Bouddhanath stupa, or simply known as Bouddha amongst the locals of Kathmandu is one of the largest stupas in the world. It is a very holy place for Buddhists and Hindus alike and the stupa is also enlisted in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Hence it is able to attract a lot of tourists and is one of the popular tourist destinations in Kathmandu.

I have been to Bouddha a couple of times but this was the first time I went there after the renovation was completed after the 2015 earthquake inflicted some damage to the stupa. Previously, every time I went there, the most I did was made a few rounds around the stupa, hung out for a while there, had something to eat and returned. But this time, I decided to do a little more than that. I decided to spend some more time in this area and get to know why this place was so popular.

This time, instead of entering through the main entrance gate, I entered the premises via one of the many alternate narrow alleys which reminded me of Kamalakshi area nearby Bhotahiti. It was a Saturday so it was very very crowded – just as I had expected it to be. As always, I completed my first round around the stupa and to my surprise, I happened to notice a Gumba in the premises of Bouddhanath. As I had never observed this area previously, I was really surprised to get to see a Gumba here. When I entered the gumba I was totally blown away. The giant statue that was inside the gumba totally blew my mind.

The amount of work put in this masterpiece is truly reflected by the details that we can see in the statue. And I had been missing this all the time. I felt so dumb to not to have known about this place.

Then, as I exited this place, and walked a little farther, I saw another gumba. Now I really felt stupid. This was bigger than the first gumba and was even multi-storeyed. I saw this as an opportunity to go up and grab a post-card image of the famous stupa.

I really had to wait a long time to take this photo because the number of people in this area that day was just too much.

I really felt glad that I spent some time in Bouddha that day. These gumbas were really a discovery for me.

Here are some few shots that I took that day. It’s nothing much but hope you like the article.

Peace!!!