MinnesotaMel

Women, pot and Shiva's ding dong

Today is a big Nepali festival day and I was easily convinced to bag off work and head to the Hindu temple to celebrate with the other 400,000-500,000 people that would be there. As my friend described it "Maha Shivaratri is considered especially auspicious for women. Married women pray for the well-being of their husbands and sons. Unmarried women pray for the appearance of their ideal husband. I pray for anyone in trousers that is over 5 ft tall. It is also the only day when you can smoke pot openly and that the Sadhus (people who renounce all things) all get naked. Not my ideal husband."

It was all that and a hike up and down several mountains to find an OK vantage point from which to observe the comings and goings of Pashupati. Women waited in LONG, LONG lines for their one chance per year to observe and worship Shiva's phallus. The story goes something like Shiva and another god were told they could not have intimate relations one day, but were unable to hold out. The god who gave them this rule caught them "in the act" and sentenced them to only having one day each year when their "bits and parts" could be worshiped. Thus began Maha Shivaratri (or so I understand). As a non-Hindu, I will never be allowed to enter the temple, but a friend K has been and described the beauty and reverence of the place.

This year's added twist was the heightened security situation. We were constantly being stopped by the military and armed police from going in one direction or the other because "The King is here." Eventually we sweet talked an armed policeman into letting us sit on a ledge, and slowly he allowed us to move closer and closer to the action. We were able to observe the women who enacted a play of some sort (no one could explain exactly what the significance was), the women who were responsible for keeping the butter candles burning and the hordes of people who jostled for a spot at the river's edge.

As the darkness started to descend and the crowd thickened, the Nepali men seemed to find great delight in leering and groping. I had to defend various bits and parts of my anatomy with brutish precision. Several men had their hands removed from me with fingernail marks to show for their efforts. It was about this time that we decided to escape back to a safer area of Kathmandu. We are told that the party will go on all night and many people will enjoy the "legal use of pot" on this one day of the year when it is legalized for this religious celebration.

posted by MinnesotaMel @ 7:52 AM