Thursday we visited Boudhanath, an enormous Buddhist stupa, which is a mound or dome. I'm still writing from internet cafes so I can't upload pictures easily. Everytime we sit down in a restaurant that offers wi-fi so our laptops can connect, the power is out 10 minutes later. Currently it is out 4 hours a day, soon to be 8 hours a day, in part because of low water levels that reduce hydroelectic power. Everyone has generators so essentials such as lights are (mostly) kept on, but non-essentials such as internet go down. Also it affects what kind of foods we can order in restaurants.
Good news, though: the garbage collection strike is over!
Back to Boudhanath--it is the size of a football field, and the crowds circle clockwise, spinning hundreds of prayer wheels that surround it. It is home to many Buddhist monks, many of them refugees from Tibet. (Nepal is careful not to offend its powerful neighbor China on the Tibet issue, and recently declared its agreement with the "one China" policy on both Tibet and Taiwan. ) Yesterday we met in a restaurant a buddhist lama (teacher, not necessarily the same as a buddhist monk) who was originally from Italy. He had a very forward personality and was fun to talk to. -- Atop the stupa at Boudhanath is a great golden tower, with eyes painted on each face. It is hard to describe. We also toured a thanka (sacred painting) school-- not so sacred that they weren't willing to sell us a couple of thankas, one a peace mandala meditation and the other a representation of the Wheel of Life, or Samsara, appropriate since we are staying at the Hotel Samsara (but ironic, since Samsara in Buddhist theology is a bad thing).
Tomorrow (New Year's day) we hope to go to Bhaktipur--but there may be a strike. That is life in Nepal.
