Bouddhanath stupa ,the eye of Buddha all over the capital city

                             The Bouddhanath Stupa

the eyes of Buddha all over the capital.

There is  one main physical focus – The Great Chorten or Stupa – in this once small village called Boudha to the east of Kathmandu . Hundreds of years ago it  gained importance as a stopping point on the great yak caravan route from this valley to Lhasa, a shrine to leave offerings or petitions at journey’s start or end.

These days, however, it is the heart of the growing Tibetan Buddhist community in the Kathmandu valley and has attracted all around it both refugees who fled their homeland when the Chinese invaded  in 1959 and the Sherpas who have branched out from their traditional heartland in the Khumbu. We  spent a couple of memorable mornings at Boudhanath, walking around and taking in the stupa from various vantage points.

All around the Stupa are multi-storey homes, guesthouses, gompas, meditation centers, thangka shops, cafés and restaurants…it is teeming with life.  In fact, on my next visit to Kathmandu, I will make Boudhanath my base camp during the time I spend in the valley.  Being there early in the morning or later at night after the tourist/pilgrim ratio changes  would make the experience even more special.

From the main road you walk through the archway and down the narrow street pictured above, first stopping at the ticket booth where you pay a nominal entrance fee. You walk into a sea of Tibetan prayer flags, all imprinted with mantras whose positive energy the wind is said to blow into the world. All around the stupa, prayer wheels spin, turned by pilgrims who walk by in a clockwise direction.

evening view of buddhanath stupa at bouddha.

The Stupa is about 40 meters high and 100 meters in diameter.  While it may be Nepal’s largest, the current Lonely Planet guide is wrong to call it Asia’s “largest stupa”. Sri Lanka’s Anuradhapura, for example,  has two stupas which are much higher – the Jetavanaramaya  at 122 meters and the Ruwanwelisaya at 92 – and with larger diameters. Beyond all the measurements, however, the scene  around the stupa at Boudhanath was definitely much more atmospheric and vibrant than what I found with the Sri Lankan stupas (dagobas in Sinhala) since they are in an archaeological zone away from the modern city.