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Culture
At
once a time machine and a magic carpet, Nepal
sweeps you along crooked, timeworn streets
flanked by irregular, multi-roofed pagodas,
stupas and stone sculptures, and into rooms
cluttered with horror-eyed masks, spinning
prayer wheels, trippy thangka scrolls and
Tibetan carpets. Muttered chants, esoteric
tantric hymns and Nepalese music hang in the
air, whether it be the twang of a four-stringed
saringhi or the plaintive notes of
a flute. Traditional folk musicians, or gaines,
gather for an evening of singing and socialising;
classical dancing and trance-like masked dances
enliven the Kathmandu Valley and Bhaktapur
regions; while no wedding would be complete
without the raucous damais - Nepal's
modern ensembles.
Religion
is the lifeblood of the Nepalese. Officially
it is a Hindu country, but in practice the
religion is a syncretism of Hindu and Buddhist
beliefs with a pantheon of Tantric deities
tagged on. The remainder of the population
that isn't Buddhist or Hindu are either Muslim,
Christian or shamans.
Nepal's
food is surprisingly dull given that it lies
at the intersection of the two great gastronomic
giants India and China. Most of the time meals
consist of a dish called dhal bhat tarkari
which is a combination of lentil soup, rice
and curried vegetables - hardly the makings
of a dynamic national cuisine. On the other
hand, Nepal has adapted famously to Western
tastes, markedly evident in Kathmandu's smorgasbord
of menus: Mexican tacos; Japanese sukiyaki;
Italian pizza; Swiss fondue; Thai chocolate;
Chinese marshmallows; onion and minestrone
soup; borscht, quiche and soyburgers; and
some of the best desserts - apple and lemon
pies, almond layer cakes, fruit cakes - found
anywhere in the world. To wash any (or all)
of these offerings down, try a lassi (a refreshing
mixture of curd and water), the locally produced
beer or chang, a Himalayan home brew
made from barley, or with rakshi as
the local spirit is called.
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