The Swayambhunath Stupa

By Nepal — Heavenly Treasures -


The Swayambhu means "Self-Created",According to Swayambhu puran, the entire valley was once filled with an enormous lake, out of grew lotus. The valley came to be known as Swayambhu. The name comes from an eternal  self-existent flame (svyambhu) over which a stupa was later built. Swayambhunath Stupa (Complex) is located at the top of hill in the Kathmandu valley, near the new buspark. It is also known as "The Monkey Temple" as there holy monkeys living inthe north-west parts of temple. The Swayambhunath complex consists of a stupa, a variety of shrines and temples, some dating back to the Licchavi period. Buddha's eye and eyebrows was also paintes on the Swayambhunath Stupa. Between two eyes, the number one (in Devanagari script) is painted in the fashion of a nose. There are also many shops, Resturants and Hotels. The Site has two acess points : a long stairway with 365 steps, leading directly to the main platform of the temple, which is from the top of the hill to the east; a car road around the hill from the south leading to th south-west entrance. The first sight on reaching the top of the stairway is the vajra.
Swayambhunath is also known as the Monkey Temple due to there are holy monkeys living in the north-west parts of the temple. They are holy because Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom and learning was raising the hill which the swayambhunath Temple stands on. He was supposed to leave his hair short but he made it grow long and head lice gre. It is said that the head lice transformed into these monkeys. Manjusri had a vision of the lotus at Swayambhu and traveled there to worship it. Seeing that the valley can be good settlement and to make the site more accessible to human pilgrims, he cut a gorge at Chovar. The water drained out of the lake, leaving the valley in which Kathmandu now lies. The lotus was transformed into a hill and the flower became the Swayambhunath stupa. 


The stupa consists of a dome at the base, above which is a cubical structure painted with eyes of Buddha looking in all four directions. There are pentagonal Toran present above each of the four sides with statues engraved in them. Behind and above the torana there are thirteen tiers. Above all the tiers there is a small space above which the Gajur is present. The stupa has many artifacts inside it.

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