Kathmandu:

On the way to Pashupathinath temple there is an unusually high number of vendors along the sidewalk for Mahashivaratri. But they are not the only ones on a commercial venture at the temple. Thousands of sadhus from Nepal and India have gathered here and they are posing for the tourists in return for some rupees.

Many returning tourists from all over the world are back in Nepal to witness the pilgrimage of the sadhus. Though there has always been those sadhus who wanted cash for a shot of their painted faces, the tourists say this year they are more commercially aggressive.

Gerald (last name withheld) from France, who makes many business trips to Nepal year around, said they shouldn’t ask for money, it should be people’s choice. “This year they are more commercial. They are asking for much more money than they used to,” he said.

Whenever Gerald makes a trip to India or Nepal, he often visits sadhus and shamans. He said he usually picks out the real sadhus form the sham ones.

“Some are for show like actors, drinking, smoking, and being aggressive,” he said, looking across a particular young sadhu who didn’t stop for breath in inviting tourists with cameras. “But there are the real ones who do it from the heart, they always have one hand up and never lying,” Gerald added.

Nevertheless, he always enjoys Mahashivaratri because of the many characters of sadhus he gets to see and in Europe they don’t have anything like it.

Nowhere else in the world do you see so many religious figures gathered together to leisurely smoke and drink with the locals.

Susanne Hooran and Aron Van de Graaf are also returning tourists from Netherlands. This is their third time experiencing Mahashivaratri and the only surprise is how commercial the sadhus have got this year.

“It’s very interesting. They invite you to join them and right after one or two puffs, they ask you for Rs 200 -300,” said Graaf. “The culture is still interesting, otherwise we wouldn’t be here today.”

For Hooran, it’s always interesting how many new tourists go along with the sadhus’ demands, but she is at least thankful people now look at the sadhus instead of tourists like her. “It’s a good festival for the tourists. Nepalis like to gaze, but now they gaze at the sadhus instead,” she said.

Many tourists look past the aggressiveness and commercialism of the sadhus. They simply enjoy the festival the way the sadhus do it to celebrate lord Shiva’s marriage to Parvati.

James Fox (name changed) from Canada was sitting with his two friends in one of the small temples with a sadhu from India, while they passed a joint around. He observed that the air around Pashupathinath is usually pious, but for Mahashivaratri it’s more musical.

“It’s crazy! It’s somewhere between a pious pilgrimage and a musical festival,” he said, against the background music and the cheers of people dancing.