TREK, TOUR and A TALE

 Trek, Tour, and A Tale

             Walking back into an era, when the kings ruled when the nation was one, and I....started my year traveling back in time for a small frame into a space of rich heritage, as I walked the land of a living museum. 

When the mountain called again.

They say when BHAKTI enters any realm, you step into the Divine.               

 The Divine Annapurna Himalayan Mountain Range is seated strong in meditation and looks like a silver massif of rocks looking down at the Gandaki river and its flow, and blessing the ancient historic squares right up to the center. In return, the city looks up like a protector showing a great blend of cultures of both Hindu temples and Buddhist Stupas, blending into a faith that screams from every corner, from every lane, from every wall, and in every face. 

Undoubtedly, there are many Jewels of Wisdom standing in physical form on this planet, one such is the old temple city of Nepal, The BHAKTAPUR.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site                          

                   A rustic red old city built-in MANDALA-like pattern, the squares entering into a circle, a circle leading into another square with an intersection of small temple spaces-like energy centers and serpentine lanes leading to resting spaces in every corner where the old people rested and soaked the sun. A sense of wonder envelopes and my brain now dissects the geometry, traveling back centuries feeling the walls, and sensing my presence like in a past life. The sky weaves the beautiful Annapurna that peeps in between like a backdrop.

                                    

 

 

The aged men Dressed well in coats and Nepali topis, Looked at us tourists with awe and a gentle face, We passed on a smile, Bowing to the history soaked in their veins.  

 The corner Chai Points hosts a relaxed living with men engrossed in a game of chess with their chai, and my heart took a sigh as my mind ran back to the morning rat race back in Bangalore. The old city cafes, traveler's joints, and the small lanes adorned with beautiful Newari architecture decked with shops showcasing and selling some intricate fine artwork, trinkets, kukris, and all beautiful things, and here... the god masks into a human.       

The narrow lanes from afar looked like they would merge but you walk into these to enter a wide sunny open pottery square,  decorated with an array of lamps drying beautifully, and the potter's wheel is now the music. 

The sun now opens out to huge courtyards and small temples with Garuda welcoming every corner. The palaces with amazing Newari architecture mostly built with wood and bricks have typical crocheted lace-like patterns, that run evenly all around. Gigantic rock statues of Narasimha, Hanuman, lions, elephants, and man and woman walking with their child and dog all like Guardians. The Pagoda-style roofs are three and five-tiered scaling the sky.

Garuda

narrow city lanes

Solving the puzzle further we enter a main temple square the womb (as I want to call it),  the wonderful tall huge NYATAPOLA TEMPLE. This is a 5-storeyed temple towering about 30m above the square. The gigantic Bahubali-like structures on both sides of the steps lead to the ABODE OF SHAKTI-THE GODDESS SIDDHI LAKSHMI.                            

Nyatapola Temple

                     

The temple is closed and is open only for a season and not for all, and therefore no one knows what she is like, but the legend says she has an extremely fierce kali-like face with 9 heads and 18 hands. 

The five-tiered roof depicts the Pancha Bhutas or the five elements, EARTH, WATER, FIRE, AIR, ETHER.

and I see Yoga everywhere.

The goddess story depiction

 

As you walk into these spaces.... the walls, the pillars the fine art, the story it depicts, the hands that made it, the hands that felt it, the million feet that walked into these now smoothened floors,  the faith that brings people, the time that hold all this strong; and the fragrance of the bygone that still lingers on in the air,  and the Goddess eternal in her seat like a magnet.

As a Yogini, I saw the Yoga, the Tantra, and Yantra as man magic and the machine coming together in meditation.                           

       These big ancient historic structures are an invitation to walk the divine, and the wisdom it carries through centuries, the awakening man achieved in its creation.  

        

 I saw the Purusha and the Prakriti, the SHIVA- the Inert energy, in the glorious Annapurna and SHAKTI  sublime at this core. and the energy that continues.....

Thank you.

Dr. Yashaswini.B.Raj