Orientation here at the Volunteer House consists of short language lessons in the morning (tapai ko nam k ho?  what is your name?) and visits to cultural sites around Kathmandu in the afternoon.  Kathmandu is rife with history; legend has it that the valley was once a lake, and a Nepali hero sliced open one side of the lake and let all the water drain out so that he could build his capital city.  About twenty sites all over the Kathmandu Valley are together classified as a World Heritage Site, and this valley is one of the most holy places for Hindus and Buddhists alike.

On the first day, we went to Swayambhu, or the Monkey Temple.  This Buddhist stupa is crowned with a golden spire and sits atop a hill absolutely draped in prayer flags.  Worshippers (both Buddhist and Hindu) mix with athletes who have just finished running up the 425 steep steps to the top and with the occasional camera-toting tourist.  There are multiple smaller shrines and stupas around the main dome, some with Hindu gods and goddesses painted on them, and all have prayer wheels inscribed with the mantra "om mani padme hum" around their bases.  As worshippers circle around the shrines, they spin the wheels, sending the mantra into the universe and gaining merit for the community.  Hundreds of stray dogs and thousands of pigeons and monkeys (hence the nickname) scramble for scraps of food, sit around or atop stupas, and pose for the cameras.  I've heard stories of monkeys trained by beggars to steal people's purses and cameras when the curious tourist gets too close.

The next day, we visited Durbar Square, the ancient main square and palace compound of the city.  Just as everything else in the city, the buildings are slowly but surely crumbling away, but it is still obvious that Durbar Square was once a jewel.  Dark, intricately carved wooden window screens and lintels adorn each building, and brightly painted shrines are set out in the wide boulevard.  (Fake holy men sit on some of these; they've realized that by dressing up in orange, painting their faces, and getting tourists to photograph them, they can make some extra money.)  In one of the buildings lives the Kumari, a living goddess.  The current Kumari is about four years old, and lives in perfect luxury inside her palace, only showing her face one day a year during her festival.  Once she reaches puberty, a new Kumari will be found.

Another major Buddhist stupa is Boudha, much larger than the monkey temple.  There are no attendant stupas or shrines here, only a tiger belching incense and a dark room with a massive prayer wheel constantly spun by worshippers.  Travelers can climb partway up the stupa and walk around it (always in a clockwise direction), admiring the dome above and the shops of the square below.  This stupa has become the Nepali focal point for Tibetan Buddhists in exile.

Last on the list was Pashupati, holy to Hinduism, Nepal's majority religion.  This temple complex is predominantly a cremation ground.  It extends on either side of a shallow, muddy river, with one bank rising up a hill in well-worn steps flanked by small shrines, and the other bank a line of cremation platforms.  It's very moving to see a family light a marigold-encrusted pyre with the wrapped body of of their father or mother atop it.  The whole riverbank smells of smoke, and it comes as a shock to realize, as Mackenzie put it, that by breathing in the smoke we are actually breathing in people.  

This morning I'm leaving for Dolpa, a very remote village in western Nepal.  Transportation to this village is characteristically long - a 15-20 hour bus ride (if all goes well), then a short plane flight.  There are no roads leading in and out of Dolpa.  Along with two other volunteers, I will be teaching English to young elementary-age students for two weeks.