So I've been wanting to go to Bajrayogni Mandir (temple) for a while now. It is located in the sleepy town of Saakhu, which is about 45 minutes northeast of Kathmandu. It always amazes me how quickly the landscape turns a million shades of green as soon as you leave the city limits.
The countryside here is a magnificent tapestry of greens and browns contrasted with the blues of the sky and the most beautiful clouds that you will see anywhere. Seriously, the clouds in Nepal are amazing. They are bigger, brighter, sharper, more magnificent than any clouds I've ever seen before. Whether they are flying high over the hills of the Kathmandu Valley or lying low along the houses on top of those very hills, they come out perfect in photos.
Once we reach Saakhu, I'm traveling with Grace, Katherine, Ryan, and Jasmine today, we begin our trek through the town's one main road. Saakhu is a historical town along the trade route between Tibet and India, so there are a lot of old relics of the past in this once bustling town. A quick 15 minute walk brings us to the other side where a long dirt road winds through the rice paddies passing by old Hindu and Buddhist shrines and places of offering.
As the road begins to slope upward, the landscape becomes more forested, and every other turn beckons us to continue as the golden three-tiered Newari-style pagoda of Bajrayogini peeks out beyond the branches.
Another liter of sweat, and a million steps later, we reached the temple complex. Bajrayogini temple is one of the best examples I have seen yet of the syncratic nature of Buddhism and Hinduism in Nepal. An extreme mixture of iconography from both religions take center stage inside this temple complex, and the details in all the pieces in this temple are amazing.
Eventually we make it back down the hill and into Saakhu once again for a quick lunch at a cute little canteen of sorts where the sodas were actually cheaper than the meal for once (25 rupees!!!!). Delicious meal of Buff Chili Momo and a soda.
Afterward we catch a bus to a neighboring town because we had no idea how to get to the next temple, which is called Changu Naryan. We could see the temple on the opposite side of the valley we were in on the top of an opposing hill, which wasn't the sight we exactly wanted to see. The bus we got on ended us dropping us off in front of someones house, which was in front of a huge expanse of rice paddies, in the middle of nowhere. the eff.
Consulting with some locals, they instruct us to go through the rice paddies to the base of the hill and then up the tiny dirt path that we can see from our point on the opposite side. Trudging through muddy paths surrounded by flooded patties, I felt like I was really taking a pilgrimage of sorts that one in Nepal might have taken years ago. This was the Nepal that I imagined in my mind.
There were no stairs on this hike. At one point we met some locals, and asked if we were going the right way. We had reached a crossroad. They told us, risky way (but faster) or easy way. Of course we took the risky way, and whatever the eff that meant, haha, but I think it was the right way. It led us up the hill in a hasty fashion up rock faces, along grazing goats, and friendly children, what more could one ask for?
At the top of the hill was, of course, stairs that reached the temple complex itself. Once inside the temple square we were greeted by the sight of...scaffolding. In a bittersweet acceptance, we realized that the temple was undergoing a multt-year restoration. Whatever.
Changu Naryan is one of the oldest temples in the Kathmandu Valley, if not the oldest. It is dedicated to Vishnu, and it seeped in Hindu iconography, but is still a revered site for both Buddhists and Hindus, who see Vishnu by different names. I still enjoyed Bajrayogini better, but I enjoyed both temples a lot. Pictures and captions to come.
Oh, and the way that we got to the temple? The freakin' back way. The busses that reach the top of the temple are on the other side of the hill.
After purchasing a reward for myself for making it up the hill, and a 2 hour bus ride later, we were back in Kathmandu.
