sweat and mozzie rag/buddha jayanti

morning:

iron maiden of mozzies

I want to write something positive.  really i do.  but as i drink my water, and watch it simultaneously empty out through my pores, i find it quite difficult.  and last nights losing battle with what were probable malarial mosquitoes has me bitten and tired.  slept in 15 minute start-stops as the mosquitoes did not relent until sunrise.  and truly, i need a long cool tall drink and a seat poolside somewhere next.

water so scarce it doesn't focus

so my rant: this place is a furnace and a poorly thought out shrine to one of the greatest humans that have ever lived.  such a shame.  so much money (foreign) has poured in here, into the memorial.  but none of it has seemed to trickle down to the regular folk (a surprise, i am sure, knowing how the world works where you live). also, it appears to me after walking around the *park*, that unity of form and design were never even considered. 

in their own words

lumbini is the birthplace of the buddha.  through excavation, archaeologists have determined that this particular place, in fact, an exact spot.  so a shrine was erected, and all the buddhist countries of the world decided to make a huge, confusing, carelessly planned buddhaworld out of it.  its a massive complex with too-spaced out buddhist temples in the style of whichever country represented.

there were some standouts, architecturally.  the three i liked the most were the chinese, vietnamese (not totally completed) and the thai.  these three were tastfully constructed, and were a joy to walk through, this early morning (heat had me up at 5am!).  i am also sure that i would have apprecisated the japanese temple, but unfortunately i couldn't find it and gave up in search of a cold water. 

the rest were tacky concrete monstrousities.  i took very few pictures, unfortunately today, as the weather was cloudy.  and the ones i took are pretty crappy.  and photography was quite restricted.

sweets, my sweat

but this has been an interesting view of nepal as well.  lumbini is south, maybe 50 km from the border of india.  so this place, more so than any of the others, has a very indian feel.  most people are ethnically indian.









afternoon: 

so today was a festival:

Buddha Jayanti (Vesak)

Buddha Jayanti (the Full moon day in May) is one of the greatest festivals in Buddhist Religious Calendar. The day is celebrated to commemorate the three major events in Buddha’s life – His birth (in Lumbini, Nepal in 623 BC); his enlightenment (Buddhatto) at the age of 35 years (in Buddha Gaya, India) and his passing away (Maha parinirvana) at the age of 80 years (in Kusinagar, India.)

all the colors of the womens' saris, the scent of sweat and inscense and indian-styled sweets on sale with thousands of gallons of milk tea, it had the overcrowded feel of india. 
 

and there was an amazing looking carni-show, but alas i gave it a miss, as the crowds made me claustrophobic.  so it has been interesting, but the heat and the load shedding has made me a grump.

so i sit, now contempating what i have expereinced these last two days as the sunsets and a cool breeze starts to cool.  minutes away from the onslaught of malerial mosquitos...did i fail to mention the mosquitos?

video: