Monkey temple,or Swayambhunath,located on the top of a western hill in Kathmandu,offers fine views over it and the whole valley,esp.in early evening. Nicknamed as Monkey temple after large tribes of monkeys staying around, feeding mostly on the offerings from the temple.
Legend has it that the hill on which the temple stands used to be an island while the whole valley a big lake.And Bodhisattva Manjushri took his mighty sward and with one blow cut open the valley edge to release the waters.
The most famous structure there is the big stupa, with the watchful eyes of the Buddha on each side of its gold-colored square block.The question mark-like 'nose' is actually the Nepali number '1', symbolic of unity.And between the two eyes is the third eye, symbol of the Buddha's perception and wisdom. As a Buddhist stupa, its base is white painted, which represents the four elements of earth, fire, air and water in Tibetan Buddhism, and its 13 concentric rings on the spire symbolize the 13 degrees of knowledge and 13 steps into nirvana, which is then represented by the umbrella on the very top of the stupa.
Interestingly, besides Buddhist stupa and monastery behind, the site has,but also, Hindu temple for Hariti ( Ajima ), the goddess of smallpox, as well as two Indian Shikhara temple flanking on both sides of the stupa, which were later added around 17th century by King Malla, who also had the eastern stairway constructed. All these show that constant intermingle of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs in Nepal, in the history and at present.
No comments:
Post a Comment