The Last of Nepal

My brief stay in Nepal came to an end over a week ago now, but the images remain. (The final five images, that is).

The Tibetan community in exile rallies around the Boudhanath stupa. Not far from this site is the Hyatt Hotel.

Viewing the world through prayer-flag tinted glasses.

Three details of Boudhanath:

Pokhara, Nepal

A wild half-day bus trip bound west of Kathmandu, Nepal, brings tourists from India and beyond to the lakeside city of Pokhara. This is one of the legendary hiking, trekking, and mountaineering desitinations in Nepal, with the more-than-8,000-meter-tall Annapurna lurking in the town skyline.

Here is the only glimpse I got, toward the end of my last day there. The peak is emerging here from the clouds.


Being a predominantly Hindu country, cows are sacred in Nepal. Buffalos, like these, can be eaten.



Tourism is in a lull these days. This sign could serve as a the new, desperate slogan of Nepal: Don't Pass Me By!

Just a fragment of the great lake.

Place of worship.

Prayer Flags Every Which Way

Thousands of multi-colored scriptures flap in the breeze below Swayambhunath temple, in Kathmandu. This tangle of Tibetan prayer flags has been draped from the branches of a tree.

View from the hill.

Like telephone wires, but different.

Swayambhunath (Popularly Known as Monkey Temple)

One of the great landmarks of Kathmandu is the Monkey Temple (Swayambhunath) in the northwest of the city. The hill is crowned with Buddhist pagodas and a hall of Tibetan monks. There is plenty of Tibetan Buddhist iconography, and plenty of prayer wheels.

Note the huge golden vajra (Tibetan: dorje) to the right of this scene.

Secular concerns.

Buddha and Monkey.

I asked whether they serve monkey burgers here at the McMonkey Cafe, but in fact they do not.

At One of the Durbar Squares

There are a few Durbar Squares in and around Kathmandu, Nepal, but here is the one close to the tourist/traveler district of Thamel, and the city's old town section.
I should mention that the self-taught guides here are ferocious and wildly persistent.

The Bhairava statue - looks like a Hindu version of the Tibetan Buddhist fierce protector deity.




Some amazing carvings here. Your guide will joyously point out the carven depictions of tantric sex scenes. My lens just didn't have enough zoom, so you'll have to either look for the pornographic details with a magnifying glass, or else do a little exploring.


The courtyard of the Kumari, a pre-pubescent girl who has been selected as a living godess. She lives in the second story with a number of maids/attendents, who see to it that her feet never touch the ground. There is more on the Kumari at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumari

A gurkha guard.

The siva-linga (read: phallus) within the Siva Temple.