Mud is Stupa

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of battling the elements to get to the wondrous Swayambhu or "Monkey" temple. Originally, the nickname conjured up images of a Hanuman temple, the Hindu monkey god. As it turns out, I was wrong. The name stems from nothing other than the fact that, well, monkeys live there. The temple also happens to be Buddhist. My bad.

Before I realized this nickname consfusion, however, I had an entirely different concept to work through. Namely, rice paddies. Somehow, on the way up to the reclusive mountain temple complex, I managed to lose the road. Perhaps I should have been staring at the ground rather than up at the temple, who knows? Nevertheless, I ended up on a lane that was made of six-inch deep mud cutting through a few inner-city rice paddies. Trudging along, I see rows of very large baton tubing lining the edge of the mud. I ignored them for awhile, trying to avoid the puddles of swimming ducks, until I saw some little kids traveling across them. Thus, intrigued by the concept of baton hopping I decided to follow suit. Thus, after slipping for awhile, succesfully tackling over a hundred tubes, and climbing up a set of sand bag stairs, I met back up with the road to Swayambhu.

At first, making it up the three hundred or so steps up to the stupa in the sky covered in mud seemed hilariously impossible. However, after successfully avoiding monkeys, fake Babas, and an asthma attack on the way up, the view was worth it. Even in foggy weather, as the highest point in Kathmandu, the temple gives you a priveleged citadel-like view of the city below. This stupa, one of the world's most critically acclaimed, is visited by hundreds if not thousands of visitors daily. There is nothing better than experiencing a working piece of extraodinary architecture. People believe that the mountain and its stupa simply appeared after an earthquake. Rightly so, this stupa's existence and location are of mythic proportions.

Thus, clamboring back down the elusive stupa in the sky, I couldn't help but smile. What I found so hard to tackle just once is merly a daily activity for many. I guess I've been one-upped yet again.