Nepal is full of temples and idols. Everywhere you go you find some sort of shrine. This is the stupa at Swayambhunath. Swayambhunath, the Monkey Temple, is located on a hill overlooking Kathmandu. In Nepal, high hills and large trees seem to be favorite sites for shrines. It reminds me of the Israelites who “set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.” 1 Kings 14.23. Here is a thought from E. Stanley Jones on the Buddhist stupas:

Standing in the middle of a Buddhist ruin, I asked the learned Indian curator why the stupa was always oval-shaped. “Because Buddhism believes that life is a bubble; therefore the stupa is shaped like one,” he replied. Life as a bubble—sunnayavada (in Sanskrit)—nothingness at its heart! At that moment, I felt darkness close in upon me. But as I looked at the shrine again, light seemed to dawn. “Why, it isn’t shaped like a bubble, it’s shaped like an egg!” I remarked. Is life a bubble or an egg? Does it contain nothing inside, or is it filled with infinite possibilities for growth and development and perfection? …. I follow a Man who saw just as deeply and more deeply than Buddha into the sorrow, the sheer misery of existence… and yet came out at the other end of it all affirming His faith in life. To Him, life was not a bubble, but an egg.