Saturday, March 24, 2012

Boudhanath Stupa temple 2






I was saving Bhaktapur for my last full day, so I took at trip to this temple. It was worth it. The chanting and massive numbers of people perambulating the stupa was very impressive.

Boudhanath Stupa temple






This was a remarkable place to visit. Just being there gave me a very interesting feeling that I can't describe. The taxi ride to get there was also one of the highlights of my trip. The roof of the cab had a giant colorful picture of Guru Rinpoche, and buddhist-hindu images were all over the cab. But the driver played very loud western music the whole way. Arriving at the temple with "Slim Shady" playing made me actually laugh out loud. I wish I had a pic of that cab...

around my hotel in Kathmandu





Note the Ganesh shrine with the hammer and sickle.

some shots of the hotel room where I was sick and hurt






This includes my view, and a pot of the masala tea that I drank almost every day in Nepal. I hope that some day I won't remember crawling from that bed to that bathroom in pain.

Tibetan Buddhist temple Patan 2






The most memorable part of going to this temple was the two monks who were walking around, spinning the prayer wheels. Eventually the junior monk just started running around spinning the wheels as fast as he could, which is exactly what I would have done if I was him.

Tibetan Buddhist temple Patan






Some nice bronze work in this temple. It was outside of the square.

Patan Durbar square 7






It just goes on and on

Patan Durbar square 7

It just goes on and on

Patan Durbar square 6 - hell!






In addition to lots of sex carvings, they also have some carvings of what will happen to you in hell. Jolly demons do horrible things to you, it seems.

Patan Durbar square 5





This was another interesting one. Apparently, this had to do with some demon who was given invulnerability, so he could not be harmed by a man or a beast, on the earth or in the air, and plenty of other stipulations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyakashipu). So he's killed by something that is neither one thing or another, on his lap (which I guess is neither in the air or on the earth) with fingernails (which are not really weapons, I guess). Anyway, it's an interesting gory story I think.

Patan Durbar square 4




Patan Durbar square kali temple





This was very interesting! This was a temple dedicated to Kali, and during her festival each year they sacrifice lots of animals to her! You can seen cow intestines hanging from the doorway - not what I would have expected from Hindus, but I'm happy to learn. Like most temples, I am too unclean to see the inner sanctum, which is too bad. It must be something to see that festival.