A Familiar Image – Namaste and Jay Mashea

The traditional greeting of Nepal is to place your hands together in a prayer-like posture and say, “Namaste”. This greeting is not just ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ but a blessing given to the other person. This is not an archaic Hindu blessing reserved only for formal usage, it is used in everyday life. When entering a home or a shop, passing the security guard at the hotel gates, or walking into a restaurant, this greeting is used as a part of modern day life across the Kathmandu Valley. The exception is the local Christians who have replaced the phrase with “Jay Mashea” or ‘Praise the Lord’ as it translates. At one point I was in a sauna and the local young men there asked my religion in their broken English. They easily understood when I put my hands together and said, “Jay Mashea”. One of the five added that he was “Jay Mashea” too. As expected, there are many other cultural nuances far removed from Latin derived languages and Judeo-Christian culture. Touring the city with a local friend, she openly admits that she does not know the meaning of all the symbolism, the names of all the gods, or the purpose of every festival. She says that there is so much to know it is difficult to keep up with it all.

Friday was an official Nepali holiday. I had planned to visit the school and get a closer look at the dorm building, but an American Ex-Pat friend called me in the morning and told me it was a holiday and that I couldn’t get anything done that day. I agreed to meet him in the afternoon to visit a home expo featuring lots of the current technology in Nepal. Technology that could easily be used in an Engineers Without Borders style community development project. Instead of going to the school, I relaxed until I met a local friend to look at an artisan shop she was planning to export goods from. Unfortunately, when I met her we found out that the shop would be closed until I had to be at the home expo. We decided to put off going to the shop and instead we visited her Aunt’s house, where some of her relatives were celebrating the holiday.

Arriving at the house, there were many Namaste greetings to go around. This holiday, like many others, has people gathering in a home and cooking and eating together. For a few days after the holiday everyone continues the rounds, eating at multiple houses and making sure that everyone invited to eat at their house is everyone whose home they were invited to. I had explained to my friend before entering that I had just eaten a large meal and was very full. This way she could explain to the family in Nepali right away so no one would offer me food and no one would be offended if I declined. In the home I drank several cups of milk tea, the family not offering food, knowing that I had just eaten. After a short while, the mother came up to me and offered me a single hard boiled egg. My friend told me in English that the egg was a symbol of respect. I gladly accepted and ate the egg, not so full that I would consider turning down the gesture. After more tea, we left the house. I headed to the trade expo and my friend headed to the artisan shop.

At the trade expo I found lots of good information for the community development minded engineer. For the inquisitive browser, displays of potable water piping systems included information on pressure ratings and costs. Also available were technical and cost information at the displays of jet and centrifugal water pumps. I cruised from one booth to the next scraping together all the project related information I could. A full understanding of what was for sale would have to wait until later that night. My off hand engineering frame of reference does not include kilograms per cubic centimeter pressure ratings and cubic meter per hour flow rates. Not just in units but also in product lines, I felt a little out of place when comparing to the things I was used to seeing at a home expo. From air conditioning to water heating, every product line is vastly different in Nepal. After getting everything I could, I returned home to rest.

On Sunday, I visited Patan Durbar Square with a local friend. We went into the museum there for a free Buddhist art showing, but in order to get into the area I had to pay for the tourist ticket. We looked over the Buddhist art for a short while and then I walked my friend to her bus for her return home. Standing outside the square, I decided to walk back in and enjoy the privileges of the tourist ticket. I cruised around a little, but finally decided to join some other Nepali’s sitting on the edge of the Krishna Mandir temple. I chose not to go in, because there was a sign at the doorway saying ‘Only Hindus may enter. Photography and leather goods prohibited inside.’ I sat on the ledge with about 10 other locals, admiring the view of the buildings in the square. Looking up, I saw something that I hadn’t noticed while walking around. In front of two of the temples were statues on top of 30 foot stand alone columns. Their height removed them from the view of the casual stroller below.

In front of the temple where I was sitting was a column with a semi-familiar figure. Overhearing an English speaker’s guide below, I heard that it was an image of Garud paying respects to Krishna’s temple. It didn’t quite match the stereotypical image I would recognize. Even so, with its eyes still open and only kneeling on one knee, it looked like an angel preparing to pray. In reality the statue conveyed something along the lines of ‘Namaste’ but I couldn’t help but smile as I thought of an angel saying “Jay Mashea”. In a place where everything is different, I had accidentally stumbled across an image of something that was intriguingly similar.