Boudhanath

Boudhanath (Boudha) is a Tibetan Buddhist temple used extensively on advertising for tourism in Nepal. It is one of 10 UNESCO hertitage sites in Nepal, and at only a half-hour bus ride from Kathmandu, well worth a visit.

The central Stupa dates back to 600AD, when it was built by the Tibetan King who converted to Buddhism, allegedly as a memorial after he unwittingly killed his father. It was rebuilt in the 14th century after it was destroyed by invading Mogals.

Surrounding the Stupa are several Gompas (monasteries), complete with schools (lots of little monks-in-training walking around in their maroon robes - some of the boys I would think were as young as six), prayer halls etc.  Sometimes on entering a prayer hall, you can hear the monks chanting, and with the beautiful brightly coloured walls, golden Buddha statues and incense, the atmosphere is quite spiritual.

After Boudha, we visited the Gokarna Mahadev Temple, with its many stone statues of Hindu gods, some dating back over 1000 years beside the tranquil Bagmati River, and then walked to a temple set up on the hillside - what we thought was Kopan Monastery, but since think might have been a different one!

Local men release statues of Hindu Gods into Bagmati River