One of our main tasks here is taking care of volunteers that come through. From when they arrive at the airport until we drop them off, they are our responsibility. Most of this time they are in the field with one of our fellow workers, however, while they are in Kathmandu, we want to show them part of the town, part of the culture, and let them pick something up to remember Nepal.
We want to make informed choices and have an idea of where we are taking people, so these past couple weeks we have played the part of the tourist and explored a bit more of our city. There are smaller shrines everywhere (built into houses, in the yard, on the side of the road, in people's stores, on the dashboard...) One person has said "there are more shrines than houses in Kathmandu" - and I would believe that.
However, going to these centers of worship is deeply affecting. Each site has a multitude of altars and shrines. At each sight there are people praying to blocks of stone and wood and metal. They ring bells to wake up their gods (these bells ring throughout our neighborhood in the morning, too), they spin prayer wheels, they touch and kiss and leave offerings... all to blocks of stone and wood and metal.
The final site we went to, Pashupatinath - is the largest temple site in the world dedicated to Shiva. There are hundreds of ShivaLinga alters here (representing the male and female) on which coconuts and other things are offered. The still do animal sacrifices at the red pagoda alter at pashupatinath (there are also other sites around Nepal where this still occurs) and 300 years ago they did human sacrifices here. A bull, goat, and chicken will be sacrificed here in a few days for the full moon. Also contained at this site are the cremation ghats (steps) where Nepalis believe a properly disposed of body will lead to a better spot in their next life. There are hospices located next to the water because if you die with your feet in the water, you will obtain 'heaven'... This temple felt the darkest of all the places we visited. We hope seeing our video spurs your prayers for the salvation of the Nepali people.
There is a temple here that non-Hindus cannot enter. It contains a massive gilded bull. There is a photo at the end of this video of us standing outside of this temple. Also included in the middle of the video is a short clip where if you listen closely, you can hear the idol temple worship - not the best audio - but best we had.