Kumari, The Living Goddess

In Kathmandu we visited the location of Kumari, The Living Goddess.



But howabout a picture of a picture of Kumari?



LinkTV shows a short clip about the Kumari. You can view it by pasting the following link into your browser:

http://www.linktv.org/programs/livinggoddess

Living Goddess is a powerful portrait of a young girl venerated as a goddess growing up in a country on the verge of civil war. This is the story of Sajani, who is worshipped as one of three living goddesses in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, and whose peaceful existence is contrasted with violent political turmoil that threatens their traditional way of life. With beautiful imagery and an intimate story, Living Goddess unfolds a world of spirituality and political turbulence through the eyes of a young schoolgirl.
“A tiny girl offering blessings to prostrate adults is intercut with visceral, intense footage of street protests, baton charges and savage beatings."

Tharu people of the Terai lowlands

The Tharu people are indigenous people living in the Surkhet Valley in the west mountain region, Chitwan Valley, Dang Valley,Deukhuri Valley,Sindhuli and Udyapur in Inner Terai Valleys of Nepal and the Terai plains on the border of Nepal and India.
They work usually as farmers or peddlers.

Recent medical evidence supports the common belief that the Tharu people, having lived in the swampy Terai region for centuries, have developed an innate resistance to malaria that is likely based on an unidentified genetic factor.













An innovative program in Nepal is helping to free young girls that live as modern day slaves.

Unable to make ends meet, many families in western Nepal have been forced to sell their daughters, some as young as six, to work far from home as bonded servants in private homes. With living conditions entirely at the discretion of their employers, these girls seldom attend school and are sometimes forced into prostitution.

PBS NOW traveled to Nepal during the Maghe Sankranti holiday, when labor contractors come to the villages of the area to "buy" the children. There, the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation is trying to break the cycle of poverty and pain with an Enterprising Idea. They're providing desperate families with an incentive to keep their daughters: a piglet or a goat that can ultimately be sold for a sum equivalent to that of their child's labor.

You can view this PBS NOW production, "Daughters for sale", at the link below (you may have to paste it in your browser):

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/414/index.html

Still snowing, in Southern Ireland

View from room 8,Rockville B&B at Castleblaney; still snowing.


Tomorrow we head for the Premier Inn Dublin Airport (has "talking" elevators ) before our return flight.

Snowed out in search of stone circles and forts!

Time to head south, when you have to scrape snow off road signs (on October 28)!

A local (of 28 years in the area) who stopped in his pickup to inquire why we were stopped at the intersection, couldn't recall seeing any stone circles in the area (we were within 5 km from some historic sites). He then engaged us in very enthuiastic conversation about the upcoming election, saying that he and all of Ireland are rooting for Obama.

So ends our search for antiquities on this, our 4th trip to the Emerald Isle. Heading south.

Where do we go from here?

The Burren

To the untuned eye The Burren looks like rubbly, useless land. Gen. Edmund Ludlow reported to Oliver Cromwell in 1651 that the Burren region "had not any tree to hang a man, nor enough water to drown him, nor enough earth to bury him". Revered in England, reviled in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell promulgated genocide of the Irish during that period.

O'Brien Country

The Burren National Park, north easterly from the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. The Burren ("rocky land" in Gaelic) is a limestone karst region.


Several prehistoric burial tombs, like the Poulnabrone Dolmen bear testimony to past inhabitants.


This portal dolmen of Poulnabrone shows with what pomp and ceremony the prehistoric Burren-dwellers buried their chiefs.

Over the Pass into County Kerry

Windswept!

O'Brien Castle on the Cliffs of Moher

View of the Cliffs from the South window.

Recycle your bras here

Bra recycle center in a Super Value store in Fermoy. "Please donate your old bras with 1 euro". A clever way to raise money for cancer care.

PV = C

Did you recognize Boyle's Law?

Robert Boyle, from Lismore, Ireland is reknowned for his law relating the volume of a gas to the pressure (Pressure times Volume equals a constant).

Boyle slept here (and so did we, at the Pinetree Lodge B&B).

The Castleruddery Embanked Stone Circle

We spotted a sign to this site on the way from Glendalough to Lismore. This site belongs to one of the rarest ceremonial monument types in Ireland. Sites of this type were being constructed in about 2500 BC, in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Period. The earthen bank, 30 m. in diameter, is lined on the interior with 29 upright stones. The entrance is flanked by two massive quartz boulders.

The Wicklow Heather Restaurant at Glendalough

The proprietor has decorated the restaurant with lovely old books and even an "ancient" typewriter. There's bound to be a book of interest within reach from any seat in the restaurant.

Curiously, on our table was a book (rightmost), "The Psychology of Eating", by Lewis R. Wolberg, published in 1936. Relatively little good information was availablle on nutrition in those days. On page 189 Wolberg quotes Vance Thompson: "To a scientist there is nothing so trajic on earth than to see a fat man eating a potato".

Glendalough

The Round Tower, visible in the distance, served as a landmark for approaching visitors, and for storage and a place of refuge in times of attack.

Another view of the Round Tower.

The entrance to the Round Tower is about 15 feet above the base.

A woman sketches the Round Tower.

All roads in the Wicklows lead to Glendalough

Glendalough valley with two lakes is renowned for its early medieval monastic settlement founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century. Before founding the monastery, he was said to have lived there in a hollow tree. The story goes that St. Kevin, good with wildlife (like St. Francis) was hopeless with women. When one over-zealous female follower came too close, the pious saint stung her cheeks with nettles to warn her off.

The gateway to the monastic city of Glendalough is one of the most important monuments, now totally unique in Ireland.


The paving of the causeway is still preserved, but very little remains of the enclosure wall.

Dangerous area in the Wicklows

Note the blue rump tag on the sheep, indicating that it is the free-ranging property of the "blue Shepherd".

Free internet access for life in County Cork!

My library card, issued in Skibbereen, County Cork, entitles me to lifetime free access to the internet in County Cork!

The Drombeg Stone Circle

The Drombeg stone circle (also known as The Druid's Altar), is a recumbent stone circle located on the edge of a rocky terrace with fine views to the sea about 2km east of Glandore, County Cork, Ireland. The most westerly stone (1.9m high) has two egg shaped cup-marks, one with a ring around it. It is flanked by a pair of high axial portal stones, which provide a south-west axis, and orientate the monument in the direction of the setting sun during the midwinter solstice.

The site was excavated and restored in 1958. During this process a pot was found in the center of the circle, containing the cremated remains of a young adolescent wrapped with thick cloth. Carbon dating of samples taken from the site suggest that it was active c. 945 - 830 BC.


A sacrificial plate in the center

From Dublin, into the Wicklow Mountains

In the foothills of the Wicklows, on the way to Glendalough.


Dublin, viewed from the Wicklow foothills.


Dublin Accommodation

In the Wicklow Mountains

Waterfalls upward on breezy Cliffs of Moher

Strong onshore winds blow the falling water back up over the cliff.

Waterfall on Conor Pass

Comin' down the north side of Conor pass on Dingle peninsula

Bear left (but not too far) and keep an eye out for oncoming traffic!


The post of 10/26 has been updated with more music.

An Daingean (Gaelic for Dingle)

Dined on Irish stew (Tom) and chargrilled trout (Bon) in John Benny Moriarity's pub in Dingle. After dinner entertainment featured traditional Irish music with guitar, accordion and pipes.

More music!

Detour! Kenmare flooded and access to Beara Peninsula jeopardized!

I is for Ireland
Driving through gale force Irishwinds and rain with little chance for photographs without our "submersible" camera, we arrive in west Killarney, just ahead of the next tempest. Almost got to a new (old!) stone circle during a break in the clouds on the Beara, but gave up after a km slosh up a mountain creek, No Seamus sightings on the pass, but, upon inquiry regarding Seamus the shepherd at Murphie's Pub (at start of Healy's pass), made fleeting friends with 2 Guiness officiados (hick!) who discussed all the non-Seamus shepherds they recall.

Pictures of a large Ogham Stone we saw will follow upon our return.

Question for JGB:
Where are you and how did you find our blogsite? Thanks, TomandBon

Gale force winds and rain at The Drombeg Stone Circle

Discovered/excavated in 1957, The Dromberg Stone Circle is one of Ireland's finest. dating from as long ago as 2000 BC, the larger circle of the complex has a sacrificial plate in the center, and alignment columns that capture a sun ray at winter solstice.

Picture to follow upon our return.

Off to Ireland, the Emerald Isle

I is for Ireland.
Today, October 19, we leave for Dublin, Ireland. After touring the Wicklows, we'll head to the Beara Peninsula, in search of Seamus the shepherd, last seen in a mountain pass three years ago.

The safari team

Posing with the safari gang in front of our DC-3 on the strip at Mashatu. The DC-3 was built in 1943 and it is still in good (vintage) condition for trips into the bush. P.s., can you spot Tom and Bonnie?

On Safari in Southern Africa!

Dateline 9/20/08. View from room 456 in the Southern Sun Hotel, Johannesburg Airport, South Africa. We overnighted here before boarding a vintage DC-3 aircraft for flight into the Mala Mala Game Reserve. The water cooling towers visible in the distance are probably connected with coal-powered electicity generating (not nuclear, yet) facilities.

Blog update

In the meantime, enjoy a feisty humming bird we saw at the feeder in North Carolina. He very aggressively guarded the feeder, under assault from other humming birds.
Still not able to clean out the debris and ruined equipment from the lab fire on August 29. We have to get "approval" from the UF insurance officials before we can remove damaged equipment, etc. Slowly beginning to replace essential items, and continuing cell culture and experiments from colleague's labs.

If we don't find opportunity to post again from the Nepal expedition tomorrow, we will resume after returning on Oct.1 from a National Geographic safari to South Africa(We're outbound at 11:05 am, Friday morning).