Kopan Monastery, Kathandu

 On my first day off work in Kathmandu we paid a taxci driver to take us up one of the 'hills' surrounding the city to Kopan Monastery, a Buddhist monastery and nunnery. 

I really loved the huge prayer wheel there. The wheel is inscribed with  "Om Mani Padme Hum" (Sanskrit, it can be likened to 'Amen'). They are said to be a visual aid for developing one's capacity for Tantric visualisations. The one in the monastery was so huge it took up a whole room and you had to walk around to spin it!

The following pictures are from the main meditation room which contained a huge alter dedicated to the Dali Lama.

 There were also some beautiful gardens around the buildings with amazing views.

There were also some beautiful gardens around the buildings with amazing views.

We could heard children singing in a building below us so we presume it was a school. Just before we were about to leave a bell ran signalling lunchtime and lots of little monks began appearing from everywhere!

They were obviously very used to having tourists around their school, they all grabbed their lunch plates and hurried off to their dining hall without a backwards glance!