NARAYAN'S TRAVEL

 Nepal-India-Tibet-Thailand

Narayan's travel is offering a three-week pilgrim’s trip to Asia for interested people in the USA. This program is designed to give its participants a once-in-a-life time experience of visiting most important Buddhists and Hindu shrines in Asia.
The itinerary of the program has been carefully constructed to give a taste of many valuable elements of Buddhism and Hinduism. Besides, participants will also have opportunity to do smaller treks in Nepal, visit some rural areas and see famous places. We look forward to sharing a wonderful program in the inspirational mountains of the Himalayas, culturally rich India, the roof of the world—Lhasa--and exquisite Buddhist culture in Thailand.
There are four sacred Buddhist pilgrimage centers in the Indian subcontinent. The first of these is the birthplace of Buddha at Lumbini, east of Kapilavastu (Nepal). The second most sacred place of pilgrimage is Buddha Gaya where he attained enlightenment. The third one is Sarnath or Isipatan where Buddha delivered his first sermon, and the fourth is Kushinara or Kashia in Uttar Pradesh, where he finally gave up his mortal self. In this trip we will be visiting first three of them.
Besides Nepal and India another important location for pilgrimage under Buddhism is Tibet. The Potala Palace is located in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India after an invasion and failed uprising in 1959. Today the Potala Palace has been converted into a museum by the Chinese. The building measures 400 meters east-west and 350 meters north-south, with sloping stone walls averaging 3 m. thick, and 5 m. (more than 16 ft) thick at the base, and with copper poured into the foundations to help proof it against earthquakes. Thirteen stories of buildings -- containing over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and about 200,000 statues -- soar 117 meters (384 ft) on top of the "Red Hill", rising more than 300 m (about 1,000 ft) in total above the valley floor. It is one of the most revered places of Tibetan Buddhists.
The Jokhang Monastery is the first Buddhist temple in Tibet, located on Barkhor Square in Lhasa. It was built during the reign of king Songsten Gampo to celebrate his marriage with Chinese Tang Dynasty princess Wencheng, who was a Buddhist. The temple was called the Tsulag Khang or 'House of Wisdom' but it is now known as the Jokhang which means the 'House of the Buddha'. For most Tibetans it is the most sacred and important temple in Tibet. Along with the Potala Palace, it is probably the most popular tourist attraction in Lhasa. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Ensemble of the Potala Palace" and a spiritual centre of Lhasa.
Wat Pho or The Temple of the Reclining Buddha is a very important pilgrim’s site in Bangkok. It is located in the Rattanakosin district directly adjacent to the Grand Palace. Besides having one of the largest single Buddha images--the Reclining Buddha—this temple also has more than one thousand Buddha images. The Reclining Buddha is forty-six metres long and fifteen metres high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet. This temple also houses a massage school and a working Buddhist monastery with monks in residence and a school.
Similarly, the great trinity in Hinduism are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva who the creator, the maintainer or preserver and the destroyer or transformer respectively. There are 12 special shrines of Shiva—Jyotilingams--and two of them are Pashupatinath (Kathmandu, Nepal) and the Vsihwanath (Banaras, India).  And we will visit these shrines as well.
Pashupatinath is regarded as the most sacred temple of Shiva in Nepal. Along the shores of the Bagmati River near the temple lies Arya Ghat, the most widely used place of cremation for the deceased in Nepal. Believers of Hinduism are allowed to enter the temple and non-Hindu visitors are allowed to have a look at the temple from the other bank of Bagmati River.
Varanasi (also known as Banaras or Kaasi), situated on the banks the river Ganges, is considered to be the holiest of all Hindu pilgrimage sites in India. There are many temples along the banks of river Ganges. Varanasi is considered home to Shiva - Visweswara.  Banaras has been a pilgrimage center since time immemorial. Visweswara (Viswanatha) temple houses one of the twelve Jyotirlingams of Shiva. This temple was desecrated and rebuilt several times and the latest structure dating back to the 18th century is the center of attention of the millions of pilgrims who converge here, to perform an abhishekam to the sacred Jyotirlingam, with water from the Ganges. There are several Ghats (specific places in river bank) and Manikarnika Ghat is one of them. Tradition has it that those die at Banaras and get cremated at the Manikarnika ghat get liberated from the cycle of life and death. Varanasi is closely associated with the Ganges and has many temples along its banks. We will be visiting many other religious and culturally important places in Nepal, India, Tibet and Thailand.

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