If I Ever Get Out Of Here, I'm Going To Kathmandu!

January 8, 2013

A small shrine to Shiva on the parapets overlooking the river.

A priest helping a mourner start a funeral pyre. Before ignition, the mourner marches around the deceased three times: once for Brahma, the creator, once for Vishnu, the maintainer, and once for Shiva, the destroyer. The pyre is lit at the deceased’s mouth, where the soul exits the body.

Once the pyre is lit, straw is added to aid the flames.

A wealthier person typically has fancier wrappings and a nice stretcher. They are burned up stream, where the water is more pure. There are other platforms reserved for the pyres of nobility and one reserved for the royal family as one heads up stream.

The Pashupatinath Temple, one of the most sacred temples to Shiva world wide.

The Pandra Shivalaya, 15 shrines across the Bagmati river from the temple.

A sadhu will help you perform ceremonies and rites for a donation.

A Nepalese lion guards the entrance to the temple.

A moneky scrambles on the wall to the temple compound.

The Boudhanath, a Buddhist holy site.

Prayer flags transmit the written words into the world when they flutter in the wind.

Prayer wheels in the base of the Boudhanath are spun by visitors. This prayer wheel was inside a monastery, and was spun by monks.

The Monkey Temple or Swayambhunath, which is atop a hill near the edge of the Kathmandu Valley.

A monkey at the doorway to a shrine.

A buddha.

January 8, 2013

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