Saturday, June 28, 2008

Cow palace

Where's Gary Larsen when you need him?
Kathmandu

There's a great Gary Larsen cartoon somewhere in this story, just waiting to be created.

The former King's sacred cows, left bereft of their Gaushala by the Children of the Revolution.

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - After the king, it is now the turn of his cows to face removal from Nepal's royal palace, two days after it was turned into a museum, a government official said on Tuesday.

Gyanendra, the last king of Nepal, left the main palace last week after a special assembly voted in May to abolish the 239-year-old monarchy and turn the Himalayan nation into a republic.

abolish the 239-year-old monarchy and turn the Himalayan nation into a republic.

But Gyanendra's 60 cows still graze in the sprawling grounds of the Narayanhiti palace in the heart of Kathmandu. He used the cows for fresh milk but authorities say the animals, considered holy by Hindus, must also leave.

"We can't keep them there and no decision has yet been taken about what to do with them," said Govinda Prasad Kusum, a senior bureaucrat in charge of preparing an inventory of palace contents.... "Maybe the livestock department under the ministry of agriculture should use these cows for research purposes," he said. Nepal, a mostly Hindu nation, forbids slaughtering cows.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Stee-rike

New Nepal? not yet
Kathmandu


Well, no Charya Nritya lessons for me last Saturday after all.

There was a transport strike (surprise! -- I have long since learned to ignore the ostensible "causes" behind such
disruptions). They seem pretty interchangeable, and produce no appreciable results.

My teacher, Raju Sakya, couldn't make it into the city from his home in the traditional Buddhist neighborhood of OkuBahal, Patan.

So common are the strikes (transport or otherwise...a transport strike pretty much makes it a general strike, since many people can't get to work) that there's now a website devoted to monitoring them. Check out Nepalbandh.com
You can't make this stuff up.

Rather like holidays and festivals in Nepal, bandhs/strikes are so run of the mill as to almost have become the norm rather than the exception.

None of the participants ever seem to have stopped to ask the question: are these strikes producing a result? any result at all? Are we any closer to achieving our goals or getting our demands met? Striking has become a Nepali reflex. When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

For now I'm just watching Charya videos on Youtube and reading some of the (very scant) material available. Other than one tiny home made paperback here, there is no book (yet) about Newari Charya Nritya.


Oh, and for your viewing pleasure you can also check out the latest Load-shedding schedule on the NepalBandh site.

It's too cute

Monkey Business


Counting the minutes till some jerk makes a "Macaca" joke...??


BBC story:
Hindu Monkey God for Obama

A group of Indians are planning to present a statue of the revered Indian monkey God, Hanuman, to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The group decided to order the idol after they read a magazine report saying that Mr Obama carried a good luck 'monkey king' charm.

They say that a Barack Obama victory would be good for India.
...

Mr Bhama says he is an ardent supporter of Mr Obama - even his email identification is bhamaforobama.

"Obama stands for change. We are hoping that he will bring about change so that oil and food prices come down," he said.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Charya Nritya

My Newari dance teacher called yesterday (see photo). We're going to re-start my long-delayed Newari Charya Nritya classes. Since we don't have a proper dance studio (with wooden floor and mirror), we'll be using the rooftop terrace of the Guest House. I hope they don't mind (people use it for yoga).

We have to start around 9am, because later it will be too hot.

Newari Charya Nritya is one of the last Buddhist devotional dances in the world, and possibly the last that is still being performed in situ as part of the traditional pujas.

Kandyan (Sri Lankan) Buddhist dance, like Indian Bharatanatyam has become a theatrical form and is no longer performed in the Buddhist temples. Tibetan Chham Dance must be performed only by ordained monks. Thai classical dance, as far as I know, portrays stories that are actually Hindu (despite the fact that Thailand is Buddhist). I think the same is true for Cambodia.

Probably only a few dozen Newar people in the Valley still know how to dance Charya. With its tribhangi posture and lyrical mudras, it most closely resembles Odissi.

Charya is sometimes confused with the more widely publicised masked dances of the Kathmandu Valley, as seen in so many colourful travelogues. Unlike them, Charya is a liturgical dance that is still performed by the Newari Buddhist priesthood.

I began Charya lessons two years ago with Raju, and learned only the opening item Refuge Prayer. Now I will begin the Sodasa Lasya item (which means something like "Sixteen Graces").


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Now playing: Talking Heads - The Overload
via FoxyTunes

Monday, June 02, 2008

Lost horizon

News from Uttarakhand & Kathmandu



I've been taking time off from blogging, worrying and other writing to compile some photos and paperwork for various photography festival submissions.

Meanwhile,

-Nepal's been officially declared a republic, The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. This followed the dramatic scenario, inside the Chinese-financed Baneshwor assembly hall, of the constituent assembly members taking oaths in their various "mother tongues." (It might be hard to appreciate the significance of this if you're not familiar with Nepali Khas Kuri nationalism and the old 'one nation, one king, one language' dictum),

-the King's been rumoured to have fled - some said to Nagarjun (another palace within a forest reserve on the edge of town), some said to Switzerland - then shown to still be in his counting house, presumably counting out his money from his various private business enterprises,

-six people were injured in small bombs around town last week (reportedly set by Royalist pro-Hindu nationalist parties)

-Angry protestors of many stripes thronged the palace gates just a few blocks away, insisting that the Monarchy's own dynastic flag be taken down and the National Nepali flag be hoisted. It was, though King G is still in da house.

-Those massive assemblies in the road, three across and three hundred feet long (photo above), are NOT a National Pride Parade. These are hapless commuters waiting six, seven hours and more in line in the boiling sun - for petrol (gasoline). Naturally this is a boon for the very small micro-businessman (soda pop and bhel puri vendors!).

-And, of course, in good Nepali tradition, the "government" gave itself a three-day holiday in honour of its own ratification.

None of this, of course, really means that anything at all will necessarily change. My Australian friend just came from Immigration, where he was given an (illegal) 2-month visa just for paying 1500 extra Nepali rupees. He was approached by a tout ("agent") outside the Maitighar office, who asked him "did he need anything?"

He said sure, I would like to go into meditation retreat and not come out for 2 months, instead of having to return here every 30 days. The tout took him inside, where they side-stepped the dozens of waiting law-abiding visitors and went straight to the counter. Voila, sixty days. (No one ever approaches ME for such things. I guess I look like a budget traveler.)

The most appreciable change of Maoist influence, for a foreign visitor, is the prices. There is now a 10% added "service charge" on any venue (hotel, bar, restaurant) of repute (ie, any place clean enough for most foreigners to eat). This, combined with the pre-existing 13% VAT (value added luxury) tax, means you pay 23% tax on every freaking thing.

This is new as of 2008, initiated (so I'm told my several hotel workers and owners) by the Maoist-run All Nepal Hotel & Restaurant Workers' union. (Their symbol is a white knife and fork crossed, in the manner of the hammer and sickle, against a red field.)

Sixty-six percent goes to the workers themselves. Another percentage goes to the business owner, ostensibly to cover expenses incurred by the workers such as broken dishes. In this part of the world, that normally comes out of the worker's own pocket - business owners do not build in the concept of incidental expenses to their pricing structure. If you (or your waiter) breaks something, the waiter normally pays for it out of the $2 or so he makes daily.

The remaining 3% or so goes to the Maoist party.

Though I don't like making an enforced donation to the party, I have to admit, this is basically a good thing. No wonder the Maoists became so popular. After all, the Seven "democratic" Parties and the palace have never done a thing for the workers.

On the border
The Return March to Tibet has been halted in its tracks, by the Indian police, and is now regrouping on the Indo-Chinese border in the mountains Uttarakhand state.

This in and of itself was expected. What was not expected was that all the march's food and supply trucks were impounded, making it difficult to continue in this remote area. Also, many (if not all - a few managed to hide in the bushes!) of the foreign supporters/ demonstrators/ media crew were arrested and given Quit India notices. This means they have 10 days to leave the country or face imprisonment. Basically, they are being deported.

Again, I halfway expected something like this. What no one expected was the charge against them. The foreigners were arrested on grounds of "violating their tourist visa by participating in religious activity."

Religious activity?? Since when is that illegal for anyone, including tourists, to engage in within India, of all places?

In a strange move, at a time when the government is promoting “Come to India - Walk with the Buddha” to attract foreign tourists to Buddhist circuit in the country, five foreigners have been given Quit India notice to leave the country within seven days “for participating in a religious activity”.

And if it is, what about the thousands of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Burmese, Taiwanese, Bhutanese, and Cambodian Buddhist tourists who throng to India every year to participate in religious activities? There are thousands more foreigners of all nationalities in the ashrams of Vrindavan, Puttaparthi, Pondicherry, Ganeshpuri and Amritapuri.
“On tourist visa, you cannot take part in a religious activity. If we allow that, you will have people coming here to propagate their religion."

((WHAT? oh, you can't take part in Missionary Activity! That's a horse of a different colour.))


".... It’s only for travelling and sightseeing, etc. So, they have violated the visa rule by participation in the march,” said Ashim Khurana, joint secretary (Foreigners) in the ministry of home affairs.
...

...However, legal experts Times of India spoke to said the notice in this case seems to be illegal. “The Quit India Notice is a very serious matter. It’s used sparingly only in such cases where the person is a threat to the national security.


In this particular case, it seems to be totally wrong, biased and prejudiced. There is no law in the country which prevents people, including foreigners, from taking part in a protest march or a rally,” said Shilpi Jain, a lawyer who deals with immigration and visa-related cases.

On the tourist visa application, you are asked your purpose. "Religious pilgrimage" is one of the boxes available. I always check this, and specify "attending Buddhist teachings" since it's always true, and is certainly something I can't do elsewhere in the world. (At least, not with the Dalai Lama and Karmapa.)

I figured that openly participating in political activity was contrary to the terms of a tourist visa - I'm sure it is in most nations.

But, if someone can be deported for partcipating in religious activity, it doesn't bode well for anyone in India - foreign or Indian nationals.

The Indian government appears to be willfully conflating "religious activity" with MISSIONARY activity. Perhaps they don't believe that foreigners, or more specifically non-Asians, can actually be sincere practitioners of anything but proselytizing.