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Tag: tierneybb

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By tierneybb

Today our independent study research period ended, and as we regroup in Boudha to franticly put final touches on our papers and find somewhere able to produce color printing, I find myself in the inevitable slide into reminiscence about times when I didn't have forty page papers due (especially ones I'm so far from finishing). I guess the my study abroad program's first week was different than the overwhelming feeling of arriving in a foreign city and having to set yourself up, because it's SIT everything is managed for us, and the first week was a lovely retreat to welcome us to the city, I think I might have gone crazy if it had just been me landing at the airport, sans bag, and setting up for a semester of school. Kathmandu's chaotic cluster of humanity now feels comfortable to me, I'm not sure if this is because I have imposed that order or found what was hidden beneath a completely foreign surface, but I am able to work with it all the same. Compared to that first week in Pharping I am now able to casually navigate the city, find local or expat friends, and while I can't speak Nepali or really enough Tibetan to shoot the breeze people are always looking to practice their English with a brief conversation in line or as you walk somewhere. ...continue reading "Back in Boudha"

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By tierneybb

Walking down the side streets of Patan, behind the roar of motorcycles and chatter of passersby is a nearly constant tinkering.  The sound of hammers and saws and all sorts of tools at work: this is known as an ancient center for the arts.  Lineages that go back centuries pass down their knowledge of traditional crafts in workshops and homes along the meandering brick alleys and courtyards.  Many of the iconographic styles considered to be nearly sacred, and with the same care and techniques practiced by their fore-bearers these workshops create masterpieces on a regular basis, such that art historians can mislocate a piece in time, not knowing whether it was made in the middle ages or 1980. This is what I've chosen to study for my independent research project this semester, and with the experiential learning style supported by SIT and anthropology I've been able to immerse myself in this artisan culture by undertaking a short apprenticeship in the copper repousse workshop of Sajan Ratna Sakya.  And while it's difficult to stare down the barrel of a giant research paper after doing eight hours of skilled manual labor six days a week, I love the work that I'm learning, and well... I'm sure the paper will happen, I am involved enough with all the ideas, but I'm procrastinating on the basis my hands are too sore to write. Only three days in I started working copper and I'm nearly done with a 7x5x3" elephant image, even if it's really more like Sajan's elephant that I keep messing up and he has to correct.  It's strange to him that there isn't a similar niche in America, let alone that major repousse statues died out in Europe back in the renaissance, he's making not one but two nine foot statues currently, and two other life sized portraits, all of religious figures and mostly for monasteries or private shrines.  When he asked where we get devotional images in America I had to hazard a guess at China... But it also takes a bit less to make a cross than to recreate the wheel of samsara. ...continue reading "Doing Research in Nepal"

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By tierneybb

Nepal has taught me a lot about self reliance: it's overrated.   In America I consider myself to be quite self reliant, rather independent and self-sufficient, always able to achieve my goals on my own.  But in a country that is quite literally "off the map" with un-plottable streets that laugh at the notion of google maps or guidebooks, I have come to trust in the easily offered help of strangers, and it is wonderful.   ...continue reading "Teachings From Nepal"

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By tierneybb

Last week we began our independent research period. Handed conspicuous envelopes fed fat with rupees we were wished the best of luck and told to keep in touch. A fellow GW student happens to be staying in the area as well, so we packed up our bags and hailed a cab across the river to the incorporated city of Patan. While housing (especially on a student stipend) in Patan is limited, we have contracted a room in a guesthouse with a communal kitchen (yes, this is my worst nightmare, but at least we have our own bathroom, GW dorms have set my standards a bit too high). But our room is two blocks from Durbar Square, and next to a large market street that turns into a major thoroughfare. ...continue reading "Patan, KTM"

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By tierneybb

A few weeks ago I found myself in the middle of an argument on the bus. Two young twenty-something Nepalis had gone from a general pleasant conversation about nothing, looking forward to Dasain, but when I made an offhand comment about the stretch of road we were on I set them off. The boy, a well off construction manager was too jaded to even entertain the notion of discussing politics, he just pointed out that peoples interests were not being served by the government and it was too bad, too entrenched to get any better. The girl was a university student studying politics, who was interested in the advancement of her country, and while she wasn't fond of the current government, how was that supposed to change if dissatisfied young Nepalis didn't get involved? I sat back, I was determined not to get involved, but still they kept most of the argument in English, with passioned bursts of Nepali roughly translated for my benefit. But this isn't the only time I've been caught in such arguments, while interviewing a shopkeeper in Namo Buddha a man walked in off the street already hurling political arguments at her, and the interview took a back seat as the two of them discussed local issues with the government, animatedly pacing and gesticulating with their arguments. There always seems to be an odd dynamic where both parties agree with each other, and are very nice, but then point out that the other just happens to be fundamentally wrong about their proposed action. ...continue reading "Patan, KTM"

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By tierneybb

ZZAPP!! With a violent buzz like a miniature thunder clap my eyes jerk up from my work to the window, where the waiter has pinned a fat fly under some sort of electronic tennis racket, and apparently, fried it. While I've never seen such an odd device for pest control that's not what's so jarring, nor the noise disturbing the ambient pulse of music: This is the fist time I have seen a bug killed in public since starting my study abroad. Other than my own furtive swatting when away from prying eyes, I haven't seen any bugs intentionally killed. All sentient beings, even bugs, are part of the chaotic cycle of samsara, and thus good Buddhists and Hindus are not supposed to kill them, and doing so around them is considered insensitive. I've heard a rumor that H.H. the Dalai Lama once disputed the cognizance of mosquitos, that they weren't really sentient and could probably be safely swatted, but I didn't have the guts to test this in public (and prefer to avoid the awkward wipe-off of the guts of insects). Even a cockroach making a steady climb up grandmother's back was knocked off and gently carried to a window. ...continue reading "Gangtok, Sikkim (India)"

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By tierneybb

Oh dear. With the realization that this week marks the point at which I am exactly halfway through my time here in Nepal, and just past halfway through the semester, I guess this means I've settled in to life as a student in Nepal. This mostly mean's I've found my niche and accepted my identity here: I hang out at the mid-level integrated Western cafes, where it's mostly white people and monks but you order the lemon ginger honey tea to go with your spinach crepes and no one's using the wifi. I say I'm studying here for a semester and try not to claim that I live in Kathmandu, as it's rather obvious I'm not from around here and don't have the cultural capital of the long-term ex-pats. It's a nice balance as some of the truly local joints are beyond my abilities both linguistically and in terms of limits on my dhal consumption. I take public transit if there's a direct line, but as soon as transfers get involved I know to give up and grab a cab. I've bought local traditional fabrics to have tailored into an outfit, but it'll be western style not a chupa because... there are many things I just can't pull off. ...continue reading "Around Kathmandu"

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By tierneybb

Nepal TrekWhen you tell the locals of Kathmandu that you're going on trek, they nod politely and ask where, but they won't recognize the name "Tsum." Few people do, despite its proximity to the popular Manaslu circuit. However, protected from the nosing bustle of tourism by both the government and sheer remoteness, Tsum is one of the "untouched Shangri-las" of the Himalayas. ...continue reading "Tsum Valley, Nepal’s Northern Border"

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By tierneybb

Friday was indisputably the best Nepal day so far. We have been warned of "bad Nepal days," when the chaos and clamor and complete otherness of this city will break us down, and we will want nothing more than to find a couch (a considerable task, especially if you expect it to be comfortable) and demand a mocha and faster internet. But after Friday I will take those blows knowing that this semester is more than worth it.

...continue reading "Patan, Kathmandu"

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By tierneybb

So just imagine I'm having a splendid time trekking through the Tsum mountains (I've now looked them up, they are not gradual or little mountains, gah), pulling leeches off my legs (apparently leech season is almost over, but you especially can't kill them here as they're representations of water spirits from another dimension), and bathing in a stream wearing a petticoat ( I wasn't clear on this either, but apparently not like victorian underwear, but bathing shifts like the Tale of Sir Galahad, unfortunately no one here has heard of them either so some helpful monks tried to assist in my shopping for a "nightie," but I got one eventually).
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