kathmandu

This past Saturday was probably one of the strangest days I've had traveling yet. I went on a walking tour with a new friend I picked up on the bus and we happened to be in the right place at the right time TWICE! We were walking into a courtyard, when all of a sudden a man in a mask with a skirted costume guided by several other men came out from a building across the street and into the courtyard. Two more quickly followed. We tried to ask what was going on but couldn't find someone who spoke a lot of English. We went back on the street to see a crowd of folks surrounding a small platform and looked up to see the windows crammed with spectators. So we decided to join the window crowd and were able to get a good view and at least a minimal explanation of the event. The three men were all living gods and three sheep and one young buffalo were being sacrificed for them, which meant that the gods had to drink the blood of the animals. We watched what we could, saw more than we needed to, but definitely not the whole sacrifice (I had to cover my eyes several times). IT was a once in a lifetime experience, gruesome, but equally fascinating.

Later in the day, when were in the town center, again there was quite a commotion. This time we already had a good vantage point and saw a young girl being carried into one of the main buildings. Another spectator told us it was the living goddess, who we read only comes out of her abode a few times a year. Again, we were in the right place at the right time. Lucky us!
the living god is in the middle
a monument to one of the Hindu gods
temple tops in the city center