Around the Stupa

At Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal, I found myself drawn to hands: reaching for prayer wheels, brushing their surfaces, setting them spinning before moving on. Around the stupa, pilgrims followed a clockwise path, their individual movements becoming part of a shared rhythm.

This circuit, known as kora, is a Buddhist practice of devotion and meditation. Pilgrims may recite mantras as they walk and turn prayer wheels containing sacred texts. In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, turning these wheels is understood as a way of accumulating merit and extending blessings. The repetition gives prayer a physical expression, carried through footsteps and gestures.

As a photographer, I wanted to pay attention to those details without assuming I could know what each person was thinking or praying for. A hand turning a wheel or a woman briefly covering her face could hold a photograph, even when the story behind the gesture remained private.

The resulting images focus on pilgrimage as a lived practice. Beneath the stupa’s immense presence, people make their way around it one step, one prayer, and one turn of a wheel at a time.