Kathmandu Valley, You've Gotta Love it! "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. Isaiah 58:

The title scripture talks of keeping the Sabbath day holy, then goes into much detail regarding just how that can be done.  Vs. 10  "...draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as noonday"  As Janet and I take this council to heart we find many obstacles in our path.  The simple idea that someone has done something this way for their whole life and their parents did it this way, and their grandparents, etc, etc, etc, is mind boggling.
As I look around and talk with these people the one common feeling is that nothing will change, it will always be this way, we can't make it better.  Often I think ,do this, do that, and your life would be better, Then Janet reminds me "Your way may be the only way, but is it the Nepali way?"  I then move on to the important things, finding ways of teaching them of Christ and ...having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men." 2 Nephi 31:20
That was a long explanation of the following story.  We went to meet with one of our members that recently had a baby, Suman.  Suman lives in a city in the Kathmandu valley called Bhaktapur, it is about 20 kilometers from the city and about another 5 from our house in Bansbari.  The drive is about 45 minutes to an hour to get there.  He met us and took us to his aunts house to meet his wife and baby.

  On the way to his see his baby he showed us where he lived, which is a stones throw from his wife's aunts house where she is staying with the baby.  Suman is standing in front of his house and he is about 5' 3"  so you can see it is a duck for us to get into the houses here.  Suman is a returned missionary, he served in Bangalore India.  He is a very good young man and I hope that we will be able to help him find a way to return to activity in our branch, we certainly need it.
It is interesting that his wife is staying with her aunt instead of her mother in this small home with another of her sisters who also has a small child. This next picture is of them together in her aunts house.





You can plainly see that he is one happy dad.  I'm not sure if there is a cultural thing but he didn't want to get too close to his wife when we took the picture, it took three times before we were able to get them this close.  If you look close you can see around the eyes of the baby boy a black substance, not sure what it is.  We asked what that was for and Suman wasn't really sure so we asked the aunt and she told us it was to protect him from seeing evil or something like that.  She said they do it when the child is about 12 days old.  When this picture was taken he was twenty days to the minute.  Suman told us exactly the minute he was born, proud papa.

As we were talking with them and after Janet had given them a blanket she had made I saw an interesting picture.  These houses are about 100 years old, with packed dirt floors.  There is no heating so they are cold inside, to keep warm they will sit near a window in the sunlight.  I really never understood the full meaning of the warmth of sunlight until now.  So Mother, as any dutiful mother would do, was holding the baby in the sunlight to keep him warm, this is the picture I saw.  What a humble beginning.








During our conversations with the family Suman wife's sister brought her son down to meet us.  He had been sleeping and at first wasn't sure what he was seeing.  As we talked we concluded that he had never seen a white face and really didn't know what to make of it.  Well, you guessed it, Janet couldn't resist and wanted to hold him for a bit.  He is a cute little one.  Nepali children are notoriously solid, I picked up one recently and thought he was carrying rocks in his pockets.  This little one was no different!  Do you like the eye mascara?


As we were leaving I took this picture of Janet navigating her way down the stairs, did I mention we were on the third floor?

The stairs remind me of the ladder going to our upper attic in a garage.  There is no electricity in the house so we had a hard time seeing where to step.  This family recognizing the difficulty  quickly got some lights for us to see.  The light if you can imagine was the flashlight on Suman's mobile phone.  The picture was taken with a flash, next time I'll turn the flash off.



When we left the clan was in the window to wave.  The little one by this time didn't want us to leave and really made a scene.  The boys mother is the woman on the right.   If any of you are interested look closely at the wiring going into the building, I believe if you click on the picture it will get bigger, that yellow wire is their electrical connection.  My guess, it is not a 200 amp service.

While we were at Suman's aunt's home his father came, he is also a member of the church.  He wanted us to come and visit him at his shop.  His name is Sundar, he is a cabinet maker.  Sundar also is a woodcarver and carves many things.  I will show you pictures of the city and you will see some of his handiwork.  The city has many windows covered with lattice work that is hand carved, thus his trade.

 When he joined the church he found an interesting market for his trade, Nativity scenes.  Over the years people have come to Nepal and he has quite a business of these nativities that he carves for missionaries and other LDS visitors.

This is the shop that he does his cabinet work in,  it is about a 5 minute walk from his house.  Sundar is the man in the middle and our Didi is on his left and Suman is to his right.  You can see it is small but then what else do you need when you work alone.  I also took a picture inside his shop and it is well equipped  to accomplish the things he is doing.  The cabinets on each wall are some of his current projects.









You can see he has a table saw and a hand jointer, to his left is a drill press and a bunch of other hand tools and they all work - when there is electricity.   His shop is very well organized and clean, that is very unusual.

As we were walking away from the shop we saw these cute Nepali women that were cleaning and collecting sawdust from the furniture builders in the area for use elsewhere, nothing is wasted!





When Janet asked them if she could take a photo the were very obliging as you can see by the cute smile.  They were working very hard throwing the sawdust up to clean it then wrapping it in the tarps to haul away.










It looks like a lot of work!


















We got the curd and decided to go for a stroll through the old town of Bhaktapur.








 As we were walking through the streets we came to realize how very old this city is. There is a story told that during the reign of the Newars there were three cities in Kathmandu valley, when the King was getting along in years he thought he should give one city to each of his sons and they would be good caretakers and keep the country united as a family unit.  Well, needless to say the boys became jealous of each other and the three cities separated and developed in their own directions which eventually became the downfall of the Newar caste as a ruling body in Nepal.  Eventually the cultures mixed but you still find distinct cultures, and traditions within cities outside of  Kathmandu city.

We wandered around when low and behold Janet found this cool place look closely, it is a factory outlet.  We don't even miss not being in Highland and the new factory outlets, we have our own!




Moving right along we see coming down the street a one eyed donkey, this is a very much used vehicle.  It is used for everything.  Here it is used as a light delivery truck.






In Kathmandu they are used for heavy hauling to family hauling, it is a very versatile tool.





As we walked along we saw this cool little shop with a great shopkeeper inside.  When I talked to her she just smiled






Next to her shop we found a supermarket with a very nice woman shopkeeper.  She thought I was funny when I spoke to her in Nepali and asked if I could take her photo.  When she saw her picture she just laughed.



















We walked down this street and found a very cool
square which we didn't remember was in Bhaktapur.
 Bhaktapur is well known as a pottery city.  When we came out on to the square it was amazing, all of this pottery surrounds around you.











Here a pot, there a pot.












More pots!

Then we saw the most amazing potters wheel.  The wheel was very large about 4 feet across and about 6 inches thick, made of stone.


The potter would spin the wheel around with a large stick until it was the correct speed and then he would begin to form the pots, one after another.  No electricity just pure man power.

We peek inside a door and there is another potter making the same kinds of bowls.  It is quite a sight to see all the people working so hard.






As we walked along we saw this machine pushing out the pottery clay, look closely you will see what appears to be a pipe the the man is holding.  It is the clay in the right consistency and proportion for the wheels.

We saw these huge wheels standing near the temple and had a look.  They are used on new years night for  sort of competition between the two parts of the city which is the new city and the old city.  The men of the two parts of Bhaktapur try and pull the cart to their respective city.  This effort is an all night affair.





Suman decided he would show me how strong he was and lift the wheel, you get the idea how big they are, these things are heavy, just look at the axles lying on the ground.  Suman said they tug on these things all night.








We made it to temple square,  a little different than SLC.

This five storied pagoda was built by King Bhupatindra Malla in 1702.  You can see five terraces, on each one is a pair of figures.  Terrace 1 two wrestlers, terrace 2 two elephants, terrace 3 two lions, terrace 4 two griffins and terrace 5 Baghini and Singhini the tiger and lion goddesses.  Each pair of figures is ten times stronger than the figures on the terraces below them, while the two strong wrestlers Jaya Malla and Phatta Malla are ten times stronger that an other men.  Can you see them on each tier along the steps?










Another view of the temple shows how large the temple is.  A lot of physical effort went into this building, when you consider when it was built.  I mentioned earlier about the member that makes the Nativity woodcarving, that skill has been handed down from father to son for many years.  If you will look at the panels on the exterior they are all hand carved.





To the right you see the temple from the grounds of another smaller temple Bhairab Nath.  If you will look at the building just to the left in the picture you can see some carved lattice covering the windows of the building which is the palace of 55 windows.  Suman's great grandfather carved some of the lattice work on the windows when it was refurbished years ago.  Look closely it is amazing work.


It was getting late and we had to head home, but I noticed some very cool doors on the way out of the city.

As I looked through this doorway into the court yard I saw this interesting little home in the court.

Just a little bit up the street was another entrance through another court yard,  the walls of
 these homes are about 18 inches thick which allows them to stay a little cool in the hot summer and not to cold in the winter, when the sun shines.










This is one of my favorites, painted on the door are some  Nepali letters, the two of the letters are LL and M,   Mendenhall, missing a couple letters but it is a start.









This door and doorway has that intriquitly carved posts you can see how much work goes into making these building facades.  I took this picture in a shop next to Sundar Shop of carvers working they were working on some furniture, bedposts.










It is amazing how adaptable the people are, the door is to the house and just to the right of the door is an iron gate.  What is the implication of this?  There is crime in this quaint city.  We see these people struggling to make a living and think how hard they work and what little they have, then this!

This city has been in existence since the 14th century AD, what has changed?  They have built on a foundation of many generations, and where are they today?  What needs to happen?
Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.  Missionary work is the key, the change will happen when the gospel can be taught to the honest in heart, and there are many.  When that day comes there will be many who desire to hear those words of comfort and joy.  As Heavenly Father prepares a way for these people of Nepal to hear the restored gospel, I believe we will see miracles happen.

The Gospel is true, Heavenly Father knows you and loves you.  What more do you want?

Be Good, Do Good, Become Good!

Next chapter - Preparing the Way