nepal: pashupatinath

here are photos from pashupatinath temple. this is the largest and most significant hindu temple in kathmandu. it is a place where the bodies of many nepalis are brought to be cremated. it is built along a river, and there are a number of ghats - places with steps lead down to the river. after being prepared for cremation, the bodies are burned by the ghats, and the ashes placed into the river. in sharp contrast to a wake, or funeral home, it is very public way to carry out the final rites for the dead. 

mother and baby monkey overlooking pathupatinath

cremation at the ghats

nepal: bhaktapur and changu

here are some photos from bhaktapur, a town just outside of kathmandu. bhaktapur is fairly small, and its citizens have been careful to preserve its historical structures. the main part of the town is largely a pedestrian zone, and has been listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site.

many of the inhabitants of bhaktapur are newars. the newar people are one of the principle ethnic groups in nepal (the words "nepal" and "newar" are related). they are especially well-known for their close family ties and their skill in crafts such as pottery and metal-working.

durbar square, bhaktapur

 

changu is one of the oldest religious sites in nepal (my guide told me it was the oldest), dating back to the 4th or 5th century. it sits atop one of the hills overlooking the kathmandu valley. the hindu temple there is dedicated to the god vishnu.

 

on the way from bhaktapur to changu, we stopped at the home of my guide for lunch. they didn't speak much english, so communication was limited. my guide, radha, is a young man in his 20s. he lives with his family just outside of bhaktapur. here is a photo of his uncle:

nepal: kathmandu

here are some photos from my trip to nepal this past weekend. there are three main cities in the kathmandu valley - kathmandu, patan, and bhaktapur. there are dozens and dozens of temples and palaces. during the medieval period, the valley was ruled by the malla dynasty, and a lot of the structures were built during this time. many places of worship, however, are centuries older.

in addition to the imposing and historic structures, there are small temples and shrines throughout these cities. many are tucked into a corner or along a walking path. people tend them and use them regularly, ringing a bell on the way to school or placing a flower on a buddha statue before going to work. even the most famous of the sites, such as swayambunath and boudhanath, are active places of piety (and not just tourist destinations). going to boudhanath in the morning, one finds hundreds of people walking clockwise around the stupa, saying prayers, offering candles, and turning the prayer wheels. 

kathmandu durbar square

boudhanath stupa

morning prayer at boudhanath stupa

prayer wheels

woman preparing candles at swayambhunath temple

view from swayambhunath stupa

so pleased

in my intro to political philosophy class, we are reading plato's republic. one of the curious features of the republic is that socrates proposes to investigate justice in a person by first investigating justice in the city:

We say, don’t we, that there is a justice that belongs to a single man, and also one that belongs to a whole city? …Perhaps, then, there will be more justice in the larger thing, and it will be easier to discern. So, if you are willing, let’s first find out what sort of thing justice is in cities, and afterward look for it in the individual, to see if the larger entity is similar in form to the smaller one. (Book II)

 

its not clear that socrates' strategy makes any sense. to see the problem, suppose that we were trying to investigate health in a mouse. would it make sense to first investigate health in an elephant, on the grounds that elephants are bigger, and then use that to understand health in the mouse? what counts as healthy in a mouse is different than what counts as healthy in an elephant. in the same way, how can we assume that justice in the city will be the same as justice in the soul?

i put this question to my students today (with white-board drawings of mouse & elephant, and person & city).

right away, one of my students from nepal answered: the difference is that a person is a part of a city, just like a cell is a part of a body. a mouse, however, is not part of an elephant. so justice in the person and city are related in a closer way. and the city will be just only if the people within it are just.

i was so pleased by this answer - already thinking in terms of parts and wholes! and this is the same student who, on the first day of class, was skeptical of democracy and spoke in favor of monarchy! perhaps she has been reading ahead, or perhaps she comes from a long line of nepali platonists.

view from my window: sunset

a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck India and Nepal two days ago. i was sitting at my dining room table and felt the building swaying. people came out of their apartments and into the hallways, and some went downstairs. there was no damage here, but it is a strange feeling when everything is moving like that.

the rains have let up over the past few days. my windows face south and west, so there are good views of the sunset over chittagong.

view from my window: monsoons

 it is almost the end of the rainy season, and lately its been rain, rain, rain. the average annual rainfall in chittagong is around 106 inches. as a point of comparison, seattle has an average of 53 inches.

 

working

as i mentioned in an earlier post, one of the most interesting things about living in bangladesh is watching people at work. many people make a living with their bodies, and those bodies (especially male ones) are at work in a very public way.

looking around, it is hard to resist the conclusion that there is a very uneven distribution in how hard people work. this is true most everywhere, of course, but especially striking here.

on the one hand, there are many people who seem to spend all day standing around doing nothing. a building will often have several doormen, when one seems sufficient. and small shops frequently have groups of apparently able-bodied men sitting around, just passing time.

for example: when keith was here, we visited a small shop, similar in size and offerings to a 7-eleven. we were the only two people in the store, and keith counted 14 employees. most of whom, of course, were standing around with nothing to do. and one finds this everywhere in bangladesh.

on the other hand, there are many people who frequently work for hours at backbreaking, exhausting tasks - pulling carts, or carrying bricks, or driving rickshaws or sorting through trash. and then, of course, there are the many factory workers, who work for long hours with little pay, and whose work is hidden from view.

i am not suggesting, of course, that those who are not working - or not doing very productive work - are lazy or at fault. i assume, rather, that there are larger economic and political structures - national and global - that explain both: 1) why many people here are unemployed, or employed in jobs that seem to accomplish very little, and 2) why so many people are forced to do crushing work, with no safety protections and little remuneration.

i also recognize that is easy to romanticize the physical labor of others, to gloss over what is boring and monotonous and painful in their labor. even so, i find something to admire and appreciate in the physical labor of many bangladeshis.  

new classes, new haircut

to celebrate the start of the term, i got a haircut and a shave a couple nights ago. the barber didn't speak a bit of english, and i certainly couldn't explain what i wanted in bangla. so i pointed at someone whose hair was roughly the same length i wanted, and i think i got the standard cut. 

the barber didn't have electric clippers, so everything was done with scissors and and razor. after the haircut, he gave me a shave with a straight razor. then he put on several other creams and lotions, and he gave me another shave. then he gave me a head massage and pounded on my shoulders. it was pretty relaxing.

the barber took his job very seriously, which i appreciated. neither of us felt a need to make smalltalk. in keeping with my interest in photographing people at work, i was able to slip out my phone and take a few pictures.

the front is a little longer than i would normally choose, but i'm embracing it. i think it has kind of a rockabilly look. here is the finished product:

in my office

first day of class: democracy hospital

today was the first day of class at AUW. i am teaching two courses this term - intro to political philosophy, and intro to ethics. both of my courses meet on mondays and wednesdays, so i have a great schedule. you can find the syllabi for my courses on the teaching section of my work site.

both of my classes went well today. the students were engaged and attentive. most of these students have never had a philosophy class, and so they are not quite sure what to expect. in light of this, i thought it was only reasonable to begin by working through Kant's division of the forms of rational cognition.

just kidding. i'm saving the Kant for later. actually, i began the the political philosophy class with Democracy Hospital: 

we tend to think that democracy is great, that everyone should get a share in political decision making. but imagine a hospital where medical decisions are made by polling people on the street, instead of by consulting the doctors (Pure Democracy Hospital). or where people on the street decide who the "doctors" are through a popularity contest, and then those "doctors" make the medical decisions. (Representative Democracy Hospital). now, who wants to get treated at Democracy Hospital? if you wouldn't want to go to Democracy Hospital for your physical health, why would you want to live in a democratic state, where much beyond your health is decided by letting everyone have a say in how things should be done, no matter how wise or foolish those people are? 

this worked well as a way to begin the class. it sets a good tone if you start by jumping in and doing philosophy, instead of beginning with the syllabus, course policies, etc.  and the students found the Democracy Hospital example engaging. most of them sensed that the example was missing something, but they weren't sure how to articulate why they disagreed with it.

most of the students were firmly committed to democracy as the best form of government, but not all. at least one spoke in favor of monarchy. she is one of my Nepali students.

i thought her sympathy toward monarchy was interesting, since it was only in 2006 that the king of Nepal agree to relinquish his power. and in the decades before that the monarchy was involved in numerous violent political struggles

nearby Bhutan has only recently transitioned from being an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. from what i understand, the king of Bhutan remains quite popular among his people. and he appears to be quite dashing as well.

view from my window: rickshaws

rickshaws are everywhere in chittagong. they wait for potential passengers to hail them, as you would a taxi in an american city. the ride from my apartment to the university - perhaps 1.5 miles - costs around 20 or 30 taka (1 dollar = 75 taka).

because rickshaws don't have gears, wallahs frequently have to get out and pull a rickshaw with passengers up a hill, as is seen below. it is common for several people to ride together, and i have seen as many as six people in a single rickshaw - two women and four children. 

the typical rickshaw wallah wears a skirt-like piece of fabric tied around his waist, and a pair of cheap plastic sandals. as you might guess, rickshaw wallahs are very lean and muscular. 

rickshaw wallahs work in sunshine and in rain. when it rains, a wallah will pull a plastic tarp across a line to keep his passengers dry, and occasionally use an umbrella for himself.

although most are young, it is not uncommon to see a wallah who is well into middle-age, with gray in his beard.

advising and registration

today was filled with advising appointments. i have 13 advisees - 1 from burma, and 12 from nepal. out of that group, 4 or 5 have the last name "shrestha," so i gather this must be like "jones" + "smith" in nepal. in a google search for "shrestha," the second result is this article about a train robbery. teaser quote: "fighting the enemy in battle is my duty as a soldier. taking on the thugs on the train was my duty as a human being." (warning: this article may not be suitable for young or more sensitive readers.)

all of my advisees are first year undergraduates. i met with each of them to talk about the courses being offered, and the core requirements, and potential majors. then we settled on a list of classes for each of them to take.

tomorrow and the next day are registration. the plan had been to have a new computerized system in place. but that fell through, because of recent administrative turmoil, including the resignation of our registrar. so we are doing things the old fashioned way, with tables and sign-up sheets in an auditorium.

i am teaching two courses this term: intro to political philosophy, and intro to ethics. i've never taught either before, though i have taught several of the texts we'll be reading -e.g. plato's republic, kant's groundwork.

i'm really looking forward to the start of classes. the students are such an eager, inquisitive bunch. almost all of them have made a huge investment to get here (around 75% are from outside of bangladesh), and many of them are very bright. plus there is that campus-in-the-fall energy that comes with the start of the new school year. a distinct pleasure of the academic life. (even in chittagong.)


to all of you who have been reading and commenting on these dispatches, i express my gratitude: