First Steps

Mayalin ID

Namaste ... greetings, I salute the highest in you.

"Namaste" is the traditional Nepali way of saying "Hello". However, the greeting has a stronger significance than just saying "Hi". For Hindus and most Nepali people, it is a greeting with spiritual significance. Namaste or Namaskar are both a physical gesture,- placing the palms of the hands together and bowing - and a spoken spiritual salutation. Simply translated, Namaste means "I bow to the divine in you", or as it was first explained to me, "I honour, I salute the highest in you, the best in you".

When first I came to the Nepal Himalayas I was humbled and in awe of the greatness of Nature and the strength and good humoured spirit of the people who live amidst these mountains.

In the Nepali language, Maya means Love. When I worked and lived for a time in mountain villages, the people gave me the name of "Nepali Maya", which means "The Love of Nepal". Later on, villagers simply called me Maya and I liked the name they'd given me. So when creating a profile name, it seemed natural to combine my Nepali and Australian names and so, ... Mayalin.

Edit,- May, 21, 2012: As much as I like the name Mayalin, I have come to know that there is an artist and architect who's name is Maya Lin, so to prevent professional confusion, I feel it's best for me to now place my own name, here, at DA. I'll not remove the previous paragraph though, for the words may be of interest to you. Also, as some people have asked me, yes, that's me in the photograph,- a tripod and the camera's timer were used.

Nepal Himalayas. A retrospective image. Fujichrome FILM.

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