It is hard to describe what goes through my mind when I sit at a place like Boudha and people watch. It is amazing the story a face can tell. I have been in a unique position over the last few years to have traveled to many beautiful places (nothing quite beats home - Cape Town), and I have always find myself fascinated by people's faces. Their eyes (the window to one's soul), their hair (unkept and unclean), their cheeks, and the wrinkles that dominate their outlook to others. What we as members of western society visiting Nepal notice, are these faces and we think, how sad! He looks like he has had a rough hard life, a poor life by our standards, a life that has one challenge upon another (very different to what you or I would view as being challenges).
However, the people in this beautiful country may live a simple life filled with hardship and poverty but their belief is strong and filled with hope of their next life. It is my understanding that here 'karma' is something every one believes in. For those of you who do not understand, 'karma', 'reincarnation' - "What goes around comes around" - In other words, it is the result of our past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery -- meaning we are the architects of our own destiny and our own fate - our actions in this life, will affect our next life. This is the nutshell of understanding 'karma'.
So when I people watch, I learn to appreciate their distinctive facial expressions, looking closely, I can sometimes see in the faces of others the hope and belief in a system that the western society frequently misunderstands and once wrinkles do appear we in the west mask those wrinkles with anti-aging cream and botox. But here, in Kathmandu, wrinkles tell the story of a life lived. A life with no regrets or wants, than what one is born with in this world. A life of simplicity.
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