During the time I have spent here, we had quite a few
very interesting conversations with locals about the real culture of Nepal,
about how tradition meets modernity and for example how Buddhism and Hinduism
can exist by each other in a very peaceful way here. I think I still understand
just a very little about this rich culture, probably also misunderstand few
things, but still, I would like to share some of these experiences with you.
Nepal during most of its history used to be a
monarchy. In ancient and medieval times there very many smaller kingdoms in the
territory of current Nepal – for example Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur all
used to be separate kingdoms rivalizing with each other in their architecture
as well (this is why today all these areas have a center Durbar Square where
the most magnificent pieces of architecture can be found). It was only in the
mid 18th century that the king of the Gorkha Kingdom conquered these
territories and united them, forming the current area of Nepal. After long-long
years of Gorkha ruling, finally after a civil war, Nepal became a democratic
republic in 2008. As I got to know from a descendant of the Gorkha kings, not everybody
is satisfied with this state either... There are some people, who believe that
by giving up the monarchy Nepal also lost one of its heritage, since it used to
be just about the only Hinduist monarchy in the world. Also, the king is still
not completely lost: he is still travelling around the country, and worldwide,
too, as well, as he still has an important role in religious traditions that
cannot be taken away by ministers.
As I see, Nepal is pretty much in a changing period at
the moment: it’s partly caused by caused by the newly formed republic, but globalization,
the western culture flowing in, and the growing cities have a great forming
power on this originally very traditional and very spiritual country. This
means that while in the past used to have their calm, peaceful way of life,
which was closer to nature and less crowed, today – besides the existence of
all these – by first sight you can see a city full of people, dust and crazy
traffic. This is a crazy, changing world, where apart from the approximately 2.5
million official citizens of Kathmandu there are about another million who have
migrated here from other parts of Nepal in the hope of getting a visa and work
permits to work abroad and there is also another pretty big amount of visitors
coming from the western world in the search of the ancient knowledge of the
Nepalese people. In this world the locals – highly influenced by their families
and their possibilities are all trying to find their balanced mixture of their
ancient spiritual world and the western modernity coming in. You can see this
in the roles of men and women, their ways and thoughts about marriage, or the
in the existence of Buddhism and Hinduism here.
There are many-many ways of thinking about marriage for
example they also all differ cast by cast (even though cast is said not to
matter as much anymore as it used to...). There are some that are supposed to
carry on their father’s path and choose somebody from the same cast (or not get
married at all), for others, it’s even possible to marry a foreigner. There are
some who believe in love marriage, others stick to the arranged one, saying
that parents have more experience in choosing the right person for them, since
enjoyment is not everything, it doesn’t guarantee a good match for the entire
life so they trust their parents’ choice more their than own... The most interesting
conversation about marriage that we had, was with a girl from Newari culture (indigenous inhabitants of Kathmandu Valley). She said
that for her marriage consists of three ceremonies: first she has to marry the
bel fruit, symbolizing marrying Shiva, then comes a marriage with the sun, and
only after this can the marriage with a man take place. Also, at the time of
the first too ceremonies, they don’t the man yet, who they are going to marry.
She said, she has already done the first two ceremonies and was just waiting
for the man to enter her life. By the way, the changing tendencies can be also
seen looking at the average age at marriage: while in the last generation
people usually still got married as teenagers, nowadays the age of 25-30 years
for a woman to get married is absolutely acceptable.
Connected to this, family roles are also
a bit changing in Nepal. Some people say that in the past, Nepal used to be a calm
place where if one of the family members worked, was enough to set up a good
living for the family. In contrary to that, nowadays by modernity and western
culture, too, the needs of the people has changed, resulting in all family members
working more and more ours with less and less time to spend together...
Still in this changing context, the
everyday life is very much filled with spirituality and spiritual activity –
practicing meditation, yoga, getting connected with themselves, their present,
past and future. I guess here all these take the role of the psychologists in
our world... These people are still more connected inside and outside as well,
no matter whether they belong to Buddhists or Hinduists. It seems that this is
one of those rare countries where there has never been any conflict about
religion... The locals say, that the key of this might be that the goal of
their religions are very similar: reaching a peaceful state of mind, finding a
unity inside yourself, concentrating on present experiences... They celebrate
life in all their rituals and festivals – for example in Hinduism they have all
kinds of celebrations even for animals (like the cow) and natural phenomenons
(like the Sun or the Wind). Also, these religions are very tolerant, just like
the people themselves. They also say that the background can be also the way
most people are here: they consider themselves very honest, and at the same
time avoiding any source of conflicts... Well, whatever the reason is, it’s for
sure that in Kathmandu the two religions with all their rituals and traditions
and beautiful temples and stupas seem to complete each other in a very nice
way.
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