The Monkey Temple

After the mountain flight we decided on our next walking tour.  We would go see the Swayambhunath Stupa.  The small stupa we saw on our first walking trip is modeled after Swayambhunath.  The big one sits on a hill that overlooks much of Kathmandu.  (You can barely see it on the hilltop in the photo at the bottom.)  Legend says (and archaeologists agree) that the valley was once a lake, and legend says that this hill was an island.  So as early as 2000 years ago it was a sacred site, and by the 13th century it had structures of various sorts paying homage to both Hindu deities and Buddha.  Now it is almost exclusively a Buddhist location, with statues of Buddha everywhere, of all sizes, ranging from an inch high to the large golden Buddha of 6 meters (about 20 feet) to the giant Buddha eyes that watch the valley from all four sides of the center spire. 

 

Getting to the temple was...interesting.  We debated about walking, taking a cab, or taking a rickshaw.  We decided to brave it and find our way by foot.  Armed with map, guidebook, and compass, we proceeded west from Thamel.  Our host had told us it would be about a 15 minute walk.  We had to find our way through some crowded streets, hoping we were going in the right direction, but soon enough we were descending toward the river, a distinct landmark, and we could see the hill with the stupa rise on the other side of the river.  It was a lot of stairs to climb that hill.  The air quality in Kathmandu is very poor--the dust is thick (it has not yet been washed from the air by monsoons), the motorcycles are everywhere, and sanitation is poor.  Add to that the fact that Kathmandu is a mile high, and we were definitely winded climbing those stairs.

 

The coolest part of it all was the monkeys.  Though the official name is Swayambhunath, everyone refers to it as the monkey temple because the hill is swarming with wild monkeys.  I had a picture of a monkey on yesterday’s blog, but that was just one random monkey.  At Swayambhunath they were everywhere!  We kept our distance to avoid being bitten (though the danger of that I’m sure was low), and we were entertained by their swinging, jumping, playing, and occasional fighting.  They hopped on the Buddha statues and swung playfully from the Buddhist prayer flags that hang from the trees.  Melissa particularly liked the mother monkeys that ran around with baby monkeys clinging to their underbellies.  Very cute, very human-like, and fun to watch.  Monkeys in zoos are fun, but usually pretty subdued.  It was just very cool that these were naturally occurring wild monkeys, thriving in this treed hill in the center of an urban mess.

This stupa is one of the main tourist attractions in Kathmandu, if not the main one.  It was nice to blend in to a sea of other tourists rather than stick out completely as we do in most streets.  But most of the tourists are Indian, it seems, or perhaps Chinese or Tibetan.  It was also nice because, though the standard vendors were everywhere, they were not as pushy as most others.  It was crowded, but actually rather peaceful.  The view of Kathmandu was great, since the hill has a pretty high profile in nearly all directions.