The most sacred and ancient Buddhist Stupa Swayambhunath

Swyambhunath bearing the meaning "self-emerged" is the most sacred and ancient Buddhist Stupa in Nepal.It was founded by the great-grandfather of King Manadev in the 5th century AD though it's origin however, date to a much earlier time, long before the arrival of Buddhism into the valley.It is lofty white dome with glittering golden spire with pair of big eyes on each of the four sides of the main Stupa symbolizing the God's all-seeing perspective.Swayambhunath stupa is also called the Monkey Temple because of the many hundreds of monkeys dwelling there.There are many chaityas, temples, painted images of deities and other religious objects like prayer wheels and flags for the Tibetan Buddhists to be seen.

According to Swayambhu Purana,Kathmandu Valley at the very beginning was a huge lake, out of which grew a lotus that radiated a brilliant light.The Bodhisatva Manjushri seeing that the valley could be a good settlement for the humans,cut a gorge with a sharp sword at Chovar and drained the water away leaving the valley of present day "Kathmandu". The lotus was transformed into a hillock and the blazing light became the Swayambhunath stupa.

Swayambhunath Temple

Stupa at Swayambhunath

Eyes of SwayambhunathPigeons on the white dome and dogs serenely lying around.

Stairway to Swayambhunath temple.It has 365 steps.

Shikhara , erected by King Pratap Malla
Prayer Flags
Small Stupas and prayer flags hanging around

Buddhist Monk behind the huge bell

Devotees spinning the prayer wheels

Bajra

Swayambhunath

Buddhist gompa at Swayambhunath

Buddha of light , Deepankar Buddha at Swayambhu

Wishing pool with statue of Buddha at Swayambhunath

Statues of Lord Buddha at the entrance area.

Swayambhunath hillock

Monkeys at Swayambhunath also called MONKEY TEMPLE

City view from the Swayambhu temple.

A gigantic statue of Lord Bishnu carved on a five-meter-long boulder.

First of all I would like to wish all my readers,visitors and friends a very

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

These are few shots of Budhanilkantha Temple.Budhanilkantha meaning "old blue-throat" is a gigantic ( carved on a five-meter-long boulder) shrine of Lord Bishnu also Ananta shahin Narayan lying serenely on the coiled body of Ananta Sesh ( 11 hooded serpent ).This huge stone carving of Lord Bishnu with his legs crossed and holding SHANKHA (conch), Charkra(disc), GADHA(club) and PADMA(Lotus)in his four hands seems to be floating amidst a small pond covering an area of around 882 sq. meters.The deity is over 1000 years old and has enormous significance to both the Hindus and Buddhists.This masterpiece is also known as the Sleeping Vishnu Temple.
The Royals(especially the reigning monarch) are restricted to enter the Temple premises for various inauspicious religious notions.

History:

This statue had been carved by the order of the King Vishnugupta of the Licchavi dynasty in the 7th or 8th century.Legend says that the deity was surprisingly lost and was later found by a farmer as he hit the buried shrine while ploughing and the statue started bleeding.The statue came to complete exposure on further mining.

THE ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE

Views of Lord Vishnu sleeping on the coiled body of serpents form different angles.

Cute Monkey

I was on my way and there I saw a man with this cute little monkey.I just could not stop myself from clicking few shots.It was a trained monkey.The guy was in the city to entertain the people by showing his trained monkey's cute activities. As i did not have much time i had to miss the show but at least i managed to save few of his image in my n95 . I hope you all will find this cute.

Is not he cute? hehe

He was sitting on a rock tied with a metal chain.

This one looks likes he is posing for the click

Look at his expression! he looks happy being the model of the day LOL

Statue of the Lord Gautam Buddha

Last week I was going to Balaju and on the way was the Amitabh Buddha park located at the west side of the Swoyambunath Stupa where these bigger than the life sized statues of the three Buddhas stand high.These are the biggest statues of Buddha ever in Nepal constructed in 2007.

Statue of Lord Amitaba Buddha (67 ft)

A brief history on Lord Buddha:Gautam Buddha originally Siddartha Gautam was born to King Suddhodan and Queen Mayadevi in Kapilvastu, Lumbini, Nepal in 563 B.C.At the age of 16 he was married to Princess Yashoda who bore a son, Rahul.
Despite the King's continuous effort of shielding his son from the human sufferings, Siddartha once happened to encounter an old man and further a sick man,a dead body.Deeply grieved by these sights Sidartha left the palace in search of the real meaning of one's life.He was 29 years old then.Leaving his royal life behind, he started to live like a mendicant. Siddhartha went to renowned sages but was unsatisfied with their answers to his queries.He followed the path of self-mortification that pushed him near to death.When he realized that this too was futile, he gave up and started meditating intensely sitting under the Bodhi Tree ( Pipal tree) in Bodhgaya.And on the 49th day of his meditation he attained ENLIGHTENMENT.He finally found out the ultimate truth of life and the cause of its sufferings and also how to end these infinite sorrows .He was 35 years old then.He then became BUDDHA, the awakened or enlightened one and spent the next 45 years spreading his knowledge to the mankind. He called his teachings "the Middle Way" a path of moderation.He established an order of monks called the Sangha.And at the age of 80 he was freed from the cycle of the birth and death.
Avalokiteshvara (Left) , Amitaba Buddha ,(center) and Padmasambhava (Right)

Statue of Lord Avalokiteshvara (64 ft)

Statue of Lord Padmasambhava (64 ft)

Buddha's four Noble truth
1. Human life is suffering.
2. All suffering is caused by human desires.
3. The end of desires is the end of human sufferings.
4. An end to all the desire can be achieved by following the Eightfold Noble Path which are

• Right view
• Right intention
  
• Right Speech
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration