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| Kagbeni to Marpha 2667m Saturday 13th April Day 13 The trail now followed the Kali Gandaki
gorge. Pasang warned us about a
local phenomenon, every day at about noon a strong wind
gets up and we
would be walking against it each afternoon. It would blow
dust into our faces
and we should wear scarves, well no problem here. After
about three hours
walking we came to Jomsom, the administrative centre for
the area, and
stopped for lunch. As we set off again the wind began to
blow, as Pasang had We reached Marpha six hours after leaving Kagbeni, and took up our rooms at the Paradise Guest House. Marpha was such a clean village, with clean paved streets and white-washed houses. There is a strong civic pride here. There were apple orchards everywhere, and the area is famous for making apple and peach brandies. We would have to try some. Carole and I were hungry and ordered some lemon pancakes, after which I went by myself to look at the Buddhist monastery. I climbed the steep steps and found it locked, but as I turned away a monk was just arriving and waved me inside. It was a fascinating place, and the walls were covered in what can only be described as erotic images of the Buddha. I believe this is a kind of Tantric Buddhism practised in this area, and most unlike the Therevadin Buddhism I’ve read about at home. I asked the monk if I could take some photos and he indicated that I could. I made a donation and left passing an old woman sitting at the entrance turning a large prayer wheel. I saw she was blind and her fingers and feet were crippled and on guilty impulse I pressed a 100 roupee note into her hand. With my swollen distorted head and bright red face I knew what it was like to live on the fringes of society! |
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Tantric Buddha |
| As I descended the steps I saw an
archery contest taking place a hundred yards
away, and I stood and watched it for a while. There was
about 100 archers and
there was a lot of shouting. When I got back to the
Paradise Guest House I
found Carole sitting in a pleasant back room above the
dining area talking to a
South African woman. I ordered a pot of black tea and a
Mars Bar. My
appetite was definitely back. She told us she had come to
Nepal alone and was
doing the Jomsom trek with one porter. She told us a lot about her
country and was quite a strong character - we both liked her. Suddenly there was a commotion in the street and her porter went to see what was going on. It seems the archery contest had descended into a brawl when one of the archers had accused another of stealing an arrow. Dinner was enlivened by the appearance of a very camp, obviously gay American guy, sat alone but who addressed the whole room through dinner, and was really quite witty. I saw he was reading ‘Alone with Others’ by Stephen Batchelor, and as I had just finished ‘Buddhism without Beliefs’ by the same author I was able to talk to him about this for a while, but I was tired and my face was sore and so we left early for bed. Later Clive told me that when I left the American asked what on earth I’d done to my face, and then, how could I have been so careless? A very good point. |
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The pretty town of Marpha |
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