TRI-LAKES AREA — Nikki Thornton, executive director of the Malvern /Hot Spring County Chamber of Commerce, missed the annual Brickfest celebration because she was away from the city - just about as far away from the city as one can get.
Thornton and her boyfriend, Richard Launius, traveled to Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, between India and China and the home of the highest mountains in the world. The couple traveled there to attend the wedding of one of Launius’ daughters, who was marrying a Nepali man she met at South Arkansas University in Magnolia.
“We went from Little Rock to Dallas to San Francisco, to Hong Kong, to Bangladesh to Katmandu,” Thornton said. “It was 40 hours (of travel) - 13 hours and 15 minutes of time-zone changes and over the International Dateline.”
“The sunrise seemed to last for hours,” said Virginia Wagley, the bride, who got to know her future husband, Manoj Wagley, when she got involved with the international student programs at the university.
Thornton and Launius prepared for the trip firstby getting the shots required by American authorities before traveling to Nepal and by studying up on the country and its culture.
“We rented videos and watched documentariesfrom the Travel, History and Discovery Channel and learned about the people, the history of the area and the Hindu religion and their multiple gods,” Thornton said.
The group of travelers arrived a week before the wedding, and Thornton said they were able to immerse themselves in the culture.
“We toured a school and went to the families’ homes and visited every religious sight in Katmandu, both Hindu and Buddhist,” Thornton said. “We went to the National Museum and to the Royal Palace that was turned into a museum after the king was ousted in 2008.”
The most interesting location the group visited was a crematory along the river, she said.
Thornton described how the dead are burned on one of five funeral pyres, one for each caste.
“The men of the family would be there,” she said. “There were no women present. Once the custom was the wives would throw themselves onto the fire.”
Thornton said the U.S. State Department warns tourists about travel in Nepal, but Launius said they were comfortable moving among the residents.
“I realized it is a poor country, but they know tourism is a good thing, and we always felt safe,” Launius said.
The group traveled to the city of Pokhara, which Thornton compared to Lake Tahoe in America.
“There was a lake in the mountains,” she said, “but these were the foothills of the Himalayas, and they were taller than any mountains I had ever seen.”
Later, Thornton and Launius took a flight into the Himalayas and flew by Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak.
The traditional Hindu wedding took place around a fire pit outside a temple in Katmandu.
“Weddings are scheduled by the lunar calendar and by astrology,” Virginia Wagley said, “so on that day, there were other weddings around the temple.”
The ceremonies lasted from 7 a.m. until almost 2:30 p.m. for the guests. The wedding reception was held four days later.
“They knew how to throw a reception,” Thornton said. “There were more than 600 guests and family members.”
She admired the traditional gifts of silk scarves and flowers.
Thornton said she returned having learned that a very different culture does not mean people are truly different.
“I learned that people are people wherever you go, and they have the same hopes and dreams for their families and their country,” she said.
At the same time, Thornton and Launius said, the trip made themfeel grateful to be Americans.
“It made us appreciate more the freedoms and material things we take for granted here,” he said.
Wagley, who now also carries the Nepali name of Navashree, said it was important to her husband’s family that the couple be married in a traditional ceremony at the family’s home temple. The couple now live in Little Rock.
- wbryan@ arkansasonline.com
Tri-Lakes, Pages 58 on 07/22/2010