Day 149 - Bouda Sights

Bouda is a tourist destination in its own right. Living her, as is so often the case, we had yet to actually see the tourist sights of Bouda. Today we remedied that.

After spending the morning at Little Britain drinking coffee and reading books of course.

And after running a few errands, including mailing some presents back stateside.

So really we only spent part of the day being proper tourists. Bouda is most famous for its Stupa. We have walked chora around the stupa at least once nearly every day. Religion aside, chora around the stupa is the time and place for both meeting friends, and prime people-watching. We have enjoyed the stupa very much from that point of view, but had yet to actually go inside. This afternoon we ducked through the low entryway, and turned the large prayer wheels on our way up the levels. I believe the levels of the stupa leading up to the dome are supposed to represent the planes of existence, but I'm not positive. Prayer flags running from the pinnacle of the dome to the points around the edges flap in the breeze. I have been told that the different colours each reperesent a different element, and that each time the flag moves, it 'activates' the prayers and mantras printed on it. The dome itself is a thousand or more years old (people think - oldest guesses on onstruction dates range from 600AD all the way up to 1600AD), but it is freshly whitewashed anually. From the ground, the domw looks smooth and white, up close however the (possibly thousands) of years of whitewashing have given the surface the nubby, drippy texture of melted wax. Historical or Holy, the platforms of the stupa seem to serve much the same purpose as walking chora. Some people come here to meditite or to pray, but many simply walk around chatting or watch the world go by. Many find comfortable perches around the different tiers and sit reading or looking out over Bouda.

From the stupa, it is possible to look into the upper levels of one of the temples that border the courtyard. It is elaborately painted with scenes for Buddha's life, and symbolic representations of different incarnations and levels of existance. We never actually went into this particular temple, though we did make at least one pass through the monastery nearly every day.

Today was also special as it was one of the final days of Diwali (or Dipawali or Dipauli as we have also seen it spelled). All during the festival, the streets have been decorated by mandalas, and the entrances of homes and businesses festooned with marigolds. At night, those same homes and businesses light butter lanps or candles around the mandala and in lines leading into the doors and windows. Often, the lamps and candles are further supplemented by Christmas lights, and firecrackers. Laksmi, the goddess of wealth is supposedly attracted to light, and will follow the brightness into the homes.

We ate dinner at Stupa View, and from there could watch all the fireworks and candles in the street below. Groups of children went from business to business singing and dancing. We later learned that the children are participaing the moral equivalent of trick-or-treating. Anywhere they stop, the business owner and audience is expected to give them money and/or sweets.

After dinner we returned to our guesthouse. We had hoped to have dinner with UW, but she was feeling poorly. Happily, she was still awake, and feeling somewhat better by the time we returned. We chatted for a while, gave her some of our meds, confirmed contact info, and said our goodbyes.

We needed to catch a cab to our bus at 5:45AM. We wouldn't even expect a healthy friend to be up at that hour.