TRAVELMAN NEPAL: Above the Asura Caves and the Problem with Prayer Flags

The monastery built around the Asura Caves in Pharping, Nepal is about a third of the way up the hill it’s built upon. A trail leads to the top of that hill. I followed that trail to its end.

Steps behind the monastery leading up to the trail.

“Steps. ...I hate steps.”

A close up on a prayer flag. In reality they have mantras printed on them, but I like to think that they’re like letters to Santa with drawings of what they want. I want a tiger, a fancy bird bath, and a lion, and for my daddy to get a job (that last one always gets picked up for national attention. A child is smart to include it. -Makes ‘em look selfless)...

I think this is the equivalent of getting cole in your stocking...

After five minutes of walking up the trail I came across this viewpoint. The Tibetan Buddhists love their wood fire pizza ovens so much they put one up here (I can’t get enough of that joke.)...

More prayer flag craziness. You’d think there’s a Toyota-thon or something! ...

Looking down the mountain. This is the side that’s up and west a bit from Pharping...

I continued up the trail, more prayer flags. This is looking back down at the pizza oven...

And onward up the hill...

And more flags...

And still more flags strewn across the ground like propaganda flyers dropped from a bomber in wartime. On my way down the hill, I came across a guy selling strings of the flags. I did not buy any...

Had enough of the prayer flags? So has Dr. Rog. At the hospital, I brought up my hike on the hill and the prayer flags. He said that the local Nepalese are fed up with them in Pharping. The Tibetan refugees came in and built their monasteries. Dr. Rog thinks that’s fine and good, but the flags on the hill are an eye sore that needs cleaning up. It’s a business. They sell the flags, and more flags, and they clutter up the hill, and no one cleans them up.

He said that when he was young, the hill was pristine and clean, now it’s full of the trash of the flags. He said a committee had recently been organized to clean up the hill of the old flags. Before speaking with him, I thought of the flags as something of meaning, but it turns out it’s more of a business that creates a lot of trash...

I met this lizard on the way up...

I reached the top of the hill and to no surprise, found a place of worship. It looked kind of like a low budget community sponsored park...

It was quiet. I started early in the morning. I was the only person up there. On my way back down I began to run into people. I was glad I was lucky enough to have a private hike to the top. I could see the himalayas in the distance....

I hiked around the lesser trails, looking for a better view of the snow capped mountains, but failed to find a better viewpoint, so I returned to the concrete community shrine...

I don’t know what this says, but I’m sure it’s worthy of being sloppily scrawled across a public space of worship on top of a mountain...

I’d soon discover that these flowers grow everywhere at higher altitudes...

If you cut the leaves along the stem, the plants grow tall. This one looks like I painted the petals into the photo...

Someone lived in the shed up there...

All in all, a peaceful, quiet morning full of beautiful wildlife and scenic views...

Travelman log, day 193. Probably going to fly out of KTM to New Delhi in a couple weeks. !steemitworldmap 27.6131 lat 85.2603 long A Hike above The Asura Caves-Pharping, Nepal, d3scr 325 Followers and counting, 962.75 steem earned. Rep 59.1 Travelman out.