Atop the hill of Swayambhu, Kathmandu, sits this golden stupa. The bottom part looks like a white mound, with a golden cube in the middle, and a cone on top. Upon first glance I was awed, and then the stupa kinda started to look like an abstract version of buddha in a funny elf hat. As the thought entered my head I instantly felt guilty for my sacrilegiousness, and imagined the Buddha’s eyes squinting just a bit more in disapproval.
The structure is actually full of symbolism. According to Wikipedia, “the dome at the base represents the entire world. When a person awakes (represented by eyes of wisdom and compassion) from the bonds of the world, the person reaches the state of enlightenment. The thirteen pinnacles on the top symbolize that sentient beings have to go through the thirteen stages of spiritual realizations to reach enlightenment.”
“Above each pair of eyes is another eye, the third eye. It is said that when Buddha preaches, cosmic rays emanate from the third eye which acts as messages to heavenly beings so that those interested can come down to earth to listen to the Buddha. The hellish beings and beings below the human realm cannot come to earth to listen to the Buddha’s teaching, however, the cosmic rays relieve their suffering when Buddha preaches. Between the two eyes (also called Wisdom Eyes), a curly symbol, symbolizing the nose, is depicted which looks like a question mark, which is a Nepali sign of number figure one. This sign represents the unity of all things existing in the world as well as the only path to enlightenment through the teachings of Buddha.“
Sometimes I really enjoy reading about the actual symbolism after my own interpretation. I always thought in religions when people say “God is watching over you,” it has two meanings — God is watching out for you, and God is watching you to make sure you don’t do bad things. When I saw the eyes on the stupa, I instinctively thought the eyes represented judgment. So I’m relieved to know that this particular god watches over the city with wise and compassionate, rather than judgmental eyes.
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