Swayambhu

Another Saturday, another temple. This week it was Swayambhunath, the famed hilltop monkey temple (so called because of the troupe of monkeys who haunt the surrounding hill and amuse visitors with tricks). The view of Swayambhunath from afar is striking, one of the most recognised symbols of Kathmandu, the stupa flanked by two white temples in the tall, thin Indian shikhara style. 

Getting to Swayambhu involved a rough, sweaty, uphill half hour bike ride.  It was therefore with some dismay that I faced the 365 steps up to stupa platform.  It actually turned out to be an enjoyable climb, with plenty of interesting stone sculptures of the Buddha and various animal carvings along the way, all under a leafy shade.  The view at the top would have been wonderful had it not been for the smog.  

The stupa platform is not large and the stupa itself seemed rather less impressive than the one at Boudha.  It is, however, older and considered just as important.  Whilst Boudhanath is popular with Tibetan Buddhists, Swayambhunath is frequented by Newari Buddhists.  (Note: Swayambhu and Boudha are both names of places, the -nath suffix refers to the temple there).

I was surprised by how crowded it was, not with tourists but with locals Hindus who had come on what transpired to be a festival day to worship at the adjacent Hariti Temple.  One of the things I like so much about Nepal is the peaceful coexistence of Buddhism and Hinduism.  The photo below shows both the stupa (left) and the temple (right), in the foreground are centuries-old tombs holding cremated ashes.

Also around the stupa is the another beautiful and very old temple or gompa (I'm not sure which).  The inside is covered by exquisite murals depicting, I think, the life of the Buddha.  Unfortunately my photos of the inside didn't come out well, but here's one of the outside:

Inside the temple/gompa, locals were performing various puja:

I had a non-super-informative guide whose one saving grace was that he took me to the nearby Amideba Buddha Park, which I didn't know about and hence would not have found by myself.  The massive gold sculptures are only a few years old and quite intimidating in their size and brightness.  I'm not sure how tall they actually are, but the photo below should give you an idea, using the people at the bottom for scale:

My guide deposited me back at the stupa, at which point I was very glad to be rid of him.  After another hour and a half at the stupa for lunch, more wandering around and photo-taking, drops of rain began to fall.  I quickly headed down but couldn't cycle home quickly enough to stop myself getting completely drenched.