Summer 2014 in Nepal: Kathmandu

Still needs updating!

16 August 2014

Bouddhanath

Bouddhanath is a Tibetan Buddhist temple in the outskirts of Kathmandu. As the colourful prayer flags fly in the sky, several pilgrims, monks and other believers walk clockwise around the stupa whilst turning the prayer wheels as they go along.

The flags represent the 5 elements and it is said that a balance of these provides health and harmony.

Blue : sky and space

White: air and wind

Red: fire

Green: water

Yellow: earth

Observing the people from a rooftop Himalayan café.

Pashupatinath

"The mecca of the Hindus"

So without even asking for a guide, I had a guide. Turns out this was quite useful actually to learn about the different meanings of things.

The story of the holy goat.

The burning of the bodies.

The mirror-like openings. There are 11 of these small temples lined up each one with shiva lingua inside representing fertility.

Durbar Square in Kathmandu

15 August 2014

The city of Kathmandu

First impression of Kathmandu: COLOURFUL with a sensory overdose!

My morning goal destination was Durbar Square. As I left the hostel with a map in hand I was confident to find my way around as I usually do. However I was greatly mistaken and my orientation confidence decreased with every fruit bike I passed. The streets were set up as random as can be and of course there were no visible street names. It also didn't help that there was a layer of mud which made looking at the ground essential to prevent a slippery fall. Eventually I changed plans and hopped onto a rickshaw to visit Swayambhunath, also known as monkey temple, located 2km west of Kathmandu.

The rickshaw driver dropped me below some abandoned looking steps. As I read that there were steps leading to the top I suspected this to be the right place, so up I went. At the top I reached a small temple, however..............as hard as I looked (even sometimes mistakingly seeing a lion statue as a monkey) there were no monkeys to be seen, so this cannot be the monkey temple!

Following my intuition I continued walking up the muddy path until I eventually saw the stupa upon a hill in the distance.

The climb up was an exhausting 365 steps whilst trying to avoid getting attacked by the monkeys. Taking into consideration my previous monkey incident in Malaysia, I was quite focused on avoiding them and I kept thinking "don't look into the eyes, don't look into the eyes"!

The view from the top:

The eyes overlook the whole city and represent wisdom and compassion. The third eye in between sends messages to heavenly beings via cosmic rays, so that those interested can come down to earth to listen to the Buddha.