Day Eleven - Cruisin'through Kathmandu

Cate on Thamel Street

Kathmandu is an incredibly diverse historic city with breathtaking Newari architecture, centuries old Hindu and Buddhist religious sites, and serves as a traveler's off beat intersection. Stepping into Kathmandu is like stepping into another world that everybody should experience at least once in their lifetime.

Cate on the roof top of a Buddhist Monastery overlooking the Boudhanath Stupa

Cate on the Boudhanath Stupa.  The prayer flags The five colors are arranged from left to right in a specific order: blue, white, red, green, and yellow. The five colors represent the five elements and the Five Pure Lights. Different elements are associated with different colors for specific traditions, purposes and sadhana. Blue symbolizes the sky and space, white symbolizes the air and wind, red symbolizes fire, green symbolizes water, and yellow symbolizes earth. According to Traditional Tibetan medicine, health and harmony are produced through the balance of the five elements.

Cate spinning a large prayer wheel at a Buddhist Monastery. According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition based on the lineage texts regarding prayer wheels, spinning such a wheel will have much the same meritorious effect as orally reciting the prayers. In the room immediately next to Cate, Buddhist monks were chanting and playing instruments.