The Half-closed Eyes of the Buddha and the Slowly Sinking Sun

Writer: Shankar Lamichhane, Nepalese writer

Characters:

1. A foreign tourist
2. A tourist guide (Nepalese)

Special technique used: Stream of consciousness

Summary:

A foreign tourist has read about Nepal and, fascinated, has come to see the country’s beauty with his own eyes. Talking to his Nepalese guide he praises beautiful smiles and eyes of Nepal – from the hospitable eyes of Nepalese people to the artistic eyes of the carved windows, from the Himalayan eyes formed between the hills to the half-closed eyes of Buddha. Still unsatisfied, he requests his guide to show him more of Nepal’s beauty, something that he will never forget.

The guide then takes the tourist to a poor farmer’s house where a polio-stricken fully paralyzed child lives. The poor boy can move none of his muscles except his eyes. His mother takes care of him anyway, hoping that someday her child will be fine. The guide tells the tourist that the child’s miserable yet enduring and uncomplaining eyes and his parents’ welcoming smiles and hopeful eyes are the other beauties of Nepal which he will never be able to forget. He says that these eyes are “just as beautiful as the setting sun’s reflection in the eyes of the Buddha!”

Theme: The unnoticed inner beauty of Nepal