I leave for Nepal in 24 days. It's a 26 hour and 31 minute journey, from Denver to Frankfurt and New Delhi before I reach Kathmandu.
So many people have asked me why I'm going to Nepal, but I don't have an easy answer. All I can say is that I've always dreamed of going to the Himalayas; there's something about the highest mountains covered in glacial snow, the rugged landscape, the ancient culture, the prayer flags fluttering above huge stone stupas, cows and rickshaws jostling along the streets, that stirs something in me. Nepal is the "Roof of the World", "the Root Between Two Stones", the kingdom were deities mingle with mortals, the center of the earth. Everest is "Sagarmatha", or Mother of the Universe.
My imagined Nepal blends with my imagined Tibet, my imagined India, my imagined Pakistan, into an idealized world of chanting monks, rural villagers caring for fields of grain and apricot orchards, high mountain passes covered in snow, long-nosed glaciers reaching down narrow valleys. The people in this Shangri-La are perpetually smiling, the older men wrinkled and toothless, the younger women dressed in brightly colored skirts and scarves, offering up cups of yak milk tea and plates of steaming lentils.
But in reality, these are some of the poorest and most overpopulated countries in the world. Pakistan has been intermittently at war for years, first with India and now with the Taliban, and is host to thousands of Afghan refugees. Tibet is overrun by Chinese Maoist soldiers who destroyed countless Buddhist temples and severely restrict the continuation of traditional Tibetan life. Half the population of Nepal lives below the international poverty line.
When I finished my last final two days ago, I immediately went to the library and checked out 7 books on the history of Nepal, Nepali folktales, Himalayan mountaineering... On my way to the check-out desk, I stopped by the 3-D globe and ran my finger along the brown line dividing Nepal from India and Tibet. On this globe, it's a completely vertical country, drawn on the slopes of the Himalayas as they rise from India's plains into the highest ranges. This amounts to an elevation change of nearly 30,000 feet in 100-150 miles.
I'll just have to see if Nepal will live up to my imagination. I suspect this mountain country the size of the state of Iowa will surpass my wildest imaginings.
