Bodhnath Stupa and Bhaktapur

November 2, 2012: Bodhnath Stupa and Bhaktapur

Our tour leaders Marian Leighton and Razzu Tuladhar of Samsara Journeys had a big day planned for us. After breakfast we boarded a bus and headed for Bodhnath Stupa, one of Nepal's most famous Buddhist temples. The bus dropped us off on a busy street and at first we couldn't see the temple. After walking through an archway and between some buildings, we then could see Bodhnath Stupa and the square that surrounds it.

Having been built up over the years, and is surrounded by buildings. As our guide gave us the background of Bodhnath Stupa, we watched as Buddhist worshippers walked around the site clockwise, with many touching one of the 147 sets of prayer wheels set into niches in the wall. It is believed that Bodhnath Stupa was started by AD 600. Monasteries surround Bodhnath Stupa and we took time to visit one of them. The senior monks were chanting while the junior monks watched. No one seemed to mind as we walked in and toured through the monastery. At the entrance to the monastery was a prayer wheel that must have been fifteen feet in diameter and fifteen feet high. Several of us grabbed the handle at the bottom and walking clockwise helped to spin the giant prayer wheel.

On our trip to Nepal, four of us had transported brand new laptop PCs from Vancouver to Kathmandu. These laptops were donated to the Shree Mangal Dvip Boarding School. Our tour included a visit to SMD where we were greeted by the Director, Shirley Blair. We learned more about the school, which is dedicated to teaching children from the high Himalayan villages. These villages have no water sources or electricity and some have infant mortality rates as high as 75%. Children often walk from the Himalayan Mountains to Kathmandu in order to attend SMD. Children are taken as young as four years old and teaching goes to grade ten. Students must find their own way to raise money, if they wish to learn grade eleven and twelve. We learned a lot about the education system in Nepal, or perhaps we should say the lack of education.

After our visit to SMD school, we had lunch at a roof top restaurant overlooking Bodhnath Stupa. One of our group spilled some pop and soon there was a group of ants enjoying the spill. When we asked our waiter to remove the ants, he very carefully brushed them to the ground taking great care to ensure that one of them were hurt, before cleaning up the pop spill. As a Westerners, it was interesting to see Buddhist philosophy in action.

After lunch, we took a bus to Bhaktapur is the third largest town in the Kathmandu valley. Traffic free, it is a medieval city where a lot of people live side by side with sights like the Nyatapola Temple, the highest in the Kathmandu valley. We wandered among tourists and locals alike, before climbing the steep steps of Nyatapola Temple and taking in the views of the square. We kept exploring, stopped for an afternoon drink, and watched a potter manually spin a wheel to make a jug. Then it was time for a long bus ride back to our hotel where we all made separate arrangements for dinner.

More photos are available in David's Kathmandu Photo Set.

Our trip was organized and led by Marian Leighton of Vancouver, BC with local support for our trip provided by Razzu Tuladha of Samsara Journeys based in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Previous Next