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Published: April 4th 2013
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The 14th century old Great Stupa of Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal never ceased to fail me because of its gigantic three level Mandala dome, a height of thirty six meters, with sixteen walls of one hundred and eight small turning wheels, adorned with colored prayer flags that waved gracefully against the sky. Four pairs of Buddha’s eyes facing four directions marking my steps, my thoughts and my speech. A circumambulate (kora) of one hundred and fifty meters which only took twenty minutes to walk round the Stupa. Well, I usually take more than this, maybe close to two hours, twice or thrice a day for my photography session of the Stupa, the people and the surrounding.
These devotees’ starts very early in the morning, around 5.00am and ends at 8.00pm. Herbal Incense filled the air, offerings of butter lamp, and flowers with oil. They walked and prayed as many round they can, some even prostrated round the Stupa, concentrating on Mind, Body and Speech which is one of the fundamental practices of the Tibetan Buddhists. Some fed the pigeons and the dogs and I found out that the dogs here are the most relax around the Stupa. They can sleep anywhere
on the grounds of the Stupa, even on people’s path and not perturbed by human presence. They are more at home than anyone else. They only barked at garbage collectors, obvious reason.
Shops open at 9.00am, some later at 11.00am as more tourists throng the place by this time. Full activities can be seen, street people begging, devotees of hundreds begin their bouts, paints for sale and the tourists find this fascinating, seeing them taking photos and scurrying around to shop, pointing here and there, fighting for time to see it all. Quite hectic but I see smiles on most of them. Inviting items to buy, window shopping if can’t afford (hehehe), one should not missed the prayer beads, silvers and copper prayer items, Tibetan incense, colorful Tibetan fashion, scarves, caps and hats, Thangkas (Tibetan Art), CDs and DVDs. If you love books, a good place for all readers to digest. And of course the old colorful buildings that surround the Stupa that has restaurants,mostly western and shops..
I took a rest at Ariya for my breakfast, served very good mocha coffee and vege roll, my lunch at the Garden Kitchen, very good Vegetarian Momos (Tibetan Dumplings in
Soup with Spinach) and dinner, usually at my friend’s house, home cook vegetarian meal and very nice homemade curd with fruits. I did this everyday and I am never tired of it. Every day the photos tell me different stories, even wanting to do more and I know I am that crazy when comes to photography because I am energized by the powers of The Great Stupa.
Hope you will like all the photographs displayed here. Yup, 201 photos for your perusal.
Note: The Great Stupa is a living ancient city by UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE in 1979.
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auspicious
Michelle Duer
You definitely managed to capture a whole story book of portraits, color, and activity. Beautiful!