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In the middle of Kathmandu, I was surrounded...by 🇮🇱 travelers. In Nepal, you see the ✡︎ everywhere on temples and ancient structures in various Durbar Squares. Because in Buddhism, ✡︎ symbolises harmony. The 1st time I saw ✡︎ on a building, it really made me wonder, How on earth did humanity come about with the exact same symbol in 2 completely separate religious bodies??? And which came first? Who might have influenced who???? Etc etc. It was all so fascinating! I had no answers to these questions because I simply had no time to sit down to even look through my phones in my time in Nepal. I did a search later : The Symbologist: History of the six-pointed star There's also this video below which recounts the history of this ✡︎: But what really felt like serendipity alongside this was in actuality, in Kathmandu, our buddy is Israeli and he knew of a restaurant called OR2K that was serving food to Israeli travelers for half price. So he took us there twice in 2 days. When we arrived, I saw a piece of paper stuck to the service counter that it was a couple who was donating money to pay for half of all Israeli travelers’ purchase here. It wasn’t the restaurant’s idea. But seriously, the restaurant had 3 or 4 floors of dining space, Aside from tables, there are just cushions on the floor and sitting space all middle-eastern & of course Nepali style. I love sitting on the floor so it was lovely to just be in a restaurant at last where I could do so. The restaurant served foods of all origins, whether it’s curry or thai or pizzas or Israeli food. What was really spectacular though was the sheer scale of the customers on each floor. By the entrance to each floor, the floor space was covered with customers’ shoes, and once we were seated and I looked around me, practically every customer was an Israeli. Roy had his way of telling what kind of Israeli travelers each group was, too. First we had a running hilarity about the Israeli travelers’ sandals. As soon as you see those ugly iconic sandals, you’d know they’re Israeli, “They all had the same sandals!” SO every time I saw those sandals, I just called out “Israeli!” between ourselves for the fun of it. Seriously though, at one point, it felt like Kathmandu was filled with Israeli travelers, more than travelers from any where else.  And here I was, on my 2nd time here, sitting at the very end of the dining space,
right in front of my eyes, a roomful of Israelis that day... It was a strange and quite wonderful sight. There must be such a sense of camaraderie right then and there for all of the Israelis. Especially considering what had been going on back home and on Palestinian side... In this very restaurant called OR2K, there was a a lot of shalom and a lot of לְהִתְכַּנֵּס. As all jews were scattered in the ancient times, but will eventually come together. It was quite a lovely and unique scene for me to be in. Roy said there's a word for it in Hebrew, where Israelis would gather in times like this, it's called Israeliada. It's quite a lovely thing for him as an Israeli, he said to me. It has been horrible seeing attacks on people from both sides already, It is important to remember, whatever actions the governments and militaries or political forces of a nation are taking, people of those Palestinian / Israeli backgrounds shouldn’t be the target in countries of peace, where a lot of physical attacks and antagonism have been taking place. That’s just downright stupid & Humanity showing its true colours. As Chinese, we simply do not support or speak for any side with what’s happening. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Comments are closed.
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