Walking into Nepal
I love going as much as arriving. Getting to Nepal from India was a lot of going, and it was a lovely day for it. By sunset, we’d be in the birthplace of Buddha, Lumbini, Nepal.
In the still-dark early morning, we left Varanasi. First, a tuk-tuk ride to the train station, followed by a six-hour train ride, before a switch to a bus for a couple of hours hurtling north. After nearly nine hours of going, we landed in the border town of Sonauli, India. We passed a hustling, bustling market area, then stopped at a tiny building for Indian departure stamps.
Thirty minutes later, we walked out of India and into a no-man’s land between two countries. Amused and thrilled to be on our feet, we dallied for photographs of the arches announcing India on one end zone, and Nepal on the other. Checked out of India, but not yet checked in to Nepal. Technically, where were we if something were to go wrong in this gap, in the cusp between this and that? Buddha eyes watched us from atop the Nepal goal post. As we walked into Nepal, the town became Belhiya.
I love walking across a border! It’s active, physical. It’s both casual and more formal. They stamp passports. Overland border crossings feel like a border crossing, a little Wild West, a bit 1800s Grand Tour. Definitely old school with a little extra zap of drama that we just don’t get anymore in airports. And here, where would one go if refused entry? Camp in the cusp?
First Impression of Nepal
Listen! Nepal was QUIET! India’s honking madness was not even a football field away. But here, the streets were blessedly quiet.
Our luggage had already crossed the border on rickshaws and was now packed high atop our new pastel purple G Adventures bus with two Nepalese pilots. Time to go!
The Story of Buddha
Our first stop in Nepal was Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. During the two-hour bus ride from the border, Khush, our G Adventures Leader Extraordinaire, told us the story of “Lord Buddha”.
The man who became Buddha was born a prince. His mother, Queen Mayadevi, stopped at Lumbini on her way to her mother’s house. At Lumbini, she gave birth to a son she named Siddhartha Gautama. She dreamed he would conquer the world in one of two ways: as a king through war or as a monk.
He was a thinker and empathetic. He married and had a son. At 29, he went outside the palace to see his province. It is said that on his journey, he saw an old man and learned that growing old was part of the cycle of life. He saw a leper and sickness and learned that one can’t escape karma. Finally, he saw a dead body and learned that everyone dies. He went home depressed from all the suffering and pain he had seen.
But then, one day, he saw a poor monk who was begging for food. Despite his poverty, the monk’s face was bright, shining, and wise with enlightenment. Siddhartha decided that to get this kind of peace and knowledge in the face of the human condition, he too needed to be a monk.
Becoming Buddha
He left the palace, his wife, his child, and his possessions. He shaved his head and wandered in the jungle for five years. But nothing came to him. He met five others in pursuit of knowledge and together they meditated. To stimulate the chakras, they didn’t eat and gave pain to their bodies. One day an old lady from the untouchables caste passed by with milk in a terra cotta pot. She offered it and he drank. The five others declared him a fake monk and left him.
He decided to lead a normal life, but with meditation. He studied and lived a life of moderation, a middle way. Unsatisfied, he sat under the shade of a bodhi tree and meditated for 49 days, until he found the truth. And with that, he became Buddha, or self-enlightened. Later he found the five others near Varanasi and gave his first sermon. The five became his disciples and his teachings were passed on by word of mouth for two centuries before being written down.
A Bit about Buddhism
Essentially, the teachings of Buddha say that sufferings are caused by desires and that to overcome sufferings you must control desires. This is done by striving to have the right:
- View: know that our actions and beliefs have consequences after death because death is not the end.
- Intention: practice loving kindness and compassion, and contemplate suffering and our impermanence.
- Speech: don’t lie, or make rude speech, don’t tell one person what another says about him/her.
- Action: don’t kill or injure, don’t take what is not given, no sexual acts, no material desires.
- Livelihood: beg to feed, only possess what is essential to sustain life.
- Effort: generate energy, exert the mind, and strive to prevent and eliminate evil and unwholesome mental states.
- Mindfulness: be present, never be absent minded, be conscious of what one is doing.
- Concentration: give up pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness, in order to enter a place in the mind of pure equanimity and mindfulness.
This is drastically oversimplified, as is the Pancha Sila. But the kindness and good intentions are clear and universal, no matter how deep one gets into religion.
Lumbini, the Birthplace of Buddha
We arrived at Lumbini in the late afternoon, walking into the park that seemed to be growing prayer flags. Here, there are ruins of ancient monasteries, a sacred Bodhi Tree, the Ashokan pillar marking a prince’s birth, and the Mayadevi Temple, where Buddha’s birthplace is located. It is a large park-like complex with many peaceful places to sit and contemplate life. But first, you must remove your shoes.
People and monks from many countries come here to meditate. Chanting pilgrims surround the ancient bodhi tree which is draped in thousands of prayer flags. We briefly walked through the main building where Buddha’s birthplace is marked by excavated stones under bullet-proof glass and offerings. And then spent our own quiet time near the tree and wandering the grounds.
What peace there in the dying light of the sun, prayer flags blowing in the breeze, and the sing-song chants of the monks. I would have liked to spent the day there, watching, listening, and maybe doing a little meditating.
Peaceful Nepal
My first and lasting impression of Nepal was of peace. Calm, repetitive chanting, singing bowls and chimes, cool breezes, flower mandalas, and the surrounding mountains.
Butwal, Lumbini to Barauli
The next day, we left for a four-hour bus ride to Barauli. Along the way, we were almost hit by a Bob Marley-decorated truck. The truck passed a car while being passed by our bus, and came about one inch from hitting our bus at the exact spot where my elbow was resting against the window. The drivers got out and yelled at each other. Our driver fetched a policeman, but the truck did not stop when the policeman flagged him over. The policeman got on his motorcycle to go get the truck. We saw them pulled over down the road and stopped again so our bus driver could join more debate. Khush said the truck driver would likely be fined on-the-spot, and/or taken to jail.
Near Lumbini, we stopped to see another golden statue of Buddha. Khush explained that statues of a bald short-haired Buddha are of him yet-to-be-enlightened, while curly, long or pony-tailed hair is after he’s enlightened. Despite the fact that Nepal is 81% Hindu and only 9% Buddhist, Buddha seems to be everywhere in Nepal.
The Nepalese Thali Set
The bus kept rolling. I could ride on that bus forever, watching the mountains pass. I didn’t want to get there, no matter where “there” was.
Nearing our Barauli Homestay in Chitwan National Park, we stopped to eat at a hillside mom-and-pop restaurant. They served us a traditional Nepalese Thali Set, similar to the meal we’d had at the cooking class in Orchha, India.
A “thali set” offers all six flavor profiles—sweet, salty, bitter, sour, astringent, and spicy–served all on one metal plate. This veggie plate had rice, lentil soup, greens, a curry, and several unidentified but dang-spicy fried veggies. Khush said, this meal “Will cost you $3 on your pocket. You will love it.”
And we did!
Anyone have recommendations for where to find an authentic Thali Set in Chicago? Let me know!
Thank you for reading
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Carol Fletcher is a traveling, dog-loving, coffee-addicted photographer and blogger living in Chicago. To see more photo essays and projects, please visit www.carolfletcher.com.
