Reviewing the Boudha Bubble: The Sounds of a Pan-heterotopia

Boudhanath (or Boudha), a suburb of Kathmandu, is a major Buddhist pilgrimage site, renowned for its stupa, which is the largest on Earth. The area, often referred to as the ‘Boudha Bubble’, is home to around 40 Tibetan-Buddhist monasteries within a 2x2 sq km space. Visitors can expect to encounter public musical performances on any given day. This may occur during weddings, funerals, or meditational prayer services (‘pujas’) in the monasteries, all of which are open to the public. The sounds of these services can often be heard in the streets, as the monastery doors are always open. Inhabitants of Boudha carry out their daily circumambulation of the stupa, known as kora, either before or after work, accompanied by instrumental music and chanting emanating from the six or so monasteries surrounding the stupa. These public musical displays often have a religious character and involve various instruments such as drums, bells, cymbals, telescope trumpets and shawms, which are here described rather conventionally. These performances play a crucial role in shaping the social, economic, cultural, temporal, aural, visual and spatial dynamics of the Boudha Bubble. Using footage collected during my fieldwork in Boudha and elsewhere from 2012 to 2019, I will discuss examples of the various public musical displays in Boudha and analyse their functions and impacts.