I've travelled a bit in Nepal, and have noticed that human eyes are
often a motif on the top of Tibetan Buddhist temples. If you look at the
recent Bertolucci film "Little Buddha", you will see temples with this
motif clearly visible. I think the eyes on the tops of the hats have
more to do with religious themes than birds, but I'm not sure what the
exact religious meaning is.

Steve Graham


On Wed, 29 Jun 1994, Carla Holley wrote:

> After a lively discussion accompanied by several nice pints 'o at
> La Boheme (Seattle tav), I found my journal full
> of conversation grist and several (some of them wild) conjectures.
>
> Here's one for you: Tibetan/Nepalese hats made for little children have
> startling human eyes embroidered on the tops of them. I never gave it
> much thought beyond "isn't that quaint?" 'til somehow the subject of
> birds on the hunt being slowed or halted by eyespots came up in
> conversation. So now it occurs to me... Of course! The Tibetan plateau
> is full of large buzzard-like creatures. Humans after death are often
> given sky-burials, where the body is laid on a mountain side to be
> disposed of in a most natural way by the birds. A sleeping, or even
> sedate small child is quite a potentially tasty morsel, one could
> assume. So now I think the hats were designed specifically to ward off
> birds. Is that too wild? Any thoughts?
>
> Carla
> cholley at eskimo.com
>