We visited the Kirateshwar Mahadev Temple during their full moon celebrations, where we were invited to introduce the Peace Run and present another Torch Bearer award. Our thanks to Shesh Narayan, one of the managers of the Kirateshwar music institute for receiving us and to local Peace Runner Sunita for arranging the ceremony. Harita introduced the Peace Run and Prerana, another Nepalese Peace Runner translated into Nepalese.
The award was presented by Rupa Neupane, an artist who plays Sarod. Rupa is also a former student of Sri Mohan so was thrilled to honour him in this way.
Sri Mohan Prasad Joshi is a renowned, versatile senior musician of Nepal. He has been serving his country through his music for decades. He plays several classical instruments, like Sarod, Esraj, jaltarang(singing bowls) and tabala etc He has been a principal of the music faculty of Kathmandu. He has performed several times in his country and abroad.He has been honoured with many awards for his contribution to music. At the age of 80 he still teaches various classical instruments to the upcoming generation which is remarkable.
While in Kathmandu we had the chance to visit Sweta's fathers shop. Sweta is our endlessly cheerful, tireless and fearless Nepalese coordinator. She did so much both beforehand (answering our endless questions) and during the Peace Run to make sure everything was perfect. Nothing was too much for her, even at 5000m she was fixing everything with the Sherpa's and always put everyone else's needs before hers. Thank You Sweta for being such an inspiring team member.
We also took time to refuel on some foods that weren't so readily available in the mountains.
We had an inspiring meeting with Lhakpa Phuti Sherpa, a trailblazing female Sherpa and previous recipient of the Torch Bearer Award, where she signed copies of her book for us. She wrote "Forty Years In The Mountains" to detail her life as a Sherpa, climber and campaigner. She has her own trekking company and trains both male and female Sherpa guides in a field which is traditionally male -dominated. She has worked extensively at a government level on various projects to promote and protect the mountains she loves and the people who live and work in them. To listen to her is to hear a real advocate for people living in harmony with the nature and wildlife that surrounds them.
We sang her the song Sri Chinmoy composed for Mount Everest, whose words are:
O Mount Everest, O Mount Everest,
You are the cosmic deities’ treasure-nest.
You teach us how to climb and touch the sky,
And fly with God’s Self-Transcendence-Freedom-Will, fly!
For a fitting finale to this years Peace Run in Nepal we visited Peace Run founder Sri Chinmoy's statue which is in Nagarkot in the hills surrounding Kathmandu. When she heard we would be there Laxmi told us she cycled there every Saturday morning and wanted to know where the statue was!
She arrived with 6 of her students from the Nepal Cycling School. They were in the middle of their weekly training ride which consisted of 8 very hilly laps.
We had a very sweet meeting, with each of us introducing ourselves and then handed the Peace Torch around. It was so nice for us to see Laxmi with her students as you can see the passion they all share for cycling and how much inspiration she gives them.
At 13, this boy was the youngest of the group. We wish them all good luck with their future goals.
After we sang them the Peace Run song, they sang for us the 'mountain song'. It was a tune we had heard coming from phones or speakers all along the trail, we don't know the meaning of the words but it will undoubtedly always remind us of our time in the Himalaya's.
Our deep gratitude to everyone who made this Nepal Peace Run possible. A team of ten Peace Runners in the mountains was the tip of the iceberg of the wider team that made this trip a reality. The oneness we felt from in Nepal and around the world was as vast as the mountains we were surrounded by. Thank You. Namaste.
"Inside my heart I see a oneness-mountain." ~ Sri Chinmoy
