Namche Rest Day and Thumme Gompa

Today is a rest day at Namche.  The rest of the group decided to spend the day shopping, while I went on a hike with Subhe, the assistant guide, to a monastery in Thumme.

The hike starts very steep until you reach the heliport above Nanche.  From there, the views of the city and the surrounding mountains is outstanding.

From there, the trail eases and it's basically "Nepalese Flat" all the way to the monastery.

There are several stupas and praying wheels in the way.  Some of the praying wheels were water operated like a dynamo producing blessings rather than electricity.

The gompa is under construction, but under all the scaffolding one can see how beautiful the end result will be.  This monastery is run by 3 monks and about 30 nuns. Most of the work on the construction while I was there was been done by women.  The monks and nuns are Tibetan refugees that escaped to Nepal after the crackdown on religions activity in Nepal by the Chinese Government.

I was invited to the small temporary temple where I was offered some crackers and holy water (one puts some on the forehead, some on the top of the head and drink the rest).  Then nun that showed me around was very friendly, but my guide had some problem talking to her as she spoke Tibetan and very little Nepali.  Pictures of the exiled Dalai Lama are prominent in the temple, but there was also a picture of the Chinese-approve Dalai Lama.  Outside the temple, an English sign describes the organization of the monastery and highlights the struggle of the Tibetan religion to survive under the Chinese government.  After leaving a small donation, we left in our way back to Nachem.

The monastery is very close to the border of Nepal and Tibet and therefore, lots of Tibetans cross the border here.  In the past, they were welcome as refugees, but the Nepalese government stopped accepting them a few years ago.  Nowadays, they just cross the border in October to sell Tibetans goods in Namche, primarily Tibetan carpets.

In the way back, I stopped in the local primary school, built by the Sir Edmund Hillary Foundation, where I left a more substantial donation.  We retraced our steps back to Namche where we arrived on time for a late lunch.

I spent the rest of the day catching up with this blog and talking to some of the people that were staying at the lodge, including a medical student from Kathmandu that was doing a short trek in the Himalayas (which is unusual as most Nepalese do not ever visit the mountain area).