What people do when there's a national strike (bandh)

I take pictures of the ground: a child's misfortune is my abstraction

Vendors lock up their carts

Pumps run dry

Children play in the streets

Flea markets shut down

Wood and nails become an object of intrigue

...and so do walls

Boudha, Sunday, Magh 1, 2068

One cannot help but be transformed by Boudha. Built more than 600 years ago, many regard it as the most beautiful and sacred stupa in Nepal. And thousands make the pilgrimage to circle the stupa—always clockwise. It is perfectly proportioned;  perfectly purposeful. Plinth, kumbha, harmika, spire, umbrella: earth, water, fire, air, then 13 steps to nirvana before reaching the void beyond space.

Silently, Buddha’s eyes survey all that transpires below:

Tibetan drums thud

ceremonial horns bellow

monks’ throats rumble

the devout chant

bells clank

bronze bowls “sing”

fingered prayer beads click,

and I murmur “Boudha.”

Brightly attired, hundreds of Tibetans and Sherpas stream from alleyways on every side. They quicken their step to keep pace with those already circling. Birth and death each time a new one enters and an old one leaves. Those orbiting closest to the dome do so more deliberately, cogs set to a slower pace. A few—today’s most devout, clasp their hands in praise:

first at the heart

then from the head, and again at the heart

They salute the God within us.

Knees down

Body prostrate

Forehead to the ground

A clasping of hands

Then erect

Three steps forward.

And the entire cycle repeated until every inch of the temple’s circumference is covered.

Thud, bellow, rumble, clank, sing, chant, click, murmur. Thud, bellow, rumble, clank, sing, chant, click, murmur. From large to small, each sound resonates the universe.

From outside in, each level a different speed until movement turns to a crawl as the most devout prostrate themselves on the face of a stupa that spins slowly, imperceptibly on the earth’s access.

Clockwise clockwork. Birth and death. One eternal round. One eternal round.