Our adventure to Swayambhunath Stupa (Monkey Temple),
Everyone who has researched Kathmandu has heard of Swayambhunath, the famous religious, ancient architecture that sits north west of Kathmandu valley. It's name literally translates to the 'the self existent one' and it claims the title of biggest Stupa in Nepal and a sight of religious harmony between Buddhism and Hinduism.
On clear days, we can see the top of the Stupa from the roof top of our hotel, it sits proudly on a steep hill looking out on the valley & the people of Nepal. We awoke to a relatively clear day, minimal cloud, the air pollution wasn't affecting visibility much & the sun was shining. We decided to head to Swayambhunath Stupa while the weather permitted us the views of the Kathmandu valley we had read so much about. The sacred site was only a 3km walk from our hotel, a great distance to stretch our legs and walk through the streets outside of Thamel and gain a different perspective of Kathmandu.
The roads were occasionally sealed with rough bitumen or pavers, in places the this had been reduced to rubble, mostly it was compacted dirt and rocks. There was lots of rubbish in the streets and especially in the river, it look suspiciously like the garbage trucks were taking rubbish to be dumped in the river. Outside of Thamel the streets become more residential, the people of Nepal live in a variety of dwellings. Some small, very simple, wooden shacks, others are tall brick and cement complex's that rise 20 storeys into the sky. Evidence of the earthquake is still obvious. You can see the damage that was done to the building's still standing and you can see where buildings have fallen down leaving empty spaces behind. Sometimes in these spaces you can still see rubble and the integrity of the buildings left either side is very questionable, the Nepalese have a temporary solution to this by placing bamboo under tension in the space between the buildings that remain standing.
We pray they never have an earthquake this violent again, 3 years later and they are still recovering.
In comparison to other places, there seems to be a more even distribution of wealth throughout the citizens in Nepal, we saw only a couple of very rich people and only a couple of very poor people. Most people are friendly and it's not uncommon to receive a smile before you can give one or to hear 'namaste' as you walk past people. The women in particular dress very well, lots of them wearing the Sari dresses, with red lipstick and heavy eyeliner. I find the traditional Sari dress very bold, exotic and stylish. There are hundreds of colours, patterns and different drape styles reflecting geography and function. One thing that became immediately obvious was that in Thamel, the tourists are somewhat sheltered. In the streets of Kathmandu you see people out the front of their stores, sitting on the street working, wether that be sewing clothes, mechanical repairs, cleaning or butchering meat. We walked past many open front shops with giant pieces of meat, often whole carcass's lying on wooden benches, exposed to the elements. The animals in cages in front of these shops were kept in better conditions before slaughter, in comparison to places like China. You see people playing with children, street dogs running around getting into mischief, people bathing in buckets of water & making food.
We arrived at the base of the hill just after lunch, very sweaty ! This time of year, Nepal is hot! There are 365 stairs to the top of the hill, representing 365 days of the year.
At the top of the Hill you come face to face with the stupa, a huge collection of Tibetan prayer wheels as well as statues and shrines of Buddhist and Hindu deities. If you walk to the left of this there is a viewing platform to look back down into the Kathmandu Valley. Its hard to know where to look, the view of the valley is impressive, but so is the closer view of religious harmony around the stupa. We circumnavigate the stupa, awed at its size and turn a few prayer wheels, trying to soak up the moment listening to the prayers, bells ringing and prayer flags flapping in the wind.
After this we walked around admiring all the smaller statues and shrines, a lot of the temples we weren't allowed into and of course some things we couldn't take photographs of. We then walked into an art studio and were given a brief education on the Thangka buddhist cloth painting, that originated from Tibet. They are very impressive, complex pieces of art designed to help with meditation and some take years to complete. There are different levels of competency that artists achieve, ranging from student to professor. The detail of the paintings done by a professor are absolutely staggering.
We found one that we both liked and could visualise in a future house, it was done by a second level student and was around $40USD. Just like our art from China, it was done by a student and comes with its flaws, which makes it even more individual and it feels good to support someone on the start of their journey. Maybe one day we will by one done by a professor, these ones are expensive because of the quality of detail, the time it takes to create, but also because they have gold inlaid into the detailing.
Once we had finished in the art gallery we walked down the back of the stupa and came to a pool designed for the resident monkeys. I've never seen Monkeys swim or bomb dive until today. They were having so much fun. We watched them for a little while before starting to make our way back down the steps of the stupa and the walk back to Thamel.
Nothing eventful happened on the walk back to Thamel, when we arrived we went to The Electric Pagoda for happy hour cocktails, shisha, cat cuddles & jenga.
- Alli
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