Blog

Today was a very productive day. Our morning started on the banks of the Guheswori temple where a group of professional artists were painting their dreams of the Bagmati River. The event was hosted by the High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilization (HPCIDBC) and Nepal Arts Council. We found out that this was the same location where they had done the stream clean earlier in the morning, and the banks were spotless. These weekly cleanups have provided new respect for the river and a sense of hope to the communities. Downstream communities have also noticed a decrease in trash since the Saturday morning activities have started. Unfortunately, the toxicity of the water in the river remains a dire concern. Next week will mark the 150th week anniversary of this initiative.

We spoke to the event organizers about our project, and they were very excited to have us document the finished paintings and the artists later in the day. We decided to use the opening in the schedule to go to Chovar and document the last water test site as the river flows out of the city and valley. A half hour later, we arrived at the location where the river had sliced through a thin narrow slit in the mountain creating a spectacular view.

Unfortunately, we could smell the river as soon as we stepped out of the car, and the water was black with sewage and pollution. This was the worst condition we have seen to date. Nepal seems to be a country of extremes. It is rich in culture, beautiful landscapes and generous people but has a high poverty level and severe pollution in the cities. A metaphor for this was evident near the temple where a film crew was filming a music video of a beautiful woman wearing a silk dress perched on a large rock. Below the rock the ground was covered with layers of garbage, but she was filmed from the waist up, so this was not evident.

After finishing my documentation, we drove back through the crowded streets of Kathmandu to Guheswori where we photographed 16 artists and their paintings. I was really fortunate that this came together the way it did because I had wanted to find artists whose work dealt with the river and here we had a lot them together in one location with their work!

Tomorrow we will go back and shoot the Bagmati River artwork from the public school art competition. Everything is coming together and next week we have scheduled meetings with health professionals, members of the press, artists, and more water quality specialists.

Look what showed up in the newspaper at our breakfast table this morning!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Today was a full day of documentation. I woke up at 4:30 am after going to bed at 11pm. Almost close to enough sleep, but it worked out because I was able to get ready for the upcoming day, write the blog entry and edit the motorcycle video. Because it took so long to download, we finished the blog that evening. I know it sounds confusing, but Jason and I are trying to keep several balls in the air at the same time. After breakfast, we headed upstream to two water test sites. We have selected four sites on the river to concentrate our efforts on for the project. One is at the headwaters, one is just outside of the city before the river enters the city, one is downtown at a UNESCO Heritage Site, and the other is at a location as the river leaves the city. After today, we will only have one more site to document with photographs, video and a quick drawing. More artwork will be created later.  The last site we hope to document tomorrow as we work through our long “to do” list.

When we arrived at the first site at Guheswori, we found the banks filled with vegetable gardens and residents walking the stream and collecting water for their gardens. I mentioned in a previous blog entry, the water is extremely polluted, and, due to frequent flooding, the soil along the banks is in a similar state. It is sad to see such committed efforts being so counterproductive.

The second site was at Guheswori, a holy Hindu site where funeral pyres often occur. The residents had made a makeshift barrier to slow the flow of water during flood season but this obstruction also collected garbage and remnants from the funeral rites. Monkeys and cows walked the banks as children filled their sandwich bags with polluted river water to use as water balloons.

 We took a short walk over the hill to the holiest Hindu temple in Nepal and a UNESCO Heritage Site, Pashupati. This location is by far the most complicated and difficult site to describe. The hillside is filled with over a hundred religious temples, sculptures and bells. The main activities seem to be centered at one location along the river, which is nestled in a valley of tall temples. As we walked down the wide stone stairway, we saw a funeral pyre in process and two others going through the initial part of the ritual. Male members of the families were carrying the bodies wrapped in bright orange cloth down to the water to dip the feet of the deceased in the river. The air was filled with smoke and the smell of burning incense and grasses and the sounds of prayers, family members crying and loud trumpets announcing the next body coming to the river. The short bridge that linked the two banks was filled with Nepalese residents coming to fulfill their pilgrimage to the temple and tourists from around the world like us. All stood in silence mesmerized by what was occurring in front of them.

We ended our research by going to what some feel is the holiest Buddhist temple in Nepal, Swayambhunath. As one would expect, the feel of this experience was very different. All sites in Kathmandu had experienced some earthquake damage but this site had its most prominent sculptures intact. 

Today we started our day at the Kathmandu Center for Contemporary Art where Jason and I got our museum ID pass to get us into the Patan Dunbar Square daily for no charge. We also tried to figure out the complexities of getting SIMM cards for our phones to arrange our upcoming interviews with the press. After a long complicated process, mine never worked and Jason’s was functional only after several hours.

Before we went to our 2:30pm meeting at Kwalakhel Chowk to meet with Dr. Shah, Jeff Davis and  Shristi Vaidya  (water quality and groundwater specialists). I tried to do a marker rending of the square. Not sure if my experiment worked, but I plan to return to do more drawings this week.

A funny thing happened at our 2:30 meeting, Dr. Shah decided that we should go to a quieter location and asked Jeff if he could drive us to the next meeting place. He seemed to have a strange look on his face. I figured that he must have a small car, or it was full of stuff, but that was not the reason. See the video below .

The meeting was very educational and we spent three hours discussing the complexities of pollution in the city and the Kathmandu Valley. The more we talk to professionals about the project, the more we value what we are doing while also realizing the severity of the situation.

 After the meeting, we walked back across town to the Patan Museum to meet Dr. Gillette and his father-in-law and brother-in-law who had taken a 26-hour bus ride to apply for VISAs to visit the States. We ended up walking back to where we had just come from to have a wonderful meal at the Roadhouse Cafe where I had a spicy Tandori pizza. Overall, the food has been great!  We have been walking quite a bit since we arrived. We are averaging 10 miles everyday.

 The main issues for us are the regular power outages (today: 8am-4pm and 7-12pm) and poor internet service, which has been a significant obstacle to overcome when creating the videos and blogs.