Boudhanath. A name meant to attract me.
Where my stay in Nepal began and ended.
Where the spirituality transported me to the depths of myself.
Where I felt in a state of flux
Boudhanath, or Bauddha as the Nepalese calls it, is an important Buddhist sanctuary in the heart of a predominantly Hindu country. More than 10,000 Tibetans have taken refuge in this area since the exile of the 14th Dalai Lama in India in 1959.
The city is renowned for its huge stupa considered to be one of the largest in the world. From the sky, the structure represents an enormous mandala. On each side of the tower are painted the eyes of Buddha. It is the gaze of wisdom that sees everything and knows everything. The pyramidal shape of the top of the tower represents the path to enlightenment.
The legend of the stupa
There are several stories and legends about the construction of the stupa. The most popular one tells that a poor poultry guardian widow intended to build a monument to pay homage to the Buddha by using her meager savings. She went to see the king to ask for his permission, which, surprisingly, he agreed on condition that the ground does not exceed the size of the skin of a water buffalo. Ingeniously, the woman cut the skin of the buffalo into thin strips which she arranged from one end to the other to form an enormous circumference. Her ambition created much jealousy in the community that asked the king to stop the work. The king refused on the pretext that he could not return on his promise. The woman died before the end of the work, which was completed by her four sons.
A fascinating spiritual place
When arriving and leaving the site, it is customary to formulate a prayer by addressing your wishes to the stupa. It is said that the place is so powerful that anyone who expresses his or her wishes will see them realized, especially during a first visit.
After admiring for a moment the imposing monument while making my prayer, the atmosphere captivated all of my senses. A strong odour of incense was burning. With a gesture of the hands, people wrapped themselves with the smoke of the incense to purify themselves. Herds of pigeons were flying. Some were ringing the huge golden bell behind.
I had never seen a religious place filled with such devotion.
I had never seen people prayed with such fervor.
The devotees are coming with their mala that they hold in their left hand. A mala is a prayer beans similar to a rosary made out of 108 beans. They are used by Buddhists and Hindus to recite mantras, sacred phrases endowed with spiritual power.
The ritual consists of walking around the stupa in a clockwise direction, reciting 108 times or more, a mantra by snapping the mala to keep the count.
When I was seeing old women praying with their mala, it reminded me my grandmother reciting her rosary for the well-being of all her family.
Some Tibetans go around the stupa by making full body prostrations. A gesture that is supposed to give them more merit.
Prayer wheels
Around the stupa are small prayer wheels that devotees spin with their right hand also in a clockwise direction. On these wheels are engraved the precious mantra “Om Mani Padme Hum” and inside the same syllables are written thousands of times on scraps of paper. It is said that the act of turning the prayer wheels brings great purification and gives the same merit as having recited them as many times as the mantra is written on the paper inside.
Strips of white fabrics and Tibetan scarves are attached here and there near the prayer wheels. These scarves are a sign of blessing and are also given to people as a protection.
Above this enormous circumference floats an abundance of Buddhist flags and prayers flags which give a festive spirit to the sacred place.
Prayer flags
A series of prayer flags is composed of five colors, one for each element of the Earth.
- Blue: sky
- White: air
- Red: fire
- Green: water
- Yellow: earth
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In the center of the flag is printed the wind horse which symbolizes well-being and good fortune.
Around is written several times the mantra of great compassion, “Om Mani Padme Hum”, very precious for Tibetans and Nepalese.
Prayer flags bring peace, prosperity, luck, compassion, happiness, health and victory over obstacles. It is a blessing offered by the breath of the nature.
Mahayana Buddhism
This was the first time I was exposed to this branch of Buddhism practiced in Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia and Japan in particular. The monasteries are so colorful and very different from the Buddhist temples I visited in other countries of Southeast Asia.
The paintings of the divinities (Bodhisattva) are magnificent and those of the mandalas are captivating. Paintings are found as much in the monasteries as in the shops, as the portrait of the 14th Dalai Lama.
Merit – what goes around comes around
Merit is a key concept in Hinduism and Buddhism. By doing good deeds people feed their good karma. The accumulation of merit aims to improve the quality and circumstances of their next lives and eventually free themselves from the suffering of the cycle of reincarnation and ultimately reach enlightenment. More than a concept, it is their way of life.
This explains many things. The corn vendors around the stupa give the pilgrims the opportunity to buy grain to feed the pigeons and thus feed their good karma.
The beggars hope to count on the good actions of the visitors to collect a few rupies. Ascetic monks are sitting on the ground with their little prayer books ready to offer their blessings in exchange of a donation. Thus turns the wheel of life, the wheel of karmic existence according to the Buddhists.
In the evening, many tables are installed with hundreds of lanterns waiting to be lit to make the wishes of the passers-by shine. The light of the lanterns embraces perfectly the tranquility of the place. But there is this cold that brings me back from my reveries.
Yellow apples and memorable encounters
A morning walk in the neighboring little streets also plunged me into a state of introspection. One of my habits was to buy yellow apples, another thing that reminds me of my grandmother who often had some in her fruit bowl. I simply loved to watch this fascinating mix between Hindu traders and Buddhist monks that characterizes so well this region.
One afternoon, while I was listened intriguingly to the prayers of the monks in the embrasure of the door of a monastery, one of them beckoned me to enter and to sit behind him. After the ceremonial, he showed me around the stupa while talking about Nepal and the reconstruction of the stupa that was still going on at the time. I felt he could read my openness and interest for his religion, but also that he wanted to keep me company. It really touched me.
A friend, Brian, introduced me to Rinkuram, a shoemaker who welcomes his friends and customers with such candor in his little spot on the street. I discovered a man of deep wisdom. Sitting both in the street under the curious gaze of passers-by, his presence and his discourse on life appeased me.
His story deeply moved me.
As it is customary, his marriage was arranged by his parents. After being introduced to his future wife, his parents wanted to back down thinking it might be too difficult for him. Rinkuram moves on crutch because of a handicap with one leg. His future wife is blind. He told his parents, “You chose her for me, as it is my fate I will marry her and love her. He has now been married for 7 years. He is 28 years old and they have three beautiful children who help their mother at home. He talked to me about his wife with so much love. This man deeply inspired me by his way of seeing life with such positivism, gratitude and gaiety. An exemplary soul that will have a very good next life, I am convinced.
On my last day in Boudhanath, he offered me his blessings with one of these white Tibetan scarves. I carried it on my shoulders all the way back to Bali. One time when we were talking both seated on the ground under the curious glance of the passers-by he heard a plane. He looked up in the sky and said to me: It’s my dream to take a plane one day! He did not say it with envy or sadness, but with one of those most beautiful smiles and his eyes filled with hope.
Like the energy of the stupa, this encounter resulted in a lot of things that circled within me. You know when you listen to someone and even though the story your hear is different from yours it touches you to the point of understanding some of your behaviors and parts of your life like you never did before.
Going around in circles
Even if I borrow different paths in my life, I sometimes feel like I am going around in circles, maybe you’ve experienced that feeling before? The religious context of Boudhanath with all these notions of circles, cycles and wheels amplified this feeling.
Walking around the stupa made me walk along an inner path. Meeting all of those great people along the way was a blessing to learn something new about myself or to rediscover many aspects of my life that I forget to see at times.
It is in these moments that it is good to descend a little deeper in oneself to discover layers never before observed.
Namaste,
Nathalie
