The Nepalese village of Kumjung is famous for the fact that the local monastery houses the most amusing artifact - the so-called “yetti scalp”. We regularly come to check out this piece of skin during acclimatization radials on the way to Everest Base Camp.
This time, sleepy pastoral Kumjung was filled with unprecedented excitement (this is when you see more than two locals at the same time). Porters carrying building stones scurried along the streets on special machines (a device for carrying oversized weights, like a backpack). The noise of instruments came from the center.
It's simple - in Kujunga, as in many other villages, during the earthquake on April 25, 2015, the local Buddhist monastery was damaged. It was not destroyed, but was covered with such picturesque cracks that the village residents were afraid to go inside. The head of the Himalayan Sherpa Foundation visited the gompa and after a conversation with the concerned Kumjung residents, a committee was organized to save the monastery (as many as 11 people).
As it turned out, the committee managed to obtain considerable funds - 13,000,000 Nepalese rupees. This is approximately 120 thousand dollars. A young and progressive architect was found, a design for an earthquake-proof temple was developed, and building materials were purchased. Construction work began in the second half of the summer of 2016. They promise to finish it by the spring of 2017. It is assumed that the monastery will have a separate room for a museum, in which, among other antiquities, the yeti scalp will be stored...
It will be difficult for you to understand, but the previous news (about the museum, etc.) worried me terribly. In my opinion, much of the charm of the “Yetti Scalp” lay in the naively romantic setting that surrounded the artifact. A wonderful green fireproof cabinet with a scalp looked so charming in the very heart of a Buddhist temple (a kind of heavenly accounting, no less). Will it really be replaced by a banal dusty showcase of a rural museum?
And while the construction is still far from completion, the famous scalp is shown to the public in a small dressing room, almost on the street. The green locker is still in use - hurry to see it!
