Wolfgang's photos with the keyword: nepal

This stupa isn't well known by the tourists visiting the Swayambhunath Temple Hill in Kathmandu. If you use the steps entering Swayambhunath from the northern side you'll pass this stupa and Shantipur.

Beautiful typical dressed Newa girl in front of Mul Chowk buidling. The Newa (Nepal Bhasa:नेवाः Newa or Newah, Old Nepal Bhasa:नेवार Newar, नेवाल Newal) are the indigenous people of Nepal's Kathmandu Valley. Newars are a linguistic community with multiple ethnicity/race and faith, bound together by a common language. The term Newar applies roughly to the descendants of citizens of Medieval Nepal (consisting of Kathmandu valley as the capital and the territory ever changing with farest extent being Gandaki river to west and Koshi river to the east, Tibet to north and Terai in south). Their common language being Nepal Bhasa ("Newari" according to Statistics Nepal) or the languages progenitor of Nepal Bhasa. According to Nepal’s 2001 census, the 1,245,232 Newar in the country are the nation's sixth largest ethnic group, representing 5.48% of the population. Nepal Bhasa is of Tibeto-Burman origin (but heavily influenced by Indo-Aryan languages like Sanskrit, Pali, Bengali and Maithili). Nepal Bhasa also contains Austro-Asiatic words and phrases. In 2001 the language is spoken by 825,458 Nepalese as their mother tongue.

Bodnath isn't located in Tibet, but its Tibetan culture Bodnath, also called Boudhanath or Baudhanath or the Khāsa Caitya is one of the holiest Buddhist sites in the area of Kathmandu, Nepal. It is known as Khāsti by Newars as Bauddha or Bodh-nāth by modern speakers of Nepali. It is located about 11 km from the centre of Kathmandu, Nepal on the northeastern outskirts of the city. Its platform is a massive mandala and it is the largest spherical stupa in Nepal. The Buddhist stupa of Boudhanath dominates the skyline. The ancient Stupa is one of the largest in the world. The influx of large populations of Tibetan refugees from China has seen the construction of over 50 Tibetan Gompas (Monasteries) around Boudhanath. Boudhanath is one of the sites in Nepal listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Along with Swayambhunath, to the western side of the city centre, it is one of the most popular tourist sites in Kathmandu city. The Stupa is on the ancient trade route from Tibet which enters the Kathmandu Valley by the village of Sankhu in the northeast corner, passes by Boudnath Stupa to the ancient and smaller stupa of Cā-bahī (often called 'Little Boudnath'). It then turns directly south, heading over the Bagmati river to Patan - thus bypassing the main city of Kathmandu (which was a later foundation). Tibetan merchants have rested and offered prayers here for many centuries. When refugees entered Nepal from Tibet in the 1950s, many decided to live around Bouddhanath. The Stupa is said to entomb the remains of a Kasyapa sage venerable both to Buddhists and Hindus.

A few kilometers north of Kathmandu, at the base of the Sivapuri hills is a remarkable statue of Lord Vishnu, reclining on a bed of coiled snakes. The statue said to be sculpted from a single block stone, is set in the middle of a small pond and appears to be floating in the water. The stone image is said to be one of three statues sculpted during the Lichhavi period and called Budhanilkantha named after the huge image of Lord Vishnu. The five meter long statue called Bhuijassi by the local Newaris of the Liccchivi – age settlement at the base of Shivapuri hills is also known as Budhanilkanta. The village, now also known as Budhanilkantha, used to be called Thaturi Drung’ during ancient times.