OUR WORLD
bet. Day 1 would consist of shooting at
a nearby Buddhist monastery at 5 a.m.,
moving to the sacred Boudhanath Stupa, visiting a Himalayan herb company, and purchasing gifts for those we
would be visiting. Day 2 would entail
touring the holy Hindu site of Pashupatinath and picking up the last of
our trekking supplies prior to catching
an afternoon flight to Nepalgung, the
jumping-off point for our later flight to
Simikot, Humla. I wondered what his
idea of a heavy day would be.
For this leg of the journey, Cora had done an amazing job of getting us here with only four weeks of
prep time. She, Joseph, and I were joined by Karel,
a strong director of photography in his own right,
who agreed to shoot second camera and take over
sound duties, since Matt had to stay home to tend
to family matters. We were met at Tribhuvan Airport by our local producer and guide, Thomas Kelly, a photo activist who had lived in the Himalayas
for over two decades. It was at Thomas’s invitation
that we were in Nepal. He had access to the sacred
sites in and around Kathmandu, and was a gatekeeper to many of the shamans and healers in this
part of Asia. Thomas’s personal interest in healing
and spirituality had led him to sittings with saddhus (Hindu holy men), rituals with lamas (Tibetan Buddhist monks), and sacred pilgrimages with
dhamis (Nepali shamans). In addition, he’d roamed
the world to shed light on human rights issues
such as the challenges facing indigenous cultures,
the effects of wars on women and children, and the
proliferation of human sex-slave trafficking.
When Thomas rattled off his itinerary for us, this
lanky, six-foot-one, blond-haired, blue-eyed American man spoke with an accent and timbre shaped
by years of the Nepali language rolling off his
tongue. Having no experience in this part of the
world, we had to put all our trust in his expertise.
Thomas had scheduled what he called “two light
shoot days”in Kathmandu, which would be followed by a weeklong trek to Humla, a remote area
in the northwest corner of Nepal that borders Ti-
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We were lucky to be staying at Happy
Valley Guesthouse in the Boudhaarea
of town. This guesthouse boasted the
rare amenities in Kathmandu of large clean rooms,
private showers, and glorious views of the Great
Stupa of Boudhanath—a sacred place of worship.
Before first light, we were greeted by the sounds
of devotion—chanting, drumming, and the radong
(telescopic horn) calling all to prayer. During breakfast on the terrace, we witnessed the stream of
worshipers below , circumambulating the 118-foottall domed stupa (domed Buddhist shrine) and
growing from a devout few to a massive crowd all
moving in an uninterrupted flow. Draped with long
streams of colorful prayer flags, the stupa’s tower
was adorned with the Buddha’s eyes of equanimity
painted on each of its walls, looking out in the four
directions, and when seen from above, the stupa
and its surrounding grounds form a sacred mandala.
Spiritual practice and celebration of multiple
faiths were evident as Hindus, Buddhists, and others worshiped alongside one another. Despite the
poverty and challenges of survival, these devotees rise early each day with the diligence of faith.
When I later walked along the edge of the stupa, I
was moved by the inertia of all those who circumambulate this sacred place with fierce intention to
pray and offer this practice not only for themselves
but for the sake of all sentient beings. It was comforting to think that my prayers and steps around
the stupa that day could ripple out to help others
and that after I left, there would be a continuous
stream of people praying for my sake and that of
so many others.