There may very well have been a Stupa on this site since the 6th or 7th Century and what is there now has been there since the 14th Century. That's what the book says. The book was published in October 1990. It is a First Edition. It was published after I had set off. It could hardly have been more up to the minute. How could they get it so wrong? Perhaps one day the book I have will be worth a fortune as one of the last examples of the Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit First Edition - the one with the famous mistake regarding the cover photograph.
This has been causing me some worry because my notes are not very good (as usual). They might not be very good but so far they haven't been completely wrong. The entry is clear. It says "all am posting stuff home" then there is a gap and it says "Boudnath pm. prayer wheel".
Although Boudhanath is not very far away from Pashupatinath it would appear that I did not try to see both places in one day. I went back to the Nama Buddha Guest House and headed out to Boudhanath on Wednesday 9 January 1991 after a good night's sleep and a morning at the Post Office.
The pictures here are in the wrong order. I was only carrying one camera and had not finished the black and white film in the camera so the slides can't have been taken until I had finished the black and white. I have started here, however, with the above slide of the entrance. You can see the Stupa through the portal/gateway. It is definitely Boudhanath. The picture should be sufficient proof that it is not Swayambhunath. A picture from just inside the entrance is shown below.
The image below is on the cover on my guide book and must be taken by every visitor to Boudhanath. It is impossible not to try to take the picture. I certainly did not resist the temptation and think I did a pretty good job.
Honestly, this has really bugged me over the years. I had been quite uncertain as to whether I had actually visited Boudhanath. I have had a nagging feeling that I might have visited somewhere else and fooled myself into believing I had been to Boudhanath. I mean how uncool to believe and say you have been somewhere and show someone the photos only to be told it is somewhere else and not the place you thought. It maybe apocryphal but I have heard a story of people who booked a beach holiday in Israel but their tour operator (having reserved the right to do so) changed their destination to Cyprus. They spent two weeks on Cyprus believing they were in Eilat!
We are back into the last few black and white photos. These last few come from a film that purported to be Ilford FP4. The box said "Refeel in India". This can only mean that the cannister was made up from stock of a much greater length wound onto the spool in India. "Refeel" is "Refill". Wobble your head as you say "Refeel". You see?
The film is quite contrasty but it looks like something happened when I developed the film after I got home (it doesn't spoil any narrative to give it away that I did get home, does it?). There are black marks across all the photos which almost, but not completely, spoils them.
The mounted elephant sculptures in this one confirmed me that I was not mad and that I did visit Boudhanath. I know because I had been googling Swayambhunath and attempting to identify the location of my pictures and slides. That wasn't very helpful but when I googled Boudhanath there were my mounted elephants. That confirmed it. Follow this link for a better picture by someone else. The problem now is that if you do a google search of images using the search term Boudhanath my picture also appears and thus adds to the body of evidence that this is Boudhanath.
The Boudhanath or Bodnath Stupa (says my Lonely Planet Guide) is the largest Stupa in Nepal and one of the largest in the world. It is, again according to the guide book, the religious centre for Nepal's considerable population of Tibetans. Hey, I'm not getting involved in the Tibet question. There are many Tibetans in Kathmandu who are refugees from troubles in 1959 (before I was born).
I went in the afternoon when things were supposed to be less crowded with tourists but there were still quite a few. Are the people climbing the steps above the same people who had been bathing in the Bagmati River in Pashupatinath the day before? There were tourists but they were more local. These monks seem to be visiting. Perhaps they were coming to pray before undertaking a journey into the Himalaya. The guide books say that people still did that.
I have read some of the teachings of Buddha and I can confirm that what I have read says nothing about ice lollies. There is no reason why any person let alone a Monk should not enjoy an ice lolly while taking in the view from a clockwise perambulation of the Stupa. The trick is to understand that ice lollies may be enjoyed and enjoyed best if they are not hankered after whether before or after one should be fortunate to find oneself enjoying one. Eating an ice lolly is pleasurable (although the pleasurable sensation will decay) but desiring an ice lolly or another ice lolly will result in suffering.
They might have been looking at this from their elevated position.
This was my last day in Nepal. It wasn't the longest visit given that I had spent six weeks in Turkey and more than two months in India. I had been in Nepal just under three weeks and they had been, looking back, quite varied and eventful. I really liked Nepal. I had missed the chaotic nature of India but Nepal was its own experience and one that I would recommend.
