Sunday, December 30, 2007

More temples in Kathmandu

When we returned to Ranjan's place from trekking in the mountains, he asked us if we saw any wildlife. We responded that we had seen many monkeys. He laughed, "Monkeys aren't wild animals in Nepal. They're everywhere."

Back in Kathmandu, we visited a Hindu temple and saw again what he meant. The temple site was crawling with hundreds of monkeys. At one point, a whole swarm of monkeys suddenly crossed the path all around us. Unlike the monkeys in China, these ones didn't rob or intimidate us.

We also visited the Boudhanath temple - a huge Tibetan Buddhist stupa. It brought back fond memories of Lhasa as we walked the kora (clockwise circuit) with Tibetan refugees. It has actually been startling to see a more lively Tibetan culture in Nepal than in Tibet...

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