So the other week I went and got dreadlocks since I felt that I didn’t look like a bum enough already as it is. Not showering more than once a week, wearing the same clothing to bed, then to school, then back to bed, then back to school again and so on without deodorant while living in perhaps one of the dirtiest cities on Earth wasn't enough. Fuck it, wear the same clothes, boxers, socks, shirts for 300 hours straight…My homestay father told me I “look like an African” because of my dreads. Word up.
I woke up the other night (morning technically) at 4:20 a.m. exactly to take a piss by chance. I considered this an auspicious sign since it was shivarati—the night of Shiva—and since Shiva discovered the spiritual power of ganja, thousands of sadhus descend upon Pashnupati (cremation site I went to earlier) for pooja and pretty much smoke up all of Kathmandu in what may be the oldest stoner fest in the history of man.
We finished class and then decided to meet at the front gate of the Boudha stupa to head to shivarati.
“Well meet in 20 minutes?”
“word, okay, what time is it now?” I ask.
“ 4 o clock.” Someone tells me…. I’m not making this up either, Shiva was watching over us 0_o
So we head over there and while waiting in a line to get in. I have to point out here that I didn’t know people respected lines in South Asia…But I see it’s really just Indians…I now understand that the difference between Indians and Westerns is that the West has a concept of personal space…I don’t think the majority of Indians even know what that words means—in English, Hindi, or any one of the 5,000 languages they speak for that matter. My theory on why Indian culture is like this is because of the emphasis on family over individuality, a lot of Indians sleep with their parents until early teenage years …This, combined with 1.2 billion people in a land mass a third the size of amerikah will warp boundaries a little bit in comparison to the west
Anyway….waiting in a line to get into shivarati I watch as a monkey fucks another monkey and then ejaculates on a fence…The festivities have begun.
Sidenote: I’m writing this at a café and its Losar, Tibetan New Years and there is this monk sitting in front of me and he keeps turning around and smiling at me and saying random incoherent shit and now he’s singing. He seems a little loopy and I think he’s fucked up on chung (Tibetan beer) which is drunk on Losar…Interesting…
We head to the temple after the monkey sex and there are probably a little over a thousand people there all of which seem to be smoking joints they purchased from stoned sadhus with dangling dreadlocks for ten rupees each. I’m wandering around, looking at sadhus and there’s this one in a crowded section giving blessing, real scroungy looking with four foot dreads, wearing only tiny shorts and beads. He suddenly spots me out of a crowd of probably 80 people and all of the sudden he starts yelling at me really aggressively and then pulls this pipe looking thing out and begins blowing into it while looking at me, taking breaks to yell more. I think he tried to put a curse on me or something. I just kind of stood there with a goofy smile as everyone stared at me laughing over this…I figured it had to do with me having dreadlocks, which are considered a sign of sexual abstinence (coiled energy) and I guess I just looked like a jackass to him…I walked away and figured I should cover my hair for the remainder of the day. However, I saw a few other Westerners there with dreads so who the fuck knows…
I somehow manage to stay sober during all of this and I had to get back early for a number of reasons all related to school and as I’m leaving it looks like several thousand people are about to pour into the gates…I left right when it was getting good—the downfall of school, lame shit. The worst part of all is that I noticed the riot squad was starting to put on the body armor and face shields. I missed all the good stuff…However, seeing a couple hundred sadhus smoking chillums, sitting around pooja fires, and selling weed to anyone and everyone was pretty fucking entertaining.
We had our last real day of class in Kathmandu yesterday and they gave us all a bunch of chung served from a gas can and I got pretty wasted because our goofy Tibetan teacher, Thuctin-la thought it was hilarious to keep filling our bowls (not cups) after what seemed like every sip. We had some people come in and play some traditional Tibetan music during all this, which was pretty legit. We then danced like fools.
If I did have a curse put on me by that sadhu, fear not. I’m doing my independent research project on shamanism in Ladakh, India (in the Himalayas). Shamans up there go into trance, through a psychotic epileptic fit I’ve read, and then they suck blood, pus, and other sick shit directly out of people’s skin without breaking the surface to heal them. Sometimes they use a pipe like instrument, other times just go with their mouth to skin contact. It’s supposed to work. I’ll find out if they can cure the long-term psychosis I’ve dealt with and the recently obtained sadhu curse. Between gardia, sadhu black magic, anxiety, and clinical insanity I think it’s a damn good thing I’m going to see a shaman.
Google “Ladakh” if you get the chance, the place is unreal. It looks like the moon with water in some places. Also, we’re going to Bhutan for three weeks on Tuesday and our program director has asked us not to blog about that trip to avoid conflict (which is exactly what happened in the past) but I can post it after the program ends she said. Pictures are still okay. Posting pictures on a blog with Nepal internet is a pain in the ass so friend me on facebook if you want to see them: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1564560239
That link ^ should work I think.
Final note: The monk who I thought was drunk just said goodbye to me in a very kind, direct, sober way and now I’m just really confused and feel perhaps a little bad for thinking he was drunk. Maybe he was laughing because I’m wearing this shirt my homestay family got me for Losar that well, I’ll post a picture of it…
Personally, I think I look awesome.
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