Self-Portrait at Swayambunath (Kathmandu, Nepal) is an oil painting by Dave Alber.
2018
oil on canvas
9.375 x 11.75 in
Dave Alber, Self-Portrait at Swayambunath (Kathmandu, Nepal) is an oil painting by Travel Painter and Travel Writer Dave Alber. Swayambunath is the center of Kathmandu and the Kathmandu Mandala. The Kathmandu Valley is understood to be a mandala, which is to say an aesthetic and spiritual image of wholeness.
The Manjushri Purana describes the creation of the Kathmandu Valley as a mandala. Swayambunath is the spiritual center of Nepalese Buddhism, which is Vajrayana Buddhism and quite similar to Tibetan Buddhism. It is popularly known as monkey temple due to the many monkeys that inhabit this mountaintop temple.
Swayambunath is a Buddhist pilgrimage site and you must climb the mountain to reach the temple complex and stupa at the top.
