Tibet Away From Home

We headed to Boudhanath hot on the tails of Bhaktapur, which plays host to many, many Tibetan exiles who left Tibet during the Chinese involvement. That means that there are seemingly hundreds of maroon clad monks perambulating the stupa, the largest in Nepal I believe, as well as lots of colourful monasteries in the surrounding area.

We had already visited Swambunath stupa, and I possibly thought that the Boudha stupa paled in comparison. True it is bigger than its counterpart, but it also enjoys a much less idyllic location, on ground level flanked by tourist shops and hemmed in by rooftop restaurants. The commercial vibe gave it a less spiritual feel than I had been expecting. That being said, there were far more people there to pray and worship than tourists, and there was an atmospheric feel to some of the monasteries, where the sound of a drum and low chanting accompanies the worship.

Boudha also has a lot of beggars, of all different varieties. Elliott and I still suck at dealing with them and knowing the right course of action and I was upset by a woman asking for milk for her baby. Of course I would give milk to a baby, but she was only asking Western tourists, which makes me doubt the veracity of her request, and was also very pushy and physical. So instead I just got upset! I'm going to be awful in India...

We had expected to stay longer but didn't really feel the need in the end so after one night, we headed back to Kathmandu via Gokarna Mahadev. This was a great Hindu temple with hundreds of Hindu statues depicting I would imagine every possibly deity. It was in a beautiful location by the river, completely free of tourists, and so we took it all in then headed back to smog filled Kathmandu. We fly to Delhi on the 1st so it's not long now until the Taj Mahal!

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