Nepal
Taking advantage of the opportunity to go to India, I finally went to Nepal, which is across the mountain. Compared with the contradictory India, Nepal is much simpler. Although there are rebels, although people's lives are not rich, although there are modern and ancient confrontations, but in general, the people's life and mentality are much calmer. Moreover, the beauty of Kathmandu is something that no one who has ever been there can think of.
Brahmin tour guide
Our ground guide, Shamiller, is 40 years old, dark-skinned, skinny, wearing a crumpled red hat, running shoes on his feet, and carrying a huge leather bag, extremely earthy. Originally an English-speaking tour guide who learned Chinese two years ago, Chamiller had a fatal flaw in his Chinese pronunciation, and there was no four-tone distinction, so you couldn't guess what he was saying. Like "Chamiller," we all heard "Millet", and finally saw the correct text on his business card before leaving.
But it was this rustic Shamir who introduced himself as a "Brahmin" and quickly brought us into the history and reality of Nepal.
The Great Pagoda of Wayambunat, Nepal
As early as our middle school history textbooks, there is the common sense that Brahmins are the highest caste of Hinduism. Hinduism is a very old religion with its origins dating back to Vedicism in 1500 BC, and 500 years later, Vedicism began to evolve into Brahmanism. From the 6th to the 5th century BC, Gautama Siddhartha founded Buddhism. Brahmanism was revived in the 4th century AD, and in turn the 8th century, the buddhist teachings were absorbed and the transition to Hinduism was completed.
The three world religions of Christianity, Buddhism and Islam believe in God, Shakyamuni and Allah respectively, and are all monotheistic religions. Hinduism is polytheism or pantheism, and they believe that there are three levels of gods: the first is invisible, called "Brahma's super-god); the second is the specific form of "Brahma"' manifestation, that is, the three main gods of Hinduism, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, who are the gods of creation, protection and destruction; the third level is the personified natural objects, such as the sun god, the moon god and the cow god, etc., the number is uncountable, some say 400 million, some say 300 million.
Hindus seem to think that this is not complicated enough, their gods are like the gods of the ancient Greek world, and they can also be transformed, such as the protector god Vishnu at least 10 incarnations such as fish, turtles, wild boars, and dwarfs, one of which is the Buddha Shakyamuni (Hinduism's attitude towards Buddhism is very unique, it lists Shakyamuni as one of its own gods, making it easy for Buddhists to transform into Hindus).
Of the three Hindu gods, Shiva is the most special, and people have given too many meanings to this great god of destruction, which may be related to the humid, hot, and perishable climate of the South Asian subcontinent. Shiva's most famous transformations are The Dancing King and Linga (male genitalia). The classic image is of Shiva dancing in a ring of fire on a bronze sculpture symbolizing the movement of the universe, his right foot stomping the ignorant dwarf under his feet.
Elephant head deity Nisha
However, on my trip to Nepal, I found a more attractive image - the elephant head deity Nisha. Of course, the so-called "discovery" shows how lonely I am, because I am the son of the famous Shiva. Legend has it that when Shiva went out, his wife Pavti gave birth to a son, Rinisha, out of her own sweat, and asked him to guard the door. On the day Shiva returned, Pavti was taking a bath inside, and Rinissa wouldn't let the strange Shiva in. Shiva was notoriously acute and cut off his son's head. When Pavti had finished bathing and asked her husband to pay her son, Shiva rushed out to find a replacement, and when she saw a baby elephant in front of her, she placed its head on her son.
This somewhat terrifying legend has survived to this day, but it makes people can't help but be funny. The big-bellied, human-headed Benisha stood on the base of the lotus flower, his mount little mouse playing at his feet, and he himself held a bowl of candy in his hand, looking innocent.
In Hindu ceremonies, as is the "god of removing obstacles", in Hindu ceremonies, as is the case with today's VIP inspections, the Hinissa is the first to be summoned by the police car – always the first deity to be summoned. But in today's secular life, Zenisa is also the god of wealth, worshipped by the business community and all those who want to get rich. Therefore, the most sold idol in Nepal and other places today is the zenisha.
However, there is something remarkable about Rinisha, who is regarded as a brilliant and accomplished writer, so Rinisha is also a frequent visitor to the title pages of books in India and Nepal and at the entrance to libraries. Along the way, I saw the image of Venisha everywhere, and I thought that if I introduced it to China, it must be a very cute cartoon image. In fact, more than 500 years ago, Wu Cheng'en, the author of "Journey to the West", transformed the monkey Hanuman in the Hindu classic "Ramayana" into the image of Sun Wukong, which became popular in Middle-earth.
Some of the customs in Hinduism seem incomprehensible to modern people, such as child marriage and the "thradi" system (widows who burn themselves and martyr their husbands, can get the chance to ascend to heaven). But the most unacceptable is the "caste system", which was stipulated as early as vedic religion, dividing believers into multiple classes —the highest rank brahmins, sacrificial nobles who held theocracy; the second rank, the military nobles in charge of military and administrative power; the third level Of the Vedas, ordinary village members engaged in agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce; and the fourth class, the indigenous tribes that had been conquered and enslaved by the Aryans. There is also an equal caste, namely "untouchable" or "untouchable".
In ancient societies, inequality was commonplace, such as european royalty and nobility in the past who intermarried only internally, and regarded their families as purebred like Persian cats to reproduce. But no society has separated society so closely and discriminated against it as Hinduism.
Only then, when the tour guide Shamill claimed to be a Brahmin, it really surprised us, in India and other places when the caste system has long been abolished, Nepalese still believe in this set?
In order to prove that he was a Brahmin, Shamir came over and asked us to look at the 6 white lines hanging around his neck, "This is the symbol of Brahman, there are only 3 Kshatriyas". In the face of such an aristocrat, most of us still find it quite interesting, and some of us have rushed to take a photo with Shamiller.
I once asked Shamir, "Of the 23 million Nepalese, how many belong to Brahmins?" Chamiller's answer was 300,000 people. I was calculating it as an Indian caste with a pyramid structure, which was quite reasonable. However, when I went back to China to find out that Nepal and India have the opposite caste structure, the number of people belonging to the higher castes, especially the Shaddyri, is larger, while the number of people belonging to the Vedas, Sudras and untouchables is smaller. For example, according to Nepal's 1991 population, there were 2.32 million Brahmins in the north, accounting for 12.9% of the country's population, and 181,000 Brahmins in the south. Nepal's Chatili is divided into two categories, Chetri, with 2.895 million people, accounting for 16% of the national population, and the latter 294,000 people, accounting for 1.7% of the national population. These high castes add up to 5.308 million people, or 30.5 percent of the country's population.
The reason why Nepal has so many high castes is because around the 12th century, Muslim forces entered India and a large number of Indian royal families and upper nobility migrated to Nepal. According to Nepal's official statistics, 86.51% of the Hindu population is 86.51%, and if you subtract the proportion of the above two castes, there are still more other castes. The point is that Nepal has 61 ethnic groups in a non-Hindu society that make up 43% of the country's population, whose beliefs are indeed influenced by Hinduism but do not have caste status.
Nevertheless, Nepal is the only country founded on the basis of Hinduism. Today, Hindus make up 82% of the population, more than 800 million people, but they belong to a secular country and do not establish Hinduism as the state religion.
I don't know if Shamiller knew about the many "nobles" of Nepal, but because of his seriousness and honesty in other respects, I don't think it matters.
Charmill is a good tour guide I have rarely seen, whether the request of the guest is reasonable or unreasonable, he has everything he wants, running up and down. There are always some picky people in every tour group, but they have not criticized Shamil in the end.
As I was leaving, I said to the humble Shamiller, "You're a good tour guide, a good man!" He asked happily, "Really?" Then he didn't forget to say, "I'm a nobleman." ”
This picture originated from the Internet and was invaded and deleted
Nepal