The yatra begins in Kathmandu, where the group gathers for the first time. There is no rush on this first day; it is given to arrival, to rest, and to settling into the rhythm of a journey that is unlike an ordinary trip.
In the evening we take darshan at Pashupatinath, one of the most revered shrines of the Hindu world, on the banks of the Bagmati. It is a fitting threshold. Before the corridor opens, before the gorge and the high desert, we stand at a great seat of Shiva and set our intention for the days ahead.
An opening reading frames what is to come, drawn from the scholarship that shapes the whole yatra. By the time you rest that night, the journey has already begun inwardly.