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Even if temple-touring makes your eyes glaze over, don't miss Swayambhu (or Swayambhunath), perched on a hill 2km west of Thamel. To begin with, it's a great place to get your bearings, geographically and culturally, in your first few days in Nepal: the hill commands a sweeping view of the Kathmandu Valley, and the temple complex, overrun with pilgrims and monkeys, is a real eye-opener. But there's much more if you dig for it. The ancient stupa is the most profound expression of Buddhist symbolism in Nepal (many bahal in the valley contain a replica of it), and the source and central location of the valley's creation myth. There's evidence to believe the hill was used for animist rites even before Buddhism arrived in the valley two thousand years ago. Tantric Buddhists consider it the chief "power point" of the Kathmandu Valley, and one chronicle states that an act of worship here carries thirteen billion times more merit than anywhere else. To call it the "Monkey Temple" (its tourist nickname) is to trivialize it, as if the monkeys were its most noteworthy feature. Since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1959, the area surrounding Swayambhu has become home to hundreds of Tibetans in exile. You'll see them and many other Buddhist pilgrims making a full circuit around the hill, queueing up to spin the gigantic fixed prayer wheels and frequently twirling their own hand-held ones. The place is so steeped in lore and pregnant with detail that you'll never absorb it all in a single visit. Try going early in the morning at puja time, or at night when the red-robed monks pad softly around the dome, murmuring mantras and spinning the prayer wheels. Make a final visit on your last day in Nepal and see how your perceptions of it differ from your initial trip. Swayambhu's main festivals are Buddha Jayanti (April or May) and Losar (in February or March), when pilgrims throng around the stupa and monks splash arcs of saffron paint over it in a lotus-flower pattern. Many also flock here each morning during the month-long Gunla festivities (August or September) to mark the "rain's retreat" with music and offerings to the monks. A visit to Swayambhu can be turned into a longer hike or bike trip by continuing on to Ichangu Narayan
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