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Things to do from Pokhara: Part II – Sunrise at World Peace Stupa

Posted on 08 January 2011 by Mike Behnken

Getting to World Peace Stupa

We had arranged for a driver the previous day to bring us to the world peace stupa before sunrise. The world peace stupa was located on a hill to the southwest of the city of Pokhara overlooking Phewa Lake, the city of Pokhara and Sarangkot, the peak we were going to the follow night. All the aforementioned things were of course dwarfed by the enormous 20,000+ foot peaks of the Annapurna Range.

I was awakened by my friend at around 05:00 as we both wanted to get some photos of the sunrise. It took a few minutes for the driver to show up and we headed off. The road to the World Peace Stupa was bumpy and steep.

It took around 20 minutes on the narrow, windy, dirt road to get towards the top. I did see a few people hiking up but they were likely staying in a teahouse on the hill and not in the city of Pokhara. Once we got to the top we started shooting photos.

The Sunrise

The sunrise was quite spectacular although it does not rise over the snowy Himalayan peaks. The fog over the hills was just as spectacular as the sun and city itself. My friend and I both got a lot of satisfying photos from a location below the stupa. He decided to stay below and shoot the sunrise while I ascended a couple hundred meters up to the stupa.

Shortly After Sunrise from Just Below World Peace Stupa

World Peace Stupa

The very top of the hill had a flat, landscaped area around the size of a football field which surrounded the World Peace Stupa. The actual stupa was what seems to be the standard. There were about 20-30 stairs leading up the gold monument with multiple gold Buddhas.

Shoes removal is required to ascend the stairs of the stupa . As the stupa was on the very top of the hill there were some spectacular views of the surrounding hills, pokhara, Phewa Lake and of course the most prominant peak Machupacure aka Fish Tail.

World Peace Stupa (Peace Pagoda)

Back to the Hotel

Our driver was waiting for us the entire time so when we were done taking in the scenery we all hopped back in the car to drive back down for breakfast. I had hoped to get to Lake Phewa to get “the shot” but the clouds were beginning to envelop the Himalayan peaks.

We had plans to head to our next destination as well as a driver who was going to pick us up by 2:00pm so we ate breakfast, freshened up and walked around Pokhara by the lake a little more. We came to the conclusion that in order to get “the shot” we would either have to get lucky, or get to the shooting spot before sunrise.

Early AM was the time with the highest chance of not having any clouds which was the time we were up at the stupa viewing the sunrise. We wouldn’t get another chance to get “the shot” this time because were were heading up to Sarangkot, the highest hill in the region with the world’s tallest mountains.