Preparing for Langtang

In our backyard, the radishes and mustard greens are almost ready for the harvest. The autumnal light filters through our bedroom window in the mornings, and the Dasein holiday is almost over. The streets were quiet for the last week or so, and the thousands of goats trotting happily around the city a few weeks ago are no longer around. While we missed the ritual sacrifice of 108 goats in Basantapur Square, there were signs of the sacrifice all around us-- a goat pinned down on the street as its throat was cut, the blood spilling into a bowl, or the goat heads staring at us in horror from butcher shops.

We're leaving for the Langtang region tomorrow, an area of the Himalaya directly north of Kathmandu on the border with Tibet, and we'll be spending the next two or three weeks in the mountains-- first in traditional Tamang towns with a Tamang guide, and then hiking up to the holy alpine lake Gosainkund if the weather allows. I'll be gathering background for stories in the Tamang villages, as well as meeting with deaf people, and Gosainkund will provide further background and setting. We're catching a bus at 6:30 in the morning. Normally it goes direct to Dhunche, at the edge of Langtang National Park, but because of the monsoon the road has been closed by a landslide. So we'll take the bus to the landslide and then cross over to a waiting bus, which will take us into the heart of the valley.