Korean and introduced it to Korean readers. In those days, he has been also into meditation and Osho, and often traveled India and Nepal. Meanwhile, he became a disciple of Osho at 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 staying 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 him to finally visit there on his own.

The only purpose of 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 had 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 the 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 hometown again. Osho Tapoban indeed seemed to have flourished a lot under Sw. Anand Arun's leadership, 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 there.

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 at the bus station near Ratna park. Sankhu lies on the northeastern corner of  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 characters. Unfortunately, however, the earthquakes in 2015 severely damaged 90% of traditional houses in Sankhu.

Shree Ugratara Vajrayogini temple constructed in 1665 is located on the hilltop about 1.5 km north of Sankhu. To reach this temple, you should take a hike to the north from Sankhu and turn left from the paved road somewhere as the above photo. 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 the right direction and finally asked the villagers for directions, he realized he was on the wrong road. 

It was hot and the northward road has 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 was collapsed and some tin sheets are 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.

Nepal Travel - People & Streets

Along with the Himalayas, the memory that Nepali people are simple and warm  is likely to linger in the minds of tourists that Nepal becomes the second or spiritual home. Found again this time that they have not changed and are as warm and friendly as ever.

The streets in and around Thamel area looked nearly the same as those 14 years ago. The typical smells and noises are as they used to be. Looked like that the numbers of cars and bikes increased a lot. Many traditional Newari style wooden buildings disappeared and new modern concrete buildings were constructed at the sites.

Even if the earthquake in 2015 destroyed many old wooden buildings in the valley,  some remain intact and the other broken ones were still able to be found behind the streets.

Nepal Travel - Arrival

It has been about 14 years since my last visit to Nepal. I spent just 11 days in Kathmandu this time and returned home in Korea soon. For the last 14 years, I sometimes have had dreams about Nepal. In early October, to my delight, long-awaited trip happened to me finally and I was really looking forward to this travel.

Much has changed on the flight. Korean Air has a direct flight from Incheon to Kathmandu and the flight duration is about 7 hours. Nepal feels nearer than before.

The blurry photo at the top shows Thamel Chowk at the entrance of Thamel area. It was the first one that I took with Digital camera in Nepal. So familiar scenes began to come into view just after getting off the taxi. After the installation of the drinking water pipeline in Kathmandu Valley had finally completed, the roads were not repaired yet, so clouds of dust received the tourists.

The above photos show some food for dinner at Yak restaurant managed by a Tibetan woman that I have known for over 20 years. The left one is Vegetable steamed Momo(Dumpling) with chilli sauce, the other Egg curry with rice, which had been the ones for Jaeho to want to eat for the last 14 years.