Celebrate Saraswati - Geek Girls Unite

Another excuse to close the office
Kathmandu

January 31 is Sree Panchami, the day to honour Sri Saraswati, goddess of learning and wisdom. (Last year it was February 8.)

Wear yellow and bring yellow flowers to the Saraswati shrine (if you need one, you can borrow one of mine...they are all over Kathmandu.) It's considered the most auspicious day to begin learning anything, especially to read or write a new language.

The following prayer is recited on this day:

Yaa Kundendu tushaara haaradhavalaa, Yaa shubhravastraavritha|
veenavara dandamanditakara, Yaa shwetha padmaasana||

Yaa brahmaachyutha shankara prabhritibhir Devaisadaa Vanditha|
Saa Maam Paatu Saraswatee Bhagavatee Nihshesha jaadyaapahaa||

--English Translation:

"May Goddess Saraswati,

who is fair like the jasmine-colored moon,
and whose pure white garland is like frosty dew drops;
who is adorned in radiant white attire,
on whose beautiful arm rests the veena,
and whose throne is a white lotus;
who is surrounded and respected by the Gods, protect me.
May you fully remove my lethargy, sluggishness, and ignorance."
Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and arts, represents the free flow of wisdom and consciousness.


--Saraswati painting courtesy Exotic India.

Saraswati's archetype appears elsewhere in world culture. For instance, Lisa Simpson represents very much the same archetype (Goddess of learning, wisdom and knowledge).

In the western pantheon (we actually do have one), she would be Athena, goddess of learning and wisdom; though Athena is also equated with war, which both Lisa Simpson and Saraswati would emphatically disown.

And I have heard that the Tibetan version of Saraswati is Tsering-Ma.

Strange days indeed

Take the quiz
In Kathmandu



I have taken the Which Rock Star Are You? quiz, with the result John Lennon.

I'd like to thank you all on behalf of the band, and I hope we passed the audition.

All over the map

Fragmented attention span reflects reality; film at 11
In Kathmandu
Yes, this blog is schizophrenic, or at least inconsistent. One day I am blogging about an ancient dance form I am trying to learn and help preserve. The next, it's murdered journalists and civic unrest. A few days previous, it was Vedic Astrology.

That's just life here, at least for me. I came to get a visa, I stayed to study Charya Nrtya and in between translating the Sanskrit Giti and memorizing mudras I can't help but notice that the erstwhile Kingdom is falling apart. So every once in a while I collect a month's worth of such "real world" observations and throw them together.

I might write more often on such things, but there's really jack-all I can do about them, except cobble together such reports and share them here. After some recent correspondence with BFF Darkhorse in Nashville, I realized that the full picture of what's going on here in Nepal is not emerging in the MSM - even for observant internationally-conscious fellows such as my friend. Not for any nefarious reason, just that we're small, obscure and complicated. People tend to confuse us with both India and Tibet when in fact, we've never been either.

For instance, how many people heard about the new "secular" government's attempt to forcibly appoint their own priests at the most sacred Hindu temple in the country? (and yes, I am sure the Indian media has its biases - but who else reported on it??)

--or, the fact that we now have a Ministry of Cultural and State Reconstruction? (ominous, or what?)

I feel more optimistic, however, about my ability to learn, codify and transmit the Newar Charya dance. Not to turn my back on realpolitik, but my life has involved primarily arts and culture, and I don't like the writing on the wall (even if it is in Ranjana script).

No more king = no more royal patronage for the traditional arts and rituals (here the arts have always been intertwined with religion).
No foreign investors = no private money either.
No electricity = Nepali businesses are shutting down, so they can't contribute either.
Constant state of "emergency" = ordinary Nepalis have no time and energy for such things.
And direct government intervention in rituals and traditions = Cultural Revolution.

Living here, one begins to wonder whether anyone realizes there are precedents for all these things, in a number of countries just next door. Cambodian classical dance, for instance, is currently being revived after the Khmer Rouge's efforts to destroy even the dance masters. Now it is recognized by UNESCO as part of humankind's living intangible heritage. I hope that we can achieve the same status for Charya.

What does all this dance stuff have to do with the price of tea in China, Cambodia, Tibet or Nepal? A convenient answer comes from, of all places, Bob Dole (or at least his speech-writer).

"... We can know through the universal language of dance when we are moved, and when the quality of a people's art has touched our common humanity. That is the case with the Khmer classical dancers...there is something hopeful here in that dance. From the very presence of past holocaust, we take some comfort in these dancers and their renewed dedication to all that is good and noble and beautiful and lasting in the culture of Cambodia. Your grace inspires us. Through you, your nation and its traditions will live on after the barbarians of the recent past are remembered only in the nightmares of your brave people."
Robert Dole - U.S. Senator
(Remarks on the Khmer dance troupe performance, Cannon Rotunda, May 10, 1983)

Way past time to go. Internet prices here have gone up and I've already spent 400NRs on posting today.

Where are we going? and why are we in this handbasket?

Garbage in, garbage in.
Kathmandu

Nepali Immigration just got its first-ever computer of any kind (at least, that my friends and I have ever seen in four years of going there, a lot). They are still keying in records from the early 90s. I guess it will be another five or so years till they get around to finding the tie-dye bearded guys who have been holing up here for better part of a decade.

At least, they are keying old records the 4 hours in a working day there is electricity. No, government offices do not have battery or generator backup. What, me work?

Beneath the cute little 'Nana Republic stories of inconveniences and "ke garne"* attitude is some sinister stuff being shut up. Well-meaning liberal friends dismiss things like garbage-mountains with "it's a developing country, after all." But when front-page newspaper stories start with lines like this:

"It all started with the Maoists hacking off the legs of UML activist .... near the waste landfill site at Tinpiple three weeks ago,"
-you know there is a whole lot more going on than you can comprehend, and a lot more than just, in NGO-speak, "capacity building issues."

"It ALL started." You would hope that would be the dramatic horrific climax to a story. Nope, that's just how it all started.

A kind of triage
Not having electric power is a great way to shut up the media. Radio (verrry important in a country with only 28% literacy), TV and newspapers are facing extra expenses to maintain production schedules; some have cut back on-air hours. Staying open 24 hours the way a media outlet should requires costly diesel backup generators and fuel. This also necessitates making choices (you can't run computers, photocopy machines, printing press and lights and everything on the backup alternates...not all at once...just certain things. A kind of triage).

That would seem to work out great for the Commies who have launched four major violent attacks on media in as many months. The latest evidence of the lawlessness here was the brutal murder of young (26), strong, principled radio reporter Uma Singh. Her photo now stares out of tribute pages and posters uncannily like Benazir Bhutto's; the beautiful vessel of tragedy and terror.

(Before my friends and family freak out: there have been no foreign writers targeted, and this happened in the southern town of Janakpur near the Indian border.)

A simple pistol to the temple as usual (there have been other journo murders, but none this spectacular) wasn't enough; they really made an example, 15 men dragging her from her rented room and knifing her to death in front of neighbors. One of her crimes was to have reported on the disappearance of her father and brother by the Maoists, 3 years before. An international account (they were scant) focused on Singh's reportage of dowry and bride-burning, but I don't
think that was a motivation in her murder. Latest papers indicate she and her family were involved in a land-dispute, the kind that often turn murderous here.

Already, though, the newspaper notices "Bring Uma Singh's killers to justice - End Impunity" have been shifted to the second page. Media Ennui is relentless, even for its own children.

Other than Singh's murder, there have been at least 4 major attacks on media houses in the past as many months. The most notable was that on Himal Media (publishers of Nepali Times) - thugs (sorry, "youths") broke into their offices, attacked journos and workers and trashed equipment and broke windows, as a warning not to go to press with their expose of the Thug Culture that's been created by Red Brigade-like "youth wings" of political parties.

Other attacks on media have included delivery vans accosted and fresh papers destroyed en route to subscribers and newsstands.

Oh, and here's a photo of the garbage piling up....

..................................

*Ke Garne is a Nepali expression meaning "what to do?," trans. somewhere between "It's not my problem" and "Life goes on."

--Photo of Uma Singh memorial from by Chong Zi Liang from Nepali Times.

Charya for ya

Embedded
Writing from Kathmandu
Okay, here (embedded below) is the dance I just finished learning - the Manjushri Gita. Now I am polishing it and starting on the sloka for Vajrayogini.

My friend Rene said, "then you can have a recital!" No, little kids have recitals. Grownups have performances. The video below shows the Majushri gita performed by members of Dance Mandal at a German Sacred Arts festival.

My first question was about the dancer's 'ardhamundi' or knee-bending posture. They don't seem to have much ardhamundi; but then coming from Bharatanatyam I am used to extreme knee bend and foot turnout.

Also, my teacher and I plan to alter the costume so that one can see more footwork and angika abhinaya (body expression). These jama costumes are nice, but a bit too Tibetan (ie, robelike and concealing). The priests in temple wear such voluminous gowns (albeit in white colour only), but the traditional sculptures and thangkas do not. Something more along the lines of the Odissi costume (right) is more flattering and more in keeping with the Newari artwork.