I saw a woman sitting squarely on top of a Buddha statue, cleaning it, and thought that perhaps faith resides in such moments after all

Woman sweeping while sitting on statue of Buddha — Woman cleaning the temple grounds

There were women cleaning the grounds of Swayambhunath. Perched atop a hill overlooking Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, this Buddhist temple is a venerable sacred site registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yet even a holy place, if left untended, quickly succumbs to dust. Scattered across the precincts were small Buddha statues, candlesticks, bells, and even scraps of paper dropped by tourists—cleaning all of it must have been a formidable task.

Still, I was slightly taken aback to see one woman sitting squarely atop a Buddha statue as she scrubbed it. Faith, it seems, is a remarkably flexible thing. Perhaps the Buddha would not be angered by such a trivial act, though surely even he might raise an eyebrow at being shown the soles of her feet. Nearby, a boy gazing up at her wore an expression that hovered somewhere between reverence and curiosity.

Here, the sacred and the ordinary coexist without boundaries, religion blending seamlessly with everyday life. Watching someone wipe the dust from a holy site at the top of the world, I felt that nothing makes faith more tangible than the sight of a person holding a rag.

Swayambhunath on Google Map

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