The All-Seeing Eyes, a photo from Bagmati, Central

Photographer's Note

North-east of the Kathmandu city, the stupa known as Boudhanath is the largest in the country.

The Boudhanath stupa is surmounted by a harmika, which is a sort of four-sided pedestal. Painted on each side of the harmika are the promient all-seeing pairs of eyes. Believers interpret these eyes as that of the Buddha looking down at the whole world. Below the eyes is a symbol that looks like a nose, but is in fact a question-mark-type symbol which is the Nepali number "1". Believers interpret this "1" as indicative that the path shown by Buddha is the only way out of the sufferings of the world. Above this is the third eye, symbolizing the wisdom of the Buddha.

Dedicated to Bodhnath, the god of wisdom, the stupa is ringed by prayer wheels which the devotees twirl as they circle the shrine clockwise.

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Critiques | Translate

emilbo (20926) 2013-03-05 7:49

Allô Mai!
Les oiseaux ont envahi la place et le Boudha peint sur le mur semble furieux. Une photo intéressante et à la fois originale. Belle présentation dans un beau format et superbes couleurs.
Toutes mes félicitations!....
Emilius

manrezaei (1721) 2013-03-05 10:47

Hi May,

Fantastic point of view. Well done.

Good luck

Mansour

rychem (9722) 2013-03-05 10:49

It is an interesting subject, fascinating eyes and great meeting of birds, well seen and done
regards
Ryszard

siudzi (24681) 2013-03-05 11:05

Hi May,
Brilliant and really funny scene here! Like the way you created the view with all these pigeons and painted big eyes. Perfectly executed image. Like it a lot!

Best,
Gosia

yquem46 (32823) 2013-03-05 11:39

Hi May
Excellent shot of this stupa in Bodnayath, a place where I was also one year ago
I like the crowd of pigeons under the eyes of Buddha
best regards, have a nice evening
patrick

ACL1978 (6103) 2013-03-05 17:47

And it seems that what the eyes see... are pigeons! Nice composition on this one, placing the 'face' off to the right to let them lead our own eyes through, following their gaze. Nice bright colors, and the pigeons add a lot to look at in FG. Nice scene to capture here!

Andrew