GEEO India and Nepal Google Earth Presentation

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USA

Today I’d like to share with you a great experience I had over the summer break. I traveled to India and Nepal through a non-profit organization called GEEO that helps educators travel abroad so that they can learn more about different cultures to share with their students. I was joined on my trip by teachers from all around the United States.

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Asia

India and Nepal are part of the continent of Asia, which is Earth’s largest continent.

Asia covers 8.7% of the Earth’s total surface area and comprises 30% of its land area. With approximately 4.6 billion people, it holds 60% of the world’s current human population.

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India

India and Nepal are two South Asian countries near western China.

India is roughly one-third the size of the United States. It is bordered by several countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.

One in every six people in the world is from India, which has a population of over 1.15 billion people, which is almost four times the population of the United States. It is the most populous country in the world. Do you know what the most populous country was until recently? (A: China)

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Delhi

Delhi is the capital of India, and the city’s metropolitan area is called the National Capital Region. The broader urban area has an estimated population of over 28 million, making it the second-largest metropolitan area in the world (after Tokyo). The New York City metropolitan area, by comparison, has around 20 million people.

Delhi is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. Remains of seven major cities have been discovered in Delhi; each group of people who ruled the city would destroy older sections and build up a new area for themselves.

As you can see, the city is expansive and the roads are often clogged with traffic, making it hard to get from place to place. I’ll show you a few of Delhi’s most significant sights.

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Rashtrapati Bhavan (President’s Residence)

One of the places we visited was New Delhi, the part of the city that the British established in the early 1900s when India was a British colony. It is still the part of the city where India’s national government is centered, kind of like Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. You can tell by the street layout that it is a very carefully designed city, and this main street (called the Rajpath) is kind of like the National Mall in Washington.

On the west side of the Rajpath is the President’s Palace, which in Hindi is called Rashtrapati Bhavan. It is the largest residence of a Head of State in the world. It is about four times the size of the White House.

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India Gate

Here you can see India Gate, a memorial for the Indian and British soldiers that died in World War I. It sits at the opposite end of the Rajpath from the President’s Palace.

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The Parliament House of India

This is the Parliament House of India. It is here that India’s government meets and is the equivalent of the Capitol building in the U.S. The triangular building in the top right is the New Parliament House, which just opened. The circular building in the middle is the old Parliament House constructed by the British; it will be converted into a museum focused on democracy in India. The building on the left is the Parliament Museum, an interactive museum that tells the story of India’s struggle for freedom.

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Raj Ghat Gandhi Memorial

The most famous and influential Indian in history was Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi led a nonviolent movement against British rule that resulted in India’s independence in 1947. His method of nonviolent protest greatly influenced Martin Luther King, Jr., who used nonviolence in his quest for equal rights for black Americans. Sadly, like Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. The Raj Ghat is a memorial to Gandhi.

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Akshardham Temple

Religion plays a large role in Indian society, and many of New Delhi’s most important buildings are sites associated with different religions.

This is Akshardham Temple, one of the largest Hindu places of worship in the world. It was constructed in 2005.

About 80% Indians practice Hinduism. Hinduism originated in this part of the world and evolved over the past 5,000 years, making it one of the world’s oldest religions still practiced today. Hindus worship many gods and goddesses. They believe in reincarnation and have a caste system where priests, warriors, merchants, and workers are divided into different classes. This caste system is slowly deteriorating in modern times.

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Jama Masjid Mosque

About 14% of Indians practice Islam. This is Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India. It was built in 1656 and is located in the section of the city called Old Delhi.

Islam is a monotheistic religion (believes in one god) that is descended from Judeo-Christian beliefs. Most Muslims can be divided broadly into Sunnis and Shias. Both sects follow the teachings of their prophet Muhammad, whose theology is found in the Quran.

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Sacred Heart Cathedral

The third largest religion in India is Christianity, making up 2.3% of the population. Indian Christians believe that Christianity was brought to the region in the year 52 AD/CE by Thomas the Apostle, one of Jesus’s Twelve Disciples mentioned in the New Testament. The Sacred Heart Cathedral is a Cathlic Church that was built in the 1920s and financed by the British Empire.

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Gurudwara Bangla Sahib

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib is a Sikh temple. Sikhism is a religion that originated in India, and there are around 20 million people who practice Sikhism. The previous head of India’s government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is a Sikh. Sikhs believe in the equality of humankind (and the rejection of India’s caste system), the concept of universal brotherhood of man, and one supreme God. Male Sikhs cover their hair with a turban, while female Sikhs may wear a turban or a headscarf. While Sikhism is influenced by Hinduism and Islam, it is an entirely distinct religion.

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Vishwa Shanti Stupa

This is a Buddhist Stupa that was built in 2007. A stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics and used by Buddhists as a place of worship.

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha. The Buddha lived and taught in India and Nepal sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE. He is recognized by Buddhists as an awakened or enlightened teacher who shared his insights to find enlightenment, also known as nirvana, which ends the cycle of suffering and reincarnation.

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Lotus Baha’i Temple

This is a Baha’i temple. This amazing building is shaped like a lotus flower. Baha’i is a religion practiced by 6 million people worldwide and this temple is only one of eight temples the Baha’i have around the world.

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Vallabh Smarak Jain Mandir

This building is a Jain temple. Delhi is an ancient center of Jainism and home to dozens of Jain temples as well as a large population of Jains. Jainism is a non-theistic religion (with no deity/god) that teaches a path to spiritual purity and enlightenment through nonviolence (ahimsa) to all living creatures, including plants and animals.

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Feroz Shah Kotla Cricket Stadium

This is a temple where Indians of all religions “worship!” While Indians play many sports, their greatest passion is cricket. Cricket is a British sport that has been played for more than 500 years. American baseball is derived from cricket. The Indian national cricket team is one of the most successful cricket teams in the world.

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Red Fort

Constructed in the 17th century, the Red Fort was once home to India’s royal family. Today, it is one of Delhi’s most popular tourist sites. It is also the place where the Prime Minister makes an annual address to the country on August 15th, India’s Independence Day. Does anyone know who India gained independence from on August 15, 1947? (A: British Empire)

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Humayun’s Tomb

This building is known as Humayun’s Tomb, built in 1562 for the Mughal Emperor Humayun. The Mughals ruled India for around 200 years until they were deposed by the British and replaced by a British system of government known as the British Raj in 1858.

This tomb’s architecture influenced Emperor Shah Jahan, the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire from 1628 to 1658, when he had the Taj Mahal built. The Taj Mahal is a beautiful tomb that you will see a little later.

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Qutab Minar

One more site in Delhi that I want to show you is the Qutab Minar, the world’s tallest brick minaret. A minaret is a distinctive architectural feature of many Islamic mosques; they are tall, slender towers attached to the mosque. They are primarily used to project the Muslim call to prayer five times a day. But like the steeples on Christian churches, they also serve as landmarks and symbols of Islam’s presence. This minaret was built in 1193 and stands 238 feet tall.

Qutab Minar, along with the Red Fort and Humayun’s Tomb, have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

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Delhi

As you can see, Delhi is a huge, diverse city with so many interesting sites. And it was only the first stop of our 17-day trip!

Check out this site for some stunning 360º images of several of the famous sites of Delhi.

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Jaipur

From Delhi we traveled to the city of Jaipur. Jaipur is much smaller than Delhi, but it’s still a huge city with well over 4 million residents.

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Pink City

You can see how the old part of the city is laid out in a grid pattern. Jaipur was one of India’s first cities to be designed using modern city planning.

Jaipur is known as the Pink City because in the old section of town all of the houses are painted terracotta pink, a decision made in 1876 by the Maharaja. He wanted to impress Prince Albert Edward, the eldest son of Queen Victoria, by painting Jaipur’s buildings pink, a color that symbolizes hospitality.

Maharaja was the Mughal’s word for “great king,” and there were more than 600 maharaja ruling cities and regions in India when the country gained its independence in 1947. The Maharaja in Jaipur was so pleased with the result of his plan to impress Prince Albert Edward that he implemented a law in 1877 making it illegal for buildings in the old city to be painted any other color. The law still remains in effect today, although it isn’t strictly enforced.

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Hawa Mahal

One of the buildings we visited was the Hawa Mahal, or as it is known in English, the Palace of the Winds. The Palace was designed so that the Maharaja’s royal wives could look out and see everyday life and festivals celebrated in the street below without being seen themselves, since they had to obey the rules of “purdah,” which prohibited them from being seen without face coverings.

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Jantar Mantar and the City Palace

This may look like a playground, but the structures you see are actually large astronomical instruments that are part of the Jantar Mantar Observatory, built at the wishes of Maharaja Jai Singh in 1738.

In the top left is the City Palace, which currently is a museum, but at one time was the home of the Maharaja. Maharaja Jai Singh II moved into this palace in 1727 because of a water shortage at his previous palace in Amer.

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Amber (Amer) Fort

This is that palace and fortress in Amer. Called the Amer Fort or Amber Fort, it was built in 1592 and is well known for its beautiful Hindu inspired architecture.

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Agra

Our next stop was the city of Agra, located on the banks of the Yamuna River. Agra has a population of almost 1.7 million people, which is a large city, but it isn’t even one of India’s 20 most populous cities. (A city of 1.7 million would be the fifth most populous in the U.S., behind Houston, TX.)

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Agra fort

This fortified palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was the seat of power for the Mughal Empire for over 200 years until it was captured by the British Empire in 1803. The fort was built in 1565-1573 by Mughal Emperor Akbar and later was ruled by Akbar’s grandson, Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan was also the Emperor who ordered the construction of the Taj Mahal. Shah Jahan’s son, Aurangzeb, revolted against his father and seized control of the empire in 1658, and then imprisoned his father in the Red Fort where he could see the Taj Mahal.

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Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is one of the most famous buildings in the world. A grief-stricken Shah Jahan ordered it built in 1631 as a tomb for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. For five years, 20,000 workers labored around the clock to build this amazing monument out of white marble.

Check out this site for beautiful 360º images of the Taj Mahal.

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Taj Mahal view 2

The building’s architecture was inspired by Humayun’s tomb in Delhi. The entire complex is symmetrical except for one detail inside the building: When Shah Jahan died in 1666, his grave was placed next to his wife’s, breaking the symmetry.

The Taj Mahal was an unforgettable sight. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being “the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage.”

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Orchha

The next day we traveled to Orchha, a town in the state of Madhya Pradesh. On the island to the east or Orchha where the Betwa River and Jamni River meet, there is a huge palace-fort complex dating back to the 16th-17th centuries.

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Orchha Fort

The fort consists of several buildings constructed at different times, the most noteworthy of which are the Ram Raja Temple, a sacred Hindu pilgrimage, and the Jahangir Mahal, a palace and citadel. The Jahangir Mahal is considered one of the most beautiful examples of local Hindu architecture.

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Royal Chhatris

These buildings resemble temples but are actually memorials for the rulers of Orchha, similar to how the Taj Mahal is a memorial for Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Emperor Shah Jahan.

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Varanasi

Next we took an overnight train to the city of Varanasi, a city situated on the banks of the River Ganges. It is regarded as a holy city by Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and probably the oldest in India.

The culture of Varanasi is closely associated with the Ganges and the river’s religious importance. People often refer to Varanasi as “the city of temples,” “the holy city of India,” “city of lights,” and “the city of learning.” According to legend, the city was founded by the Hindu god Shiva several thousand years ago, thus making it one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the country. A pilgrimage is a journey to a place for religious reasons.

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Ganges River Ghats

Varanasi has nearly 88 ghats, which are riverfront steps leading to the banks of the River Ganges. Most of the ghats are ceremonial bathing ghats, while two are used as cremation sites.

Share about your experience with the Ghats and the Ganges.

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Dhamek Stupa

This is Dhamek Stupa, one of Buddhism’s most sacred sites, where the Buddha is said to have preached his first sermon and thereby established Buddhism. A stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics and used by Buddhists as a place of worship.

The city of Varanasi is one of the holiest places in Buddhism too, being one of the four pilgrimage sites said to have been designated by Gautama Buddha himself.

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Nepal

Varanasi was our last stop in India before crossing into the Himalayan country of Nepal. Nepal is bordered to the north by China, and to the south, east, and west by India. The mountainous northern half of the country has eight of the world’s ten tallest mountains, including the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest, called Sagarmatha in Nepali.

Over 80% of Nepalese people practice Hinduism, a larger majority than any other country. Buddhism is a minority religion in the country but is historically and culturally linked with Nepal, and many Hindus in the country also worship Buddhist deities and do not distinguish between Hinduism and Buddhism.

Nepal had a Hindu monarchy for most of its history but ended after a decade-long civil war in 2006 between the royal government and the Communist Party of Nepal. In 2008, Nepalis voted to end the monarchy, and they now have a democratic republic. The first President of Nepal, Ram Baran Yadav, was sworn in on July 23, 2008.

On April 25, 2015, an enormous earthquake struck Nepal, killing over 8,000 people. It also did significant damage to the infrastructure in many parts of Nepal, especially the capital and largest city, Kathmandu.

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Birthplace of Buddha

Our first destination in Nepal was Lumbini, the place where the Buddha was born in the year 642 BC/BCE. Lumbini is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas. In the Buddha’s time, Lumbini was a beautiful garden full of green and shady Sal trees (Shorea). But Lumbini remained neglected for centuries until a German archaeologist discovered the great pillar while wandering the area in 1895. Further exploration and excavation of the surrounding area revealed the existence of a brick temple and a sandstone sculpture within the temple that depicts scenes of the Buddha’s birth.

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Chitwan National Park

Next we traveled to Chitwan National Park, the first national park in Nepal. Chitwan is home to more than 700 species of wildlife including 68 mammal species such as clouded leopards, golden jackals, Indian wild dogs, sloth bears, and rhinoceroses. It is also one of the best places in the world to spot a Bengal tiger.

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Pokhara

We then traveled to the beautiful city of Pokhara. It is the second largest city in Nepal and is located on the shore of Phewa Lake. Pokhara lies on an important old trading route between India and Tibet, and today it is used as a base for trekkers hiking in the Himalayas.

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Sarangkot

Early the next morning, we traveled to Sarangkot for a sunrise view of the Annapurna Himalayas. The name for the range comes from the Hindu deity Annapurna, goddess of food and nourishment, due to rivers flowing down from the mountains that support vegetation year round on the lower plains.

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Mount Everest

Mount Everest is located further east in the Himalayas. It is the world’s highest point at 29,032 feet. Shifting tectonic plates continue to push Everest upward, along with the whole Himalayan mountain range, at a rate of about 5 mm (.2 inches) per year.

In 1841, Sir George Everest, Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843, first recorded the location of Everest. In 1865, it was renamed Mount Everest to honor Sir George. Everest is also called Chomolungma in Tibetan and Sagarmatha in Nepali. On May 29, 1953, Tenzing Norgay of Nepal and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand became the first people to reach the summit of Everest.

If you took an Everest flight, let your students know what it was like.

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Kathmandu

To end our journey, we traveled to Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. With over 1.4 million residents, Kathmandu is the largest city in Nepal. It is over ,2000 years old and is packed with history and religious significance. Many of Kathmandu’s major sights were heavily damaged in the April 2015 earthquake.

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Durbar Square

Durbar Square is a cluster of ancient temples, palaces, courtyards, and streets that date back to the 12th-18th centuries. The square is known to be the social, religious, and urban focal point of Kathmandu. The Palace complex was the royal Nepalese residence until the 19th century and was the site of important ceremonies, such as the coronation of the Nepalese monarch. The palace is decorated with elaborately-carved wooden windows and panels. It houses three museums containing the personal artifacts of three of Nepal’s former kings.

Near Durbar square is the Nyatapola Temple, a five-story pagoda located in Bhaktapur, Nepal. The temple was constructed during the reign of King Bhupatindra Malla in 1701-1702. It is dedicated to Siddha Laxmi, the Hindu goddess of prosperity.

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Swayambhunath

Swayambhunath is an ancient religious complex atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of the city. It is also known as the Monkey Temple, as there are sacred monkeys living in parts of the temple in the north-west. The Tibetan name for the site means “Sublime Trees” after the many varieties of trees found on the hill. The Swayambhunath complex consists of a stupa and a variety of Buddhist shrines and temples.

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Rani Pokhari

Rani Pokhari or Queen’s lake is a pond built by King Pratap Malla for his beloved wife in 1670. At the center of the pond there is a Hindu temple known as Matrikeshwor Mahadev. The pond and temple were badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake and restored to their original design from 1670.

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Boudhanath Stupa

Boudhanath Stupa is the largest stupa in Nepal and the holiest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet and rich in Buddhist symbolism.

The stupa is located in the eastern outskirts of Kathmandu in the town of Boudha. The stupa was probably built in the 14th century after the Mughal invasions. After the arrival of thousands of Tibetans following the 1959 Chinese invasion, the temple has become one of the most important centers of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan culture in Kathmandu.

The stupa has Buddha’s eyes and eyebrows painted on. The dome at the base represents the entire world. When a person awakes (represented by eyes of wisdom and compassion) from the bonds of the world, the person reaches the state of enlightenment.

Check out this site for some beautiful 360º images from Kathmandu.

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India and Nepal

The world is an enormous place and I’m excited that I had the opportunity to explore some of it—I encourage you to do the same!