a puja on the Stupa
painting the stupa on Saga Dawa
The Thangka that i bought of Amithaba Buddha
I was looking forward to getting to Boudha as I was meeting friends from Dharamsala, and while there I also bumped into some other people I had met in India, so there felt like a lot of familiarity even though I had not been to the place before.
Boudha is a big Tibetan settlement, and is home to the worlds largest stupa. I happened to be here at the time that Nepal celebrates the birth of Buddha (Saga dawa in Tibetan), so the whole place was heaving, as many people came to do kora (circumnavigating the stupa in a clockwise direction) around the stupa. To do kora on this holy day is said to be of great merit, so i got up early (4.30am), along with many others, and did about 160 prostrations around the stupa. During the remainder of the day, I attended a local Guru Rinpoche puja and did a lot of walking kora around the stupa – hopefully gaining alot of merit along the way... ;-)
The most humbling sight during this day was seeing Khandro Rinpoche (she is the oracle to the Dalai Lama) doing prostrations around the stupa after a heavy rainfall. Her devotion to her practice was unquestionable - and her robes sopping wet!
I had bought a Thangka painting of Amitaba Buddha the previous day, and it arrived in the evening on Saga Dawa – so very auspicious!
Since arriving in Kathmandu, I have not visited anywhere else except Boudha, so upon my return i will have to do a bit more exploring.
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