Kama Sutra

Kama Sutra

From all appearances, Nepal is a socially and sexually conservative country. There’s little or no display of sex on billboards, newsstands, or television. Women wear long colorful dresses, often with under trousers, and swim and bathe fully robed. If they are so prudish, why, I wonder, can you find on the temples those graphic Kama Sutra images depicting every possible position of sexual intercourse? “They were believed to stimulate procreation and protect against natural disasters,” my guide in Kathmandu had matter-of-factly told me. And what about the Shiva temples? The temples are simple enclosures with small altar centerpieces; usually black oblong stones or concrete pieces set upright in concrete containers of various shapes. Flower pedals and red dust left by worshippers adorn the upright pieces. When I first encountered one of these shrines in India, my guide had said, “It’s an altar to Lord Shiva, the creative force in the universe.” I naively didn’t ask, “Why such an odd looking shape?” A week later, my barber in Pokhara set me straight: “It’s Lord Shiva’s penis in Parvati’s vagina.” “Okay,” I got it, “Who needs pornography when the center piece of one’s religion is pornographic — hmm? — I may be missing something here.”