Anne Marcer gave an amusing, informative and perceptive talk about Kathmandu World Heritage Sites.
She has talked to us before about her time as a VSO volunteer in Nepal with a focus on education, and particularly girls’ schooling. When she arrived, she lived for six weeks in Katmandu, the capital city, learning the language for 3 hours a day plus homework but a political coup followed by a general strike gave her free time to explore the area. She used bicycles to visit the seven sites.
The city is at 1000 metres above sealevel, in a basin surrounded by mountains. Over 1 million people live there and pollution from vehicles is terrible. It was originally three cities, but is now joined together.
The different temples exemplified a range of styles and epochs, and reflected both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, often intertwined within one building. There were photographs of the wonderful wood and stone carvings that decorated the temples.
Anne visited the Mother Teresa home for 250 elderly people (all men). She talked to them and some of them had interesting memories of the past in their country.
She talked about how peaceful and accepting the people she met appeared, she did not hear any voices raised in anger. On the other hand monkeys were everywhere and were real pests!
