Boudhanath

Boudhanath Stupa, Kathmandu, Nepal

Going clockwise, the large Boudhanath Stupa sits while pilgrims make it move.  Its two eyes forever revealing and watching from up above. 

Surrounding this structure is architectural, colonial tiered places/homes/businesses/perhaps vacant.

                   There is a happy hum while the religious swing and touch the bells turning them as they make the circumambulation.

Monks sit here and there asking for offerings.

Older peasants are the ones that I love to watch, are they there because their time is close?

I watch their wizened eyes, crevasse faces, lined dark, tan, black Nepalese, Indians, Tibetan, Malays, Chinese and Caucasian too, as the pavement fills with walking faith.

Big Buddhas and small colorful, kitschy buddhas make their appearances like we will forget them.

The temple sprawls into smaller domes of white among the huge iconic masterpiece that is littered with several  hundred prayer flags giving hope to the day. 

lovely old pilgrim with prayer beads

May 7th, Kathmandu journal entry

Durbar Square, Kathmandu (durbar means "palace")

Watching the pigeons getting fed at Durbar Square - the place where kings were legitimized,

am told by a Nepalese man that these birds bring good luck.

They are fed generously and coo happily.

The flapping of their wings are insurmountable.

They fly in the mist of seated village folk, settle by several dozen maybe hundreds among the tiered 

temples, and sit on the heads of the gods and goddesses of old time Hindu Shivas,

they infest this place - they rule now.

They make it remarkable too, this gray bird of commonness.