happy birthday buddha!!

today is buddha jayanti, which is buddha's birthday and also, therefore, a government holiday so no school for me! to celebrate, however, the wendy i house crew took the kids to boudhnath (or boudha as locals call it, pronounced 'bo-duh') on sunday. mostly buddhists worship there, but it's also a huge tourist site, as it's one of the largest stupas in the world and a great place to see tibetan culture. the white dome is drizzled with saffron water to resemble a lotus flower. they are seen as auspicious symbols in buddhism for purification and enlightenment. so we schlep the kids to the temple in typical nepali fashion...highly unorganized and racing like a bat outta hell down small streets in a big bus, but we made it there and took the kids into boudha. when you go in, the traffic automatically sweeps you into a circumambulatory flow around the stupa. the kids were partnered up for safe keeping and they really enjoyed spinning the prayer wheels really, really fast. we went up onto the white dome and saw the monks chanting below. we took a few pictures and then noticed the ever darkening clouds looming above. as we snapped our last photos, the big drops came hurtling down forcing us to quickly walk off the stupa and take refuge under another part of the temple. that's when it happened...the show began! poooof! apparently the butter lamps don't mix well with big drops of water which caused them to ignite like a kitchen fire. this also caught the wood planks upon which they were sitting, on fire! it was quite a display...to me, at least! the other on-lookers were all very calm, watched for a second, and then walked past. the butter lamp 'minders' also were quite calm. a guy in flip flops finally found the break he needed and kicked over the tables one by one to save the wood and attempt to douse the inferno. afterwards, while the smoke was still clearing, they were already setting up the tables again, drying off the butter lamps, scraping the oil off the ground and getting ready to do it all over again. the monks were no where to be found, however, they had moved to drier, less combustible space to continue their chanting. when the rain had stopped, we took the kids up into a beautiful temple and let them look around, after removing their shoes, of course. then it was time for one more group photo before we were all exhausted and headed back to the bus for a snack and the crazy bus ride back to school. happy birthday buddha! : ) lots of love, j  p.s. i've added 2 other links of interest, if you'd like, one about bodhnath and one about buddhist symbols.