This is one of the most fascinating things I’ve seen in my life.
On one side of this tiny river, hundreds of people are praying and singing and dancing
and clapping along.
20/30 meters or yards away, there's dead bodies that are being washed and then cremated right
there, and all this is happening while this very holy guy is walking around with a trident
and blessing people.
This is Kathmandu.
So, it's 4 30 p.m.
And I’m in front of Boudhanath or Boudha right now which is an ancient religious structure
and a stupa on the northeast side of Kathmandu.
This looks a lot like Swyambhunath stupa if you've seen my other vlog from Kathmandu, and there's
the exact same symbology with the eyes and the third eye I think up there.
So, everyone seems to be walking around this massive stupa.
It has to be five stories high.
Almost everyone seems to be going clockwise if you're looking at it from a bird's eye
view and I don't know if there's any religious significance behind this, but I’m just following
the crowd so I don't go against it or don't offend anyone over here.
So, no one really knows exactly how old the stupa is because they're varying records that
say different numbers of when this was created, but everyone sort of agrees that this is at
least a thousand years old.
So it's pretty ancient and it gained prominence because it was on the ancient trading route
that went all the way to Tibet from this area of northern India and Nepal, and it's super interesting
There's lots of monks walking around it and then there are all these shops and coffee
shops and whatever.
There's a pretty cool temple right in front of me.
Not sure what this is but there seems to be some sort of official pigeon feeding area
behind me.
Okay I’m gonna see if I can get inside this temple.
It looks like I can enter the small area here with all these small spinny things and one
huge spinny thing over there, but it doesn't look like I can actually enter the main temple
grounds because the door is locked.
Now I see why there are so many monks here.
There's literally a big monastery right next to the stupa where a lot of I’m guessing
Buddhist monks are praying
Okay time to move to our second stop for the day, another UNESCO world heritage site.
Okay so it looks like it is possible to go inside if
I just take off my shoes and hand it over to someone over there.
The first thing I saw when I come inside is all these monkeys and baby monkeys
Okay this is a massive temple complex.
My socks are wet because I just stepped on something, a puddle.
Scared the poor monkey
I think I’ve gotten as far as I’m gonna get into this temple because entry beyond
this point is restricted to Hindus only.
That's not what I am, so I’m not going inside.
But there is a really cool viewpoint on the other side of the river which I’m going
to talk about in a second.
This temple I think was built at the turn of the 17th century.
It's considered I think the oldest temple in all of Kathmandu.
It's definitely considered one of the holiest temples in Nepal and some would say it's considered
one of the holiest temples or Hindu temples in the whole world.
I always find it fascinating how different places and different cultures have different
rules about who gets to enter certain religious buildings.
So obviously over here only the people worshiping can enter.
It's definitely the same in a lot of other places like Saudi Arabia.
Only Muslims can enter the Mecca.
But at the same time there's also places like western Europe where basically anyone can
go inside a church as long as you're not actively disturbing someone who's trying to pray, I guess.
But then there's places like Turkey which are a bit more in the gray area.
They have places where you can visit as a tourist and there are separate places where
you can pray.
So I think it's interesting how that changes in different places.
Okay so I’m now walking around the temple complex to go to this viewpoint that's on
the other side of the Bagmati river which is the main river that runs through the Kathmandu valley.
I think it's the holiest river in all of Nepal and it has a lot of meaning which I’m going
to discuss in a second
So, this whole temple complex is pretty fascinating.
It is a Hindu temple complex, but you can see very heavy influences of east Asian architecture,
which really makes sense because Nepal is only on the other side of the Himalayas from
Tibet and China
Okay so I’m finally at the Bagmati river which is a lot smaller than I expected it
to be, considering it's the main river of Kathmandu valley.
I guess it's dry season now so maybe it gets bigger later.
So if you don't like hearing about mortality and death and I’m not going to show anything
graphic but this is probably the part you want to stop watching this video, because
I’m going to show some pretty morbid stuff.
So I just went next to the river and I started seeing this smoke right next to me and then
I realized these are basically funeral pyres and this is where often Nepalese Hindus come
to cremate their loved ones.
Like I was saying earlier, this river is considered a holy river and taking a bath in this river
is considered to cleanse your spirit according to Nepalese Hinduism.
So when someone dies, before they're cremated right next to the river behind me in these
pyres they're often dipped in this holy water three times from what I understand.
And then the person who dies and is being cremated, it's usually their eldest son who
lights up the pyre.
So pretty pretty intense stuff.
I don't think I’ve ever been this close to so many dead people in my life actually,
so it does feel a bit weird.
I’m kind of staying away because I don't want to get too near.
I’m sure there's people mourning near their loved ones who passed away and this is probably
not the time they want to be on film
Okay so right as I was filming there, someone just carried a dead body right in front of
me on to the..
pyre next to the river
So, there's this special puja or aarti, like a worship ceremony, that's supposed to start
here at 6 p.m. where anyone can go, not just Hindus.
So, I’m gonna go now and check that out.
I’ve already been to every UNESCO world heritage site/ religious site in Kathmandu
right now and I have to say for me this is by far the coolest one that I’ve been to.
It's definitely more powerful with people like..
Why are you crying?
I think that poor kid was crying because he's afraid of monkeys.
The monkey came up close, but yeah this is definitely the most impactful structure that
I’ve been to in terms of temples in Nepal so far
So, I’m at the spot where the Aarti is supposed to happen on the bank of the river, but it's
not starting on time, at least the time that I saw on the internet.
So, I guess we're waiting a little bit, but they are starting preparations
So I was just chilling here minding my own business and this holy guy covered in like
white paint with a huge trident came up to me and came up to everyone else asking for
money and then smacking his trident against the ground.
It's pretty imposing but super interesting as well.
Okay so I’m not gonna show this here because I don't know how appropriate it is to show
this on the internet, but they just brought a dead body right next to the river and then
some people are just washing his feet with the water from the river and what's even more
interesting is that someone was taking photos before this.
One of the people who carried the corpse down to the water is filming it with his phone,
which is super fascinating to me because from everywhere I’ve been, funerals have always
been like more of a private event.
But over here it definitely seems to be a public affair.
Okay so I didn't get this on camera but the scary man with the trident just showed up
behind me and then put this on my head, the white stuff, not consensually.
I was wrong.
He has a broom, not a trident.
I think he's blessing people with that broom by smacking them on the head with it.
The Aarti is fully underway and they're worshiping, and people are singing and clapping and some
are dancing very interesting
Okay that was just insane, and I’ve been standing for the last few hours.
It's time for me to go home.
That was pretty crazy.
I’ve never seen anything like that and there's so many things happening right next to each other.
I’m gonna end the video right here.
If you like this video don't forget to like it.
If you want to see more videos like this feel free to subscribe to my channel or follow
my page, and if you want to get travel updates in real time..
This dog is going crazy..
Feel free to follow me on Instagram @nadironthego.
I’ll catch you guys in the next video from Nepal as well