Day 64 - The Garden of Dreams, Kathmandu, Nepal,
The day started as most do for us in Thamel, a late wake up, cold shower's and breakfast at one of our favourite cafes called Bon Appetite. After this we returned to our rooftop balcony with the laptop and made some sight seeing plans for today. It is the first day we both feel well enough that walking a few kilometres to do some sight seeing, away from the security of hotel & cafe bathrooms should be safe.
We head out of Thamel and walk onto a busier street section of Kathmandu for a few kilometres. The weather is pleasantly sunny, not very hot and there is a mild breeze that occasionally blows some dust onto us.
It doesn't feel like long before we arrive at the entrance to The Gardens. We pay 200NPR each for tickets & head in.
The garden of Dreams is a peaceful, well maintained, classical garden, encased behind a wall & hidden away from the noise, pollution and press of life, in busy Kathmandu.
Originally built in 1920, with heavy Edwardian Style Inspiration, it was one of the most sophisticated & private gardens at the time. It contains all the key elements of a classical garden. Cute animals, birds, ever green grass, blooming flowers, ponds, fountains, pagodas & statues. The garden was created & funded by Kaiser Sumsher Rana, unfortunately with his death in 1964, also came the death of the gardens funding & it lay neglected for decades. Renovations for the garden happened between 2000 & 2007 after receiving funding by the Austrian Development Aid, by that time however, pavilions and other structures were barely standing, most of the exotic flora had died and weeds had ravaged garden paths & pillars. Today only half of the original garden remains open to the public.
Though not very big, you easily could spend quite a few hours, just sitting, listening & watching.
After we had grown bored of peaceful reflection and admiring flowers, we headed towards the exit and back out onto the hustle and bustle of the busy roads & towards our hotel in a round about way. While exploring the previous day we walked down an alleyway & saw a stupa soaring high above the buildings. We weren't sure of its name & with the appearance of large rain drops falling on us, we left quickly. We returned today to photograph it and give it the appropriate time of admiration it deserves. It is called Kaathe Swyambhu Shee: Gha: Chaitya, a buddhist Stupa with temple attached.
Unfortunately, I can't find any reliable information on the internet to learn the history of this Stupa.
However, I now do know quite a bit about buddhist Stupa's and their meaning. Stupa, basically means 'heap' and it is a round, structure containing spiritual relics, sometimes the bones of monks, nuns or animals and offerings. It is actually a pre buddhist practice, they were once known as tumuli, which was a mound of earth or stones surrounding a corpse that was buried sitting up. This was first recorded in India. Once the establishment of Buddhism included the use of stupas, the cremated remains of the Buddha who had reached Parinirvana were split into 8 and buried under a mound each, while another 2 mounds were given to the urn and the embers. Parinirvana is a buddhist term meaning nirvana-after-death, this occurs with the death of the body of someone who has attained the status of Nirvana during his or her life.
The presence of Buddhist stupas dates to the late 4th century BCE in India, with archaeological evidence backing up this claim. However, buddhist records claim that stupas were used a century before this, the evidence of these stupas being lost could be attributed to the fact they were made with organic material such as wood.
A stupa is a place for peaceful meditation & prayer, many will also be neighbours to temples, monasteries and prayer halls . In Buddhism, circumnavigation of the stupa is a very important ritual & a sign of devotion, there will always be a path circling around the Stupa. In Mongolia where most of the Stupa's are made of rocks, bones & wood, it is also an important act to add to the stupa once you have made your way around the stupa and said a prayer. In Nepal, the Stupa's are a solid structure, constructed to last the test of time and hopefully the earthquakes that destroy the land on a semi regular basis. Here we see a big stupa, stories high in the air, painted elaborately, prayer flags attached to the highest points, surrounded by several other smaller stupa's containing buddha statues.
I am assuming this stupa is from the Tibetan buddhism beliefs, representing the 5 purified elements.
The more I read and learn about buddhism, the more questions I have & the more I feel I don't know. The more I want to learn! It is one of the oldest, most complicated, many faceted & far reaching religions that we have encountered. There are many countries who's population's of people uphold strong & large belief systems based in buddhism. It has adapted and changed throughout each origin, country & dynasty, to make it individual and yet its beliefs are unified. Its a very powerful religion, the faith the people display is tangible, palpable & memorable.
I'm sure that the more we travel, the more we will see & learn of buddhism & other religions that make up the vast diversity of belief and faith in this world. Exposure to these things is one of the reasons we travel!
- Alli
चैत्य
चैत्य
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