A fascinating Buddhist Stupa that includes statues of Hindu gods and goddesses and a statue of the Christian Mary (on the right.)  An all-inclusive religious site!

Typical Hindu street shrine

Josh at Sangita's house with his new little friends

Electrical wiring....Kathmandu practices "load shedding" which means that the electricity goes out for about 12 hours per day in each section of town.  Citizens use candles or flashlights to get around and in their homes during load shedding hours.

Typical Kathmandu street scene. Note the ever-present Hindu shine in the lower right.

Statue of the Christian Mary at a Buddhist shrine.

Woman at a Buddhist Stupa

Hanging out at the temples in Durbar Square

Feeding pigeons is good karma!

Hindu street shrine

Small Buddhist Stupa in the street

Tibetan Buddhist Stupa

Small Tibetan Buddhist Stupa

Typical Kathmandu street

Hindu street shrine. Devotees are putting colored powder on her as an offering on their way to work.

Street boys earn a little money searching for jewelry in the river where cremated ashes are placed.  People are sometimes burned with their jewelry on, so the boys are hired by someone to search the ashes with a magnet on a string.

Beggar at a Hindu Temple.  

Hindu temple area...each little building is devoted to a different god or goddess The entire area houses innumerable shrines.

Hindu symbols. There are remarkably similar to symbols used by the people of Ancient India long before Hinduism took its current form.

Hindu shrine and symbols

Fake holy men (for tourists). They'd have charged me 100 rupees if they'd seen me take this photo! 

Buddhist stupa and small shrines

Those of you familiar with the principles of Tibetan Buddhism will find this sign funny.

Tibetan Buddha

Tibetan Buddha

Josh had trouble following the instruction on this sign ("watch your head"). He was the tallest man in Nepal and doorways were not made for him!

Note the sign for the ever-present "Nirvana Cafe." There must be 100 Nirvana Cafe's in Kathmandu!

Citizens making offerings at a Buddhist Stupa.

Good karma is earned by feeding dogs, pigeons, and monkeys, so temples and stupas have lots of pets hanging around!

Butter candle blessings!

Stone carving artist

Pinkey and Binod's wonderful family!!! Pinkey is the ideal hostess and our HealthEd Representative for Nepal. She's also a phenomenal cook!

The view of Kathmandu from Pinkey's house.