Nepal:Himalayan Pilgrimage

Nepal is a great place to go to challenge your Western assumptions, study other systems of thought and open yourself to other ways of experiencing life. The tolerant atmosphere encourages experimentation and provides several traditional disciplines to delve into.

Moreover, Nepal is turning into quite a spiritual supermarket. The past few years have seen an explosion of outfits teaching yoga and meditation in the Kathmandu Valley, and centres are starting to pop up in the other tourist watering holes. The allied health fields of ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine are also attracting a growing interest among travellers in Nepal. Many programmes are designed for those who are just starting out and don't require a lengthy commitment, although some do. Note that it's advisable to book any residential courses well in advance - fax numbers or email addresses are given where possible.

In these pages, we've provided a quick introduction to a few major practices

Yoga
Contrary to what's often put about in Western manuals, yoga does not just comprise exercises - it's a system of spiritual, mental and physical self-discipline, designed to bring about mastery of the self and true awareness of the self's...

Buddhist meditation and study
Meditation is closely related to yoga, and the two often overlap: much of yoga ( kundalini, for example) involves meditation, and Buddhist meditation draws on many Hindu yogic practices. However, meditation centres in Nepal generally...

Ayurved
Ayurved (often spelled ayurveda) is the world's oldest form of medicine still being practised. Dating back five thousand years, the "knowledge of life" is a holistic medical system that assumes the fundamental sameness of self...

Tibetan medicine
Medicine is one of the traditional branches of study for Tibetan Buddhist monks, and Tibetan medicine is based on the same philosophical and magical principles as Tibetan Buddhism. Like ayurved, from which it derives,...

Massage and other therapies
Nepal, like many Asian countries, has its own indigenous form of massage . So-called Nepali "hard" massage is a deep, therapeutic treatment that works mainly on the joints and insertions (the places where muscles meet bones). It's not...