Boudha Stupa Under Repair, 2015 One of the three iconic temple complexes in Kathmandu. Pashuputinath is Hindu, and big pilgramage site for all Hindus, Swayambhunath is Buddhist, as is Boudhanath, which is also the center of Tibetan life and culture in Nepal. No one who lives in Kathmandu needs any introduction to this place, or it's odd intersection between what we westerners call the sacred and profane. It's holy, surrounded by monestaries and schools, peopled by pilgrims, but it's also surrounded by souvenir shops, tatoo parlors, bars, restaurants, and the best tapas joint in Nepal. (Rumor reaches me in July 2018 that the tapas joint has closed. This teaches us the wisdom of Buddhist non-attachment.) Everyone seems to get along, helped, I suppose, by the fact that a person could easily move from the sacred to the profane in their own life, and back again. I took this picture in August 2015, less than a month after I arrived in Nepal, while I was in temporary housing in the neighborhood. The spire had been damaged by the earthquake earlier in the year and was being torn down to be rebuilt. The photograph is a stitched panorama, composed of six individual frames, all underexposed by a stop to ensure the moody blue sky came through.