The building begins

Before any building is started in Nepal, a silanayash ceremony is conducted.  It is a little like asking the land for permission to build and is a very significant and important part of the building process.  The day (a Monday) was determined by a priest as is the time.  The ceremony was attended by those involved-the landowners (us!), the builders, a priest, neighbours, neighbours' children, the people who helped us to be able to obtain the land, random cows, assorted Australians...the list goes on.The ceremony began with the preparation of the items that were to be buried. These had been purchased the day before as the ceremony started early in the morning.  Flowers, curd, colours, small pieces of silver, gold, brass, copper and tin were prepared by the ladies ready for the ceremony.This was followed by the digging of a hole in the position where the pillar of the building will be.  All of us participated in this which felt very special.  We spoke to Ron by skype almost as soon as the ceremony was finished and it felt very much like he was with us!We were absolutely thrilled that Ganesh and Sangita Basnet of Jhapa, who made the land available to us, were able to join us. This made this a very special day and we were able to tell them again how very, very grateful we are.Once the items had been prepared and the hole dug, the priest led the ceremony, telling us when to put certain items into the hole.  We hope that in the next month or so we can work out how to  put some short videos of what happened into the blog. Until then, enjoy the photos!