The atmosphere around Boudnath Stupa is pretty unforgettable. Walking around and around the largest stupa in Nepal is a mixture of Tibetan monks and refugees, tourists, robe-wearing ex-pats with their prayer beads, and local Nepalese.

There’s a lot of Buddhist symbolism going on with the structure of the stupa. I won’t go into it all here, but the earliest stupas were simply burial mounds for relics of the Buddha. Some still contain relics, though no one is sure if there is anything interred in the Boudnath Stupa. The base of the structure is lined with niches filled with prayer wheels, and prayer flags are draped from all around the compound to the very top of the stupa. Prayer wheels and prayer flags contain Buddhist prayers that are “activated” by spinning the wheel or set free by fluttering in the breeze.

The sound here is at the entrance to the upper levels of the stupa. There are two large prayer wheels here, and inside the entrance there are many monks chanting and praying. Behind me is a monastery, and there are always lots of people milling around.

Even though everyone’s going for enlightenment and there’s lots of praying going on, it’s not a somber place. Groups of people walk around the stupa together, often chatting and laughing, all the while spinning the prayer wheels and mumbling a few prayers. When the sun starts to set the crowd swells and gets a lot more colorful, as hundreds of people walk around and around. The most interesting people at Boudnath are the Tibetan refugees, many of whom live nearby. They are easy to identify by their striking dress and jewelry.