Bhutan Houses: Of Peppers and Penises

All over Bhutan, people's homes are brightened by clumps of red peppers spread on the rooftops to dry in the sun.

Just as likely as finding peppers on the roofs, a visitor to Bhutan will notice that Bhutanese decorate their homes and businesses with phalluses. Big, swollen, unmistakeable phalluses. Sometimes they have ribbons tied around them. Sometimes they have white spurts shooting out. Sometimes they have hairy balls at the bottom, It's really quite a shocker for a visitor from the west to encounter. Some homes dangle them from the eaves and others place models in the window or even stick them in planters. 

The custom derives from the legend of the Divine Madman who brought Buddhism to Nepal from Tibet. He supposedly fought off his enemies by using his phallus as a weapon, sometimes turning it into a sword or a thunderbolt. 

Visitors can buy souvenir phalluses to take home with them

Souvenirs for Sale at the Airport Gift Shop

Rosh Hashonah in Kathmandu with a Large Crowd

 

Who knew that Kathmandu is teeming with Israelis during the Jewish High Holy Days? Not me. Knowing that my trip to Nepal would coincide with the Jewish Holidays, I thought it would be fun for our group of 4 to see if we could find somewhere to celebrate the new year. Maybe find a Jewish family or something?

It turned out that over 300 Israelis gathered for a Rosh Hashonah dinner and we were able to join them. The dinner was organized by Rabbi Lifshitz of Chabad House in Kathmandu. A large banquet facility was rented for the occasion to accommodate all the vacationers from Israel who travel to Nepal, taking off the entire month surrounding the religious holidays. Many traveled in groups of several family friends of 20 or more- including babies crawling on the floor.  

My fellow travelers and I were a group of 4 people and we assembled a table with 2 guys who were traveling solo. One is between medical school and internship and just returned from the 17 day each way trek to Everest Base Camp. The other, also trekking, is an engineer who works in defense. Can't say much about what he does. 

First there was a half hour religious service - completely in Hebrew. The rabbi had handed me a prayer book saying that it had the translations. It did - except that it was translated into Russian. Didn't matter. The service was quick. 

When it ended, we scouted for places to sit in the banquet room which was stuffed so tight that you had to lift up or climb over chairs to settle into your seat. 

The traditional apples and honey, pomegranate and challah were served, followed by so many courses that it seemed like they would never stop: salad, cabbage, eggplant, stewed tomatoes, roasted potatoes, fish, etc., etc., etc. 

How special to be in the Himalayas, halfway around the world, sharing the same traditions; but with a Nepali twist. The rabbi greeted us with his hands pressed together in front of his chest, and bowed his head slightly. He said "Namaste". Rabbi Lifshutz has achieved notariety for the large gatherings at Jewish holidays. The Kathmandu seder he organizes is reputed to be the largest in the world, gathering 1,500 people.

Center: Rabbi Chezki Lifshutz, surrounded by me, my husband and travel friends

Holiday Preparations Nepali Style For Dasain

Nepalis do love to celebrate. As a clue to just how much they celebrate, let's start with the fact that there are five different New Years officially observed in Nepal. All government offices and schools are closed for all five New Years. The Sherpa New Year falls in January/February, Gurung in February/March, Tamang in February/March, Nepalese national New Year is in mid-April and Newari in October/November. 

But the biggest of them all is Dasain, a nine-day festival that is the crown of Nepal's busy line-up of festivals.  Families take to the roads and travel home to unite so they can observe and celebrate together. 

Houses are freshly painted for festival with a mixture of cow dung and dirt

The government offices and schools close the entire time. The roads are choked. As to the shopping to get ready -- think Christmas shopping mania.  People stock up on food and new clothes. 

An endless stream of buses pours out of Katmandu as city workers return to their families in the rural countryside

For fun, villagers erect oversized bamboo swings called Pings

Carrying the poles to build the Ping swings

Children make kites to fly

Scores of animals are accumulated on the roads and led to temples for slaughter. Throngs of goats and sheep crowd the roadsides.  The  types of animals eligible for slaughter are sheep, goats, duck and buffalo. The sheep and goats were the most obvious contributors to the traffic jams.  The government's army conducts the slaughter in Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. Soldiers behead the animals and offer them as live sacrifices at the temple. When I first heard about that, I thought that in such a poor country, the loss of so many animals to religious ritual would mean that people would go hungry. But no, actually, the animal is killed and its blood is offered. But, the family (or the soldiers) get to take its body away and eat it. Outside of those three cities, the family conducts the sacrifice. 

Herding with an Umbrella?

During festival, there is a rush on the bead section of Kathmandu's Jewelry district, Indrachowk. Women have their bead necklaces restrung or upgraded in time for festival. Every married woman owns one gold bead that would have been given to her to wear on her wedding day; strung in the center of channels of shiny green and red. The stall walls of beaders are a profusion of glimmering color. Seated in each small cubicle are expert men, suspending strings anchored by their fingers and toes as they slide the new beads, channeling into a new necklace.

Guys String Beads with their Toes

Jewelry Store decorated especially for Festival

Do the Doha Stopover when flying on Qatar Airways: All Taxis are Turquoise

Qatar Airways deserves its ranking as 5 Star, World's Best Airline. Get this. The scheduled flights from Boston to Kathmandu on Qatar involved an 11 hour layover in Doha. Although that might sound awful, it was anything but. The airline provides a free hotel room, expedites and pays for a free tourist visa to leave the airport, a free tour of the city and free round-trip transportation.

You know there's something noticeably shiny, new and wealthy about this place when you step out of the airport and all of the taxis are matchy matchy turquoise.

 Instead of taking the tour, we grabbed our own taxi and went directly to the Museum of Islamic Art to be sure to see it before closing time. From the taxi drop-off point, the museum's imposing modern palace-like grounds are reached by a long tree-lined walkway along the waterfront. People linger along the seawall in the warm evening air, gazing at the neon-lit boats and tourist market.

With less than one hour until closing time, we hurried in, hoping to be able to at least get a sense of the collection and catch some of the highlights. No need to stop to pay. Admission is free. The helpful, English-speaking guard handed us a map of the galleries and suggested that we make sure to see the top draw: the Mohammed Ali collection.  Really. The museum is an enormous lavish structure created by architect I.M. Pei (who designed the Louvre's glass entry). The atrium soars about 5 stories and suggests grandeur and gilded riches of the ancient past. Yet, the guard directed us to the Museum of Islamic Art's crown jewel: a bunch of Ali-Foreman posters and other boxing memorabilia.

Having zipped through that exhibit, we had time to stroll the remainder of the museum's galleries strung along the perimeter of the building.  It is an admirable beginning to the project to deploy Qatar's wealth to acquire and display ancient and modern art. But for now, the collection is manageable enough for an in-transit tourist to walk the whole thing in less than one hour.

13th Century Qur'an in Maghreb Script from Andalucia

 Thank you Qatar Airways for an such a great reason to look forward to an eleven hour layover.

Huge hotel room provided gratis by Qatar Airways