Shiva's Night

It's been building up for the last few weeks now. The number of babas with their long beards, hair like a birds nest, bare feet and orange robes has been increasing. The Indian snake charmers - all now banned from India as it is considered cruelty to the snake - have appeared in town. Pashupatinath temple has been building tents and organising itself for this day. And all the junkie westerners who think Nepal is the mystical Shangra-la are sitting around with the shakes waiting (I'll explain why in a minute...). It is the festival of Mahashivaraatri - otherwise known as Shiva's night.

Shiva is one of the trinity of Hindu gods, at the top of the pantheon along with Brahma and Vishnu (or Bishnu as Nepali doesn't have the 'v' sound in their phonetic system). Shiva's consort is Parbati, and legend has it that his home is the holy mountain, Mount Kailash in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Shiva is well known in the Hindu world for many things - linga, his giant bull Nandi, how he cut of his son's head and replaced it with an elephant's head, his trident, blue throat and snake that lives around his neck. But the thing most westerners know him for is the mystic bhang that he smoked. And on this day each year, bhang - otherwise known as marijuana which grows abundantly in Nepal's hills - is legal.

Pashupatinath temple is the largest temple in Nepal, and one of the 4 most important temples in the Hindu dharma. It is supposed to be the place where Shiva spends his time during the winter. So every year for the Mahashivaraatri festival thousands of Shaivites (Shiva's followers) make the pilgrimage to Pashupatinath, along with hundreds of thousands of other onlookers and junkies.

I didn't make it Pashupatinath this year, as I was in my office, but when I was in Nepal 2 years ago, I went and took some photos. Below are a selection of my favourite:

The road to Pashupatinath is packed with the hundreds of thousands of people who go there to visit the temple and worship Shiva.

Inside the temple complex, it is also packed. However, there are some areas that only westerners can pass through, fortunately, so that you don't have to body surf through the crowds.

People queuing up for the temple. The queue was over 2 km long, and hardly moving at all...

...so people sat on the other side of the river and watched the queue not moving...

...and also the people trying to sneak in. Whilst we were watching, one man fell off the pipe they are standing on into the filthy Bagmati river, much to the amusement of everyone watching.

There were many Baba's sitting round their fires, wearing very little, selling their ganga, gaining a little more enlightenment and trying to trick gullible westerners out of their money.

The Baba's have given up their worldly possessions, and live a life of self-imposed poverty. I wonder what their parents think of their careers choice?

Some of the Baba's are showmen. This one, covered in ashes from the fire, was surrounded by a thronging mass of people, and lifted stones from his genitalia. Nice.

The Indian snake charmers dancing and bewitching their charges. The crowd was packed around the small group of temples above the main Pashupati complex. So packed, in fact, that people actually climbed on me to get a look at the display.

The temple has a real party atmosphere, and there are many different places where the Hindu stories are told through dance and song. This is telling about Hanuman, the monkey god from the Hindu epic, the Ramayan.

And of course, the inevitable drug dealers. This one was selling small balls of ganga to anyone who wanted to buy it. Needless to say he had good business. I suppose at least it's better than the dodgy guy in Thamel sidling up to you and asking if you want anything.

The thing I remember most about Mahashivaraatri a Pashupatinath is the smell. Pashupatinath is a pungent place at the best of times, the Bagmati river filled with garbage adding to the faecal remains of the monkeys and pigeons. Then, by the river side are the people being cremated. Add to that the smoke from the hundred of fires keeping the Babas warm and the intoxicating smell of weed in the air and you have a recipe for a really appalling nasal assault.

As for me, we watched the TV in the morning, as Pashupati woke up to its biggest day of the year. The best bit for me was the man being dragged out of shot by a hand as the camera panned around. But then, I am childish and immature. There was one thing I forgot happened on Mahashivaraatri as well - children create roadblocks in order to extort money out of people. So, on my journey into the office, we passed through at least 10 different pieces of string. Fortunately Achut knew how to deal with them, blow your horn loudly and say you're not paying. The problem is that a clothes-lining is very much possible, and I had no desire to be lying on my back in the middle of the road. But, in the end only one rope got caught around our waists, and that left after a brief minute.

It looks as if I'm off on a field visit at the end of the week, which will be cool. Just want to get out of Kathmandu for a few days and get my head in gear.

SAM