Thangka in "Family Thangka Workshop" Patan

Thangka

the Traditional painting

When I walked around in Patan, something caught my eyes.

They did.

The paintings are called Thangka(tangka).  A Tibetan Buddhist painting that depict usually Buddhist deity, mandala and Buddhist scene.

As you can see, they possess a unique style of their own. Most of them look painted with stable and strong lines like oil or acrylic paintings. The shop owner told me that they are painted in watercolor.
I was so amazed with the strong and bright color of them.

My eyes were caught

I stopped by the shop where the paintings drawing my attention were displayed. The shop's name is Family Thangka Workshop. Wow there were many Thangkas in the shop. I said "Namaste" to the shop clerk who was at the same time a Thangka artist.
There are many colorful Thangka paintings inside of the shop.

When he learned that I was Japanese, he sent his small boy to his brother in backyard because his wife was also Japanese.
They kindly offered some tea to us and we chatted for a while. This IS the Nepali style what made me a big fan of Nepal. People are very friendly and kind.

Looking for a nice frame for mine

Eventually I managed to choose one small painting depicting the process we transit to a god when human being are dying.

The left one is now mine !

How hard to choose one was from many pretty paintings...Now I am looking for a frame for it.
I embed a map for this on the bottom of this post.  In case that you are interested in them, I let you know their email lama_rakam82@yahoo.com.

amazing

a three-month-work

伝統的な絵

パタンをウロウロしていたとき、とあるものに目が止まりました。

これです。
Thangkaと呼ばれます。チベット仏教の絵画で、仏教の神様や曼荼羅、仏教的な描写が多いです。
ご覧になるとわかるように、独特なタッチなんです。太い力強い描画で、まるで油性やアクリルみたいです。が、水彩っていってました。
強い、明るい色を非常に気に入っちゃいました。

魅力的な

さっきの絵の飾ってあったお店に入ってみました。お店の人にナマステと挨拶しましたが、その人がアーティストでした。
わたしが日本人とわかると、お子さんの坊やを裏庭にいた弟さんを呼びいかせました。奥さんが日本人だそうで。

額縁探してます

皆さん、お茶を出してくれて、しばらくおしゃべりしました。これがわたしがネパールファンになった、 ネパールスタイルです！みんなフレンドリーで親切。
やっとのことで小さい絵を選びました・・絵は人間が死ぬときに神様に変わっていく過程を表したもの。ひとつ選ぶの難しかったー。今は額縁探し中・・！

お店情報は
これはNewachenゲストハウスの地図ですが、その前です！ lama_rakam82@yahoo.com.

Kumbeshwar Temple, Patan

パタンのクンベシュワール寺院

Isn't it peaceful?

While we walked through the gate, San(the Nepali friend of mine) told me; "this temple has five tiers and the site is very calm and peaceful..." and the next instance we saw a lot of people in front of us.

they have a watering-place on the right side

Shiva Load and girls

There were quite a lot of girls in lines to the temple. This day was Monday that is dedicated to Lord Shiva. In Hinduism, each day of a week is dedicated to a particular god in the Hindu pantheon.
This temple is dedicated to Load Shiva. That is why a lot of people were visiting there. But why most of them(more than 99 percentage of them) were girls?

Since Shiva is a deity of a very good husband, girls pray for happy marriage there. Even so.... we saw a huge number of girls waiting for getting in the temple.
It is same as here in Japan. There is a famous shrine called Tokyo Daijingu where girls rush into to pray for their happy dating and marriage. I have seen a long long line in front of the entrance so often.

Offering things are sold this way

静かな場所のはずが・・

門をくぐりながら、サン（ネパール人の友人）がいいました。
「このお寺は5重の塔で、すごく落ち着く場所なんだよ。」
でも次の瞬間、すっごいいっぱいの人が目に入りました。

沢山の女性がお寺に向かって長い列を作っていました。この日は月曜日で、シヴァ神の日でした。ヒンズー教では、各曜日ごとに特定の神さまがいます。

シヴァ神と女性たち

このお寺はシヴァ神のお寺です。なので、混んでたんですね。でも、ほとんど（9９％以上）が女の子なのはなんで？
シヴァ神は良夫の神様なので、女性が幸せな結婚をお祈りするんです。
日本と同じです。東京大神宮という有名なお寺がありますが、良縁を願って女の子が殺到。入り口前に長い列を見たことが何度もあります。
こんな感じでお供えものを売ってました。

Nepal festival in Yoyogi Park of Tokyo

ネパールフェスティバル＠代々木公園

Nepal Festival

In summer we have a lot of "natsu fes" in Japan recently. It is not traditional festivals but kind of outdoor concerts or music lives. Young people like to join them. In my case.... I have no energy left ... But I like "international festival" held in Yoyogi park of Tokyo. They regularly hold events that you can enjoy eating specific countries' or foreign areas' foods and cultural things.

They had a Nepal Festival event in Tokyo on Aug 6th and 7th.　http://www.nepalfestivaljapan.com/ja


It was a pretty hot melting day but a lot of Nepalese and Japanese who is fond of Nepal got together in the park. I think I saw more Nepalese than Japanese. I was impressed Nepalese girls and ladies in pretty dresses.

Foods

yummy！

Summer events in Japan

日本の夏

I am going to introduce very common things of summer in Japan today.

Obon

It is Obon season now. A lot of Japanese are on the Obon vacation and making trips or visiting their parents' houses. Obon is an annual Buddhist tradition for commemorating one's ancestors and we believe that our ancestors' spirits come back to our homes during this term. We also visit ancestors' braves. Obon is generally celebrated around Aug 15th.
Obon has another side. Japanese companies are on vacation at this season. Huge amount of Japanese people rush into sightseeing spots. Most highways are pretty busy. On the other hand, we have less rush hours when we commune.

Summer festival

We have a lot of local festivals everywhere in Japan and we generally call them "Summer festival"(Natsu matsuri). I saw a festival held in my neighborhood last week.
Main event of summer festival is that people carry around Mikoshi in their community. Mikoshi is kind of portable shrine. The spirit of a deity temporarily reposes in it.

Mikoshi is portable shriine.

Bon-odori

Odori means to dance and Bon-odori is for celebrating Obon. There are various explanation about the origin but it is performed in summer festival events cross over Japan.

Where to get Omiyage in Patan ~NEPAL GANESHA

パタンでお土産探ししよう　～　ネパールガネーシャ

What to pick as omiyage puzzles Japanese workers

When we take day off to make a trip somewhere, what to buy as omiyage(souvenirs) to your colleagues is a big issue puzzling Japanese workers.
In deed it is common to hand over omiyage at workplace when we return from vacation. We need pick appropriate things as souvenirs.

Since we need to get more than five souvenirs, if we take something wrong, we would get in trouble with paying much or carrying heavy things. We generally have more than five colleagues, right? And souvenirs should be same. And if we pick each different things to each colleagues, we need them almost at same price. If we give something gorgeous to one colleague and tiny things to other colleagues, someone would complain about it behind you.

What to pick up for souvenirs in Nepal?

When I visit Nepal, of course I try to find such thing for souvenirs to colleagues. However I could not find any snacks or cookies are not individually packed.
 I would suggest one of the best shop where you get souvenirs. It is NEPAL GANESHA which is located near Patan Durbar square.  They have staff who is able to speak English.

Juli-san who runs NEPAL GANESHA in Patan