Meg Noble Peterson

As you read in our previous post, it is challenging to cover the number of temples that have been constructed in the Lumbini Complex to showcase Buddhist traditions from many countries. All of these attract a crush of world travelers, which can sometimes detract from the spiritual energy that pervades.

One of the most moving structures was the Peace Pagoda, built by the Japanese monk Nichidatsu Fujii, who, after WWII, spearheaded the building of 80 Peace Pagodas throughout the world. The Peace Pagoda in Lumbini was built in 2001.

Click on photos to enlarge.

The Peace Pagoda is on the north end of the Lumbini Complex, which was designed by the Japanese architect, Kenzo Tange. From there, you can look south along the center axis; the Maya Devi Temple is at the southernmost end.

Next to the Peace Pagoda is the Crane Sanctuary… cranes also being a symbol of peace. Sarus cranes are sometimes difficult to find, but Sanu knew where to walk to see them. If you look closely, or enlarge the photo by clicking on it, you can see them in the center.

On the way back, we saw local villagers illegally cutting grass for thatch roofs. The area is an ecological sanctuary, but it also displaced locals who still come and harvest what they need, with the authorities often turning a blind eye.

The Drigung Kagyud Temple, built by the German Tara Foundation, is one the grandest temples. With immaculate grounds and figures depicting the Eight Great Events in the Buddha’s life, it has a Disneyland feel. The interior and exterior of the temple are elaborate and impressive. Because of this, it is the second most visited temple after the Maya Devi Temple.

Painted dome in the interior of the temple

The outside walls painted with the Wheel of Life

Guru Rinpoche and other deities on outside wall

Depicting the death of the Buddha

The outside walls elaborately painted

Depicting the birth of the Buddha

Depicting Buddha being challenging by the Maras

One of the wall murals depicted the Buddha, in a previous lifetime, offering his body to a starving mother tiger. Little did we know that later in our trip we would go to this very site, called Namo Buddha.

It was very hot. I was afraid I’d pass out from the heat….time for a tea break! Thankfully, Sanu took us to the tea shop where his wife worked. It was located on the southernmost end of the canal bisecting the monastic zones, at the beginning of the promenade that led to the Maya Devi Temple.

The architecture has the distinctive Lumbini barrel-vaulted arches.

At the base of the canal, in front of the tea shop, was the eternal flame, another symbol of peace, particularly beautiful at night.

On the way to the Maya Devi Temple was a large statue of the Baby Buddha with his finger pointing upward, donated by Thai Buddhists.

The next day we continued our tour of the Western Zone. On the way, we passed large tarps of rice drying on the side of the road. Plus, the inevitable trash. Alas.

There’s a certain gratitude you have when people are interested in your name and country and age, but when you are pushed and pulled and have cell phones shoved in your face multiple times a day, you run for cover! To many people, our height and the color of our skin made us celebrities since there were so few of us. We were trophy photos. Massive groups of Indian students on school field trips mobbed us. People would rush over and want selfies or group shots with us. If this is what it means to be a celebrity, I wish to have no part in it!

We were flattered that many of the teachers wanted to know where we were from, and talk to us about various subjects, but then it often morphed into picture taking which I soon called “photo mania.”

For some measure of sanity, and to remember this phenomenon, Cary asked Sanu to take photos of the people taking photos of us.

Mobbed at night by school children

Even the teachers got into the act

Sanu protecting me while I hid from the school children.

By the last day, we would run and hide when we saw school groups at temples, and this curtailed our visits. For the first time, we experienced the paparazzi! Sanu started protecting us, saying forcefully, “No photos!”

In addition to selfies, Tik Tok has become a rampant plague in Nepal. Monasteries have taken to putting up signs forbidding Tik Tok videos on the premises. Here is such a sign on the Cambodian Monastery grounds.

Dodging the school groups, we still managed to visit many of the temples built around this large body of water.

Singapore Temple

Inside of Vietnamese Temple

Lily pads & lotus flowers

Vietnamese temple with French statue of the Baby Buddha

Shechen Monastery Garden

Nepali temple in the distance.

The Newari Vajrayana temple was profoundly peaceful in its simplicity and elegance. It was one of our favorites.

The Korean temple was massive and imposing, and the interior was still unfinished after a decade of work.

The Korean temple was not the only unfinished temple. Many others were under construction, as were the roads. I’m sure every year will bring new surprises and satisfaction to those who visit from around the world. I, for one, will be happy when the temple complex roads are paved!

A few final words about our wonderful hotel, the Buddha Maya Garden. Its name doesn’t include Garden for nothing. A well-tended organic farm behind the hotel provided fresh veggies to the restaurant. Fruit trees planted 25 years ago are now mature and productive. We’ll have to return in mango season! Particularly fun was to see the huge wild bee nest in the tree next to the restaurant…lots of pollinators!

Mango trees

Wild bees

Organic farm

Staying for a week also meant we got to know the staff, who were so helpful.

On the last day, Sanu picked us up at 5 pm to take us to his home. We had grown very close during our week in Lumbini and were eager to meet his family. We started on the bumpy road to Lumbini Village and stopped in a small market to buy fruit as a gift for the family. We had been surprised to find the town so run down, but as we approached Sanu’s home, the road changed to a recently built narrow, smooth concrete road winding through a labyrinth of square one- and two-story concrete homes with large doors open to outside porches. The neighborhood children ran out to greet us enthusiastically.

Being greeted by the neighborhood children.

Sanu and his family

There were endless relatives, all eager to greet us. I was inspired by the love and care Sanu’s family had for one another.

In this video below, Sanu introduces his two children, Prinsa and Prince, and wife, Jyoti, as well as his extended family. Little 7-month old Elen is the daughter of his sister-in-law, who was cooking. The sisters-in-law alternate cooking duties, which they said was good for family harmony, and everyone looks after the baby.

Sanu’s grandfather had bought the land, and all the relatives contributed towards building the home they now shared. I really loved the grandfather, who had just came in from the fields where he tended the water buffalo. He was handsome and gentle. His wife, who had generously given Sanu the money to buy his tuk-tuk that helped with the family income, was also charming and personable. There was much hugging all around.

Next came a delicious dinner of dal bhat (no spicey!). Dal, rice, veggies and egg were cooked on outdoor stoves in the back yard, and Grandma made the chapatis. Sanu sat cross-legged with us, and tried to show me how to eat with my fingers, but I was hopeless. They kindly provided Cary and me with spoons. Needless to say we had a great time eating and socializing. As in most eating situations in Nepal, we have discovered that the guests go first, and that has always made me slightly uncomfortable. But that is my problem. They feel it’s a privilege to honor us, and we certainly felt their hospitality.

Cooking outside in back yard

Grandma making chapatis

What we’ve most enjoyed about this trip is sharing in the strong, loving ties within the families we’ve met.

The ride home was chilly and a sadness washed over me, knowing that I might never see Sanu or his family again. But we are connected by WhatsApp, and I plan to keep in touch. This night will stay in my heart forever.

We left the next day for Kathmandu.

Goodbye Terai….
Hello mountains!

It took a 35-minute domestic flight on Buddha Air to get to Lumbini, and we only needed to arrive one hour before flight time. Security was the most casual we’d ever experienced. In the domestic terminal, instead of separate gates for each destination as in our large American airports, there was one waiting room for everyone. When they called our flight, we boarded a bus and were driven out to the plane on the tarmac. Efficient and simple!

It was a beautiful flight, with the western Himalayan range out our window the whole way. What a jolt it was, upon arriving, to find ourselves surrounded by flat land as far as the eye could see. But what did we expect? This was the Terai, the breadbasket…rather, ricebasket…of Nepal! We were struck with how it felt more like India than the Nepal we were familiar with.

Here we could see up close the burned fields of rice straw, an agricultural practice that contributes to the polluted hazy air throughout Asia every winter.

The road from the airport to Lumbini had recently been upgraded for both tourism and ease of transporting agricultural exports to the new air cargo center. It was smooth and had two lanes with a median strip the whole way. Ample room for the light traffic that now included bicycles and animals. Right away we felt a relaxed and unhurried atmosphere.

Our room at the Buddha Maya Garden Hotel was complete with balcony and view of palm and fruit trees, and could not have been better.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Minutes after we arrived, we decided to go see the Maya Devi temple. It seemed so simple…walk one kilometer along the road to Gate 5 of the Temple Complex, then turn left and walk another kilometer to the temple. Besides, once we turned off the highway, there would be no vehicles allowed on the beautiful wide stone walkway through the wetlands and native forest.

When we arrived at the Maya Devi temple, we discovered that not only did foreigners have pay a husky fee to enter, but everyone had to remove their shoes and leave small backpacks behind. Plus the sun would soon be setting….better to head back to the hotel!

On the return walk, the realization dawned that one km in Lumbini is a lot longer than we imagined. Could it have been the unexpected steps, drainage holes in the sidewalk you could pitch into if you weren’t attentive, and other uneven surfaces? You bet! Walking took time and, to coin a phrase, extreme mindfulness. We were used to this in Kathmandu, but didn’t expect it in Lumbini. Our dreams of doing a walking tour of the temple grounds soon dissolved.

The Indian cooking which was heavy on oils and spice laid Cary out for about a day. Once again we had to be wary of the mouth-burning tendencies of this area. Thus began the training up of numerous helpful waiters with whom we formed friendships, to help us communicate our need for “no spice! no pepper!”

Saturday is like our Sunday when schools are closed and many people have a day off. Not a good day to visit the temples! Fortunately this coincided with the day Cary was down for the count.

Sunday morning, the hotel connected us with Sanu Chaudhary, an electric tuk-tuk driver who became our superb guide. He knew his way around and was able to expedite our journey through the complicated labyrinth of temples.

Many countries in the world have built temples at Lumbini in the style of their Buddhist tradition. Read more info HERE. Sanu started our tour in the Eastern Monastic Zone.

We had to take our shoes off before we entered every temple, and I was really nervous, having had new shoes stolen in Dharamsala at the Dalai Lama’s teachings in 2007. So far, so good…I still have my shoes!

Myanmar Golden Temple

Click on the photos to see captions.

Nepali temple

Inside of Nepali temple

Outside Nepali temple

Fence outside Sri Lanka temple with Cambodia temple in the distance

The Cambodian temple was one of the most enthralling and stunning in the complex. The design, artwork, carvings, and colors were exquisite.

Cambodian temple

Inside temple

Last temple of the day was the Thai temple.

Thai temple

Inside of Thai temple

Buddha just after birth pointing to the heavens – Sanu’s idea of an irreverent joke!

On Monday, we finally returned to the Maya Devi Temple. Sanu knew a back way where we could get close without a long walk. First to see was the oldest temple adjacent to the Buddha’s birthplace, a Shakya temple with connections to Mustang, where there was a day-long ceremony for lay people to take the Pratimoksha vows. A Nepali temple was next to it.

Shakya Temple

Nepali temple

Inside Nepali temple

Traditional Nepali woodwork

Tranquil gardens

A short walk to the Maya Devi Temple

It was only a short walk from here to the Maya Devi Temple, the actual site of the Buddha’s birth.

First we needed to purchase a ticket (600 Rs for foreigners, only 20 Rs for Nepalis), and then stash our shoes with someone who gave us a number for safekeeping. This removed my concern about losing them. I must admit, however, I found it uncomfortable to walk over some of the walkways in my stocking feet.

In ancient times, a temple was built around the spot where Maya Devi gave birth to the Buddha. The white structure was constructed to enclose and protect the site in 2003. For more details on the archeological history click HERE.

A wooden walkway went around the inside, and it was fascinating to look down and see the original temple walls that had been built around the holy site. Several people were busy cleaning the rocks and collecting money that was thrown as offerings onto the foundation. There were long lines of people waiting to see the stone marking the Buddha’s birthplace, and view the bas relief of Maya Devi. No photos were permitted inside.

Neither Cary nor I understood the exterior design of this special place…it looked like a hotel or an ocean liner. But the deep peacefulness of the grounds and the actual marker stone rendered any architectural questions insignificant.

Next to the temple is a sacred pool, marking the place where the Buddha was first washed after birth. To the north of the building is the pillar set by Emperor Ashoka in 249 BC memorializing the Buddha’s birth place.

Sanu told us that dusk was the best time to visit. Many pilgrims would be chanting and worshiping. We took his advice, and, indeed, it turned out to be our favorite time.

How wonderful to be able to experience the calmness that prevailed in this holy place in the evening. There were no crowds. There was no confusion. There was just peace.

Pipal tree (later known as Bodhi tree)

Moon above the prayer flags

Prayers at the Ashoka pillar

Large Vietnamese prayer ceremony

Lighting a butter lamp

I think you’ve had enough temples for today! So, we’re saving the last batch, plus our final days in Lumbini, for our next post.

I first met BP Shrestha in 1986 when he was running a small guest house off the main square of Dhulikhel. A close friend, Amy Noel Wyman, asked me to deliver a donation to him for his work with school children in the rural areas. This was the beginning of our friendship. I reconnect with BP every time that I return to Nepal, and this year, once again, I was able to see innovation, progress and change in his community.

A book has been written about his accomplishments: “Bel Prasad Shrestha, The Man Behind Dhulikhel,” which you can read HERE. The book is a collection of essays about his work, and includes the chapter I wrote about him in my book.

BP was mayor of Dhulikhel from 1987 – 2003. With the vision of making life better in his village, he recognized that without clean drinking water no other development was possible. He gave us a detailed description of the hoops he had to jump through to get a drinking water system for his small community, when even Kathmandu had not been able to accomplish that. He shared that Dhulikhel did not have a lot of money, but he realized that it wasn’t the amount of money they had, but the determination they had to fulfill the goal. There were people from Germany who listened to him, looked at what Dhulikhel wanted to accomplish, and decided to help. “They recognized our need and our deep belief in the possibility of accomplishing our goal,” he said.

Once the water treatment plant was up and running, this made way for the founding of Kathmandu University and the Dhulikhel Hospital.

BP was instrumental in bringing tourism to Dhulikhel when he launched the Himalayan Horizon Hotel in 1982. During the pandemic, a beautiful new wing was added overlooking terraces, the infinity pool, and the mountains. Interestingly enough, many hotels in Nepal took the opportunity to build or remodel during the pandemic, when there were no customers.

Click on photos to enlarge.

How’s this for luxury?

The new wing

View from the outdoor dining terrace

The highlight of our tour of Dhulikhel was the stunning, recently built, Nepal Technology Innovation Center where we were lucky to have the project manager show us around. All the furniture and laboratory equipment were scheduled to arrive the next week. Part of Kathmandu University, this will be where intellectual and academic ideas and research will be transformed into practical solutions that are then tested and grounded in real-life applications.

It was a fascinating design incorporating outdoor space between the buildings with walkways and terraces. What a inspiring place for research!

Front entrance incorporating wheelchair access

Laboratory space

Walkways between buildings

View from walkway

BP and Dipendra KC, project manager

We were thrilled to get a chance to meet with students from the Shree Shree Khandapur Secondary School. They were still using quonset huts, built after their school was destroyed in the 2015 earthquake, but the new school had been rebuilt. The students welcomed us enthusiastically and were thrilled to meet us and practice their English.

The director and teachers with the new school in the background.

These were just a few of the places we saw on our tour through Dhulikhel this year!

We can’t thank BP enough for his hospitality, and are looking forward to when we get together again.

Who knows what BP will come up with next year!

We read a lot about the Prakriti Resort and Organic Farm in the foothills of the Himalaya, where we planned to spend a week. They told us about their wonderful organic farm and their hiking trails. But we didn’t read their website closely enough to be aware that to get there, we’d have to drive through the Shivapuri National Park over bumpy roads that rivaled the rutted grandeur of Mongolia. They did not say that a neck brace would be helpful. Cary, who heard me say yet again “This is the worst I’ve ever experienced in my whole life,” rocked and swayed from side to side and went with the flow. We were told by the driver and those who ran the resort that the roads were not paved so as to protect the wildlife habitat in the park. I took it in, but thought to myself that trying hard just to stay alive doesn’t give you much time to appreciate the wildlife they are hoping to preserve. But this discomfort soon passed when we stepped onto the grounds of the resort, and into our wonderful, peaceful room with its exquisite view of the mountains. As we arrived, the air was redolent with the smell of marigolds, something I had never before experienced.

Click on photos to enlarge.

It was obvious by the end of the first day that this resort was a very popular spot where Nepalis could go to get away from the city and enjoy good food, companionship, celebrations, and parties. The BBQ room had an unusual open flame grill where we joined some parties, energetically dancing to lively Nepali music, as well as sipping local tongpa, a fermented millet drink. We had the fun of joining several groups who, when they found out my age, started clapping, pinching my cheeks, hugging me, and calling me Grandma. I continued dancing ’til I thought I would fall. The next morning when I arrived at breakfast, I greeted my new friends with “Good morning from Grandma,” to which they applauded. I don’t think I’ve ever met a more friendly welcoming group of young people. I was more than happy to be their “Grandma.”

My new crop of grandchildren.

I was all excited about going on some hiking trails, but discovered that, since the resort was built on the terraces of a steep slope, the trail going up started with a narrow, frightening rocky section. However, with the help of our guide, Ram, I made it and the trail was easier after that. Eventually, it became an unpaved road. Halfway to our destination, a reservoir made out of a wetlands, called Lake Pokhari, we started picking up small bits of trash along the road, thinking that there was a dustbin (trash can) at the reservoir. Unfortunately when we got to the lake, there wasn’t a dustbin in site. Alas, we had to put the trash in a hole and hold it down with rocks. It became my mission during the rest of our stay to talk people into putting a dustbin at the reservoir and pick up the trash, or even better, put up a sign “Do not litter.” I’ve been on a campaign about litter since my college days, but my suggestion went nowhere here, and I gave up. You can’t win ’em all!

On another day, we opted to walk the 6 km to a trout farm and tea plantation. We found it delightful…blooming trees in winter, unusual hay mounds, and a herd of goats scampering up and down the hill much more easily than we! However, after a Nepali 10 minutes (ha ha!), we decided we didn’t want to walk on the rutted roads any longer, and left them to the goats and their shepherd.

It was wonderful to have a chance to read, get up early and see the sunrise over the Himalaya, and veg out on our porch in the sun.

Once we had trained up the chef not to add chili or pepper to the food (“no spicy, please!”), we enjoyed our meals in a little covered alcove outside the dining hall.

Breakfasts were outstanding, and more than ample. For lunch, two things we liked the best were the fresh salad, straight from the organic farm, and the homemade mushroom soup with garlic toast. We ate it almost every day.

It can’t get any better!

Cary enjoyed exploring the organic farm on the terraces of the resort. She was fascinated to see what is grown at different times of the year, and winter here is a far cry from winter on Whidbey Island. Read more about their commitment to sustainable agriculture and tourism HERE and HERE.

She was quite amazed to see strawberries flowering, but we sure enjoyed them in our garden salad! Tucked in little patches on the terraces were familiar veggies like beets, bok choy, mustard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, carrots, cilantro, lettuce, and more. Potatoes had just been sown, and young radishes and greens were germinating. Kiwis and vines were integrated into the terraces to provide shade and layered production. Also fascinating to see were the more tropical plants like turmeric, taro and squash varieties growing at the 2,000 meter altitude.

Insects were everywhere. It was quite the thrill to see a praying mantis right at our feet in the outside dining area, which shouldn’t have surprised us considered the unspoiled environment around us. After years of living on the East Coast where insect noises were part of the flavor of evening, it was fun to hear them again as the sun set. Bees accompanied us as we sat next to the marigolds on our porch, and we finally caught a photo of a butterfly as it rested the sun.

One of the highlights of our stay was our friendship with the staff. Being long-term guests made all the difference and we got to know everyone. They couldn’t do enough for us! We felt like part of a family.

Prem Giri, Manager

Keshab Giri

Kapil Lakhe

Shailendra Gurung

Dipess Limbu

Nirmala

From meals, to room service, to helping us keep warm on a cold evening, the staff was wonderful.

I won’t end this post with the bumpy ride home, for I’d rather leave you with a few more photos of our week in heaven.

Sunset over the Himalaya

To say that my arrival in Kathmandu, my entrance into the small familiar airport, my standing in a long line to pay for my visa, and my being greeted by Ramhari, the manager at Crystal Mountain Treks, made me feel that the world was, once again, normal, may seem crazy after four long years of a reality that has been turned upside down by politics, pandemic, and war. But here I was, bumping over Mahankal Road, still unpaved, and immersed in chaotic traffic unlike anywhere else in the world. And I was happy!

Soon I was unpacking and settling into my home-away-from-home, the Shechen Guest House, next to the Shechen Monastery, where my spacious room cost 2450 Nepali rupees ($18), and I was surrounded by beautiful gardens and a peacefulness tantamount to my fondest dream, the Garden of Eden.

Those of you who have followed me and my travels over the years know all about this oasis near the Boudha Stupa. You know about the great vegetarian restaurant and the folks from around the world who come here. On any day you are likely to bump into Italian ayurvedic practitioners, French Buddhists, dentists working for an NGO, or a venerable monk like Matthieu Ricard, meeting with colleagues or teaching at the Monastery.

But don’t misunderstand me. There were changes everywhere and many for the better. During the pandemic, major improvements were made at the guest house and next door at the monastery. The damage that we saw after the 2015 earthquake had been repaired. The monk’s housing to the left of the temple was completely removed, and a grassy field planted, which opened up the view to the stupas celebrating the Eight Miracles in the Buddha’s life. New dorm rooms were built as a third floor on top of existing housing. Even the walkways and roads leading to the Boudha Stupa had been improved. But just so you know that all was not perfect, we still had to dodge the wild frenzy of noisy motorcycles threatening our very existence every time we walked to the stupa. I do not exaggerate!Of course, our first day was spent at the Boudha Stupa, doing kora. We also discovered great lattes at the Himalayan Java Cafe. How wonderful to enjoy them while looking out the window at the stupa!

Cary and I spent our first full evening having dinner with Jwalant Gurung, Director of Crystal Mountain Treks, at the Roadhouse Café, also overlooking the stupa. As you know, we’ve taken many marvelous treks with Jwalant’s team. Not only did Jwalant help rebuild destroyed schools and houses in the aftermath of the earthquake, but during the pandemic, he raised $150,000 for medicines and protective gear, as well as for setting up a COVID ICU at a free clinic. I encourage you to click HERE to read about these activities, sponsored through his charitable organization 3 Summits for Nepal.

Ten years ago, I was first charmed by Aashika, the daughter of Pasang Lama, a guard at the Shechen Guest House. She was into everything, a charming scamp, eager for the chase and eager to speak to me in English. As years went by our friendship grew and she began showing me her school work, which led to our reading books together.

Time passed and Aashika’s sister, Asmika was born.

Pasang delighted in our friendship and I was always invited to their home, simple, small, but loaded with books and efficiently organized. I soon realized that education and excellence were the goals of this family. Pasang is devoted to his wife and children, and they’ve been able to survive and flourish during the most difficult of situations… a Nepali virtue.

Both girls have now qualified for private school and talk, excitedly, about their future goals. This year Cary and I walked up the steep stairway to their small apartment to be greeted by Pasang’s wife, Ranjita, who prepared a feast for us while we conversed non-stop, using Aashika as our interpreter. I am amazed that someone so young could have such a grasp of our language. She used words that are complicated even for an American student, and her thoughts were beautifully formed. We had such a wonderful time together, and we plan to see each other again before we leave.

As we left to take what seemed like a 20-minute ride back to the guest house, a trip through circuitous, congested alleys, we asked Pasang how long it took him to walk to work every evening. His answer… “10 minutes!”

You can walk anywhere in Nepal in 10 minutes!

Good heavens, you mean it took us all this time to learn this simple truism? Suddenly we realized that this was not the first time we had heard this answer, and thought back to all the times we had been told that the place we were going was a mere 10 minute walk. In fact, the very next day we fell for it again when the ticket agent at the Qatar Airlines office where we had gone in the hope of getting an upgrade on our return ticket (no chance!) told us it was just a 10 minute walk to the CIWEC clinic in Lazimpat. After the harrowing taxi ride to the airline office, I was pretty exhausted and said, Are you sure? Oh yes, m’am, he answered. And off we went.

Walking on the sidewalk next to the Palace wall, with the road packed with cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles cheek by jowl, a traffic situation that would have Americans in apoplectic road rage, I was the apoplectic one. Thirty-five minutes later, Cary is desperately trying to keep me from becoming completely hysterical, especially when we had to cross an impossibly busy street to get to the clinic. There was no traffic light or crosswalk, and I said I’m not crossing the street. Cary said, yes you are, whereupon she stepped off the curb and waded out into the middle of traffic holding up her hand and making direct eye contact with drivers. I’ve never been closer to freaking out in my life! We made it across the sea of motorcycles swarming toward us. They seemed to magically part, and let us through with nary a glance. I needed every doctor in that clinic by the time we reached the entrance. 10 minutes, yeah, right.

Having survived, we returned to Boudha. Next we will head off to the Prakriti Resort and Organic Farm in the foothills of the Himalaya.

Cary and I arrived in Kathmandu and returned to the Boudhanath Stupa on November 11th after four long years punctuated by COVID. Here are a few photos to let you know where we have been. We’ll have lots of details to share with you, soon!

Here I am in the foothills of the Himalayas enjoying tranquil mountain views at the Prakriti Organic Farm Resort. This is the extent of our high-altitude trekking for the moment.

A selfie in front of our cottage at Prakriti

Before and after our week in the mountains, we had whirlwind visits with friends in Boudha and Dhulikhel.

On November 25th, we flew to Lumbini, birthplace of the Buddha. We are taking a week to see the sacred sites here, including stunning temples built by the myriad Buddhist traditions from around the world.

Here is the site of the Buddha’s birth in the Maya Devi Temple.Much more to come….