A stupa is a Buddhist monument, originally simple mounds believed to cover the remains of the Buddha. They have evolved over the centuries to be large, ornately decorated structures, and today there are hundreds of significant stupas around the world.

Boudhanath Stupa near Kathmandu in Nepal is one of the largest in the world, and it is a focal point for Tibetan refugees in Nepal. During religious festivals the stupa is lined with thousands of oil lamps which provide an incredibly atmospheric view for the thousands of people circumambulating the structure.

Dhamek Stupa in Sarnath, India is considered the oldest known stupa, having been built around 500AD to replace an earlier structure. It represents the original, simpler design of stupas – being simply a column of bricks and stone.

In the Rocky Mountains of Colorado is the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, one of the first and largest stupas in North America, this stupa was built to commemorate Chogyam Trungpa, a respected teacher who helped develop Buddhism in the West.

Previously on Google Sightseeing: The Shwedagon Pagoda, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.

There’s lots more to learn at the Wikipedia entries for Bodhnath, Dhamek and Dharmakaya.

Thanks to Davee, Evelyn Mitchell, Michael and Yuval.

Time and time again we’ve seen that the moment the Street View car is passing, people have an incredible urge to fall off the mode of transport they’re travelling on.

As the Street View car drives up 88th Street New York, we see a kid on the sidewalk, who in time-honoured fashion decides to take a truly spectacular tumble from his scooter at the exact moment the Street View camera has a perfect view. Good thing he had his helmet on eh?

Fortunately the kid seems to pick himself up ok, and as the car pulls away it seems that all the kid is worrying about is whether his friends saw him fall off or not.

Little does the poor child know that the whole world was there to witness his embarrassing crash. I expect the images will be pulled very soon…

Thanks to Sweet Gams.

Head for the hills people! This enormous piece of thread is headed for the highway with murderous intent!

Whilst giant lint¹ hasn’t had a history of going postal and engaging in psychopathic killing sprees (lint usually leaves that to the tomatoes), the angle of the giant lint’s knot can mean only one thing – the occupants of the cars on the highway are doomed!²

Thanks to Ron Nossaman.

As more and more street-level imagery keeps getting added, it’s time for another Friday Street View Roundup – and today’s theme is “Crime on Street View”!

8) Indecent Exposure

This woman’s dignity has been saved by a bit of face-blurring! Of course her nipples are exposed for all the world to see. Fail!

7) Antisocial Behaviour

These pesky kids are setting up a trip-wire between two bollards. The youth of today, eh? If only the Street View camera had captured the moment they tripped a passer-by…

6) Blocking the road

Five of Providence’s Police Force have blocked up this road for a bit of a pow-wow. How inconsiderate! Someone should give them a ticket.

5) Having a camera on the roof of your car

The French authorities obviously deemed the large camera on top of the car to be a suspicious device, and pulled the Google driver over for an investigation.

Move south down Rue de la Garde and you’ll experience a thrilling chase scene!

4) Grand Theft Auto

It’s one thing to steal a car, but propping that car up on six-foot stilts in your garden is probably unwise.

3) Grafitti

This the the work of Invader, whose Space Invader themed artworks can be spotted all over Paris. He’s even branched out into Oscar the Grouch artworks¹.

2) Taking Hostages?

Of course this could be any crime really, but if it requires an armed policeman hiding behind a car, you can expect whoever’s inside did more than steal some sweeties.

1) Alien Invasion

Presumably there can be no greater crime than invading our planet in little red UFOs?

All these Street View sightings were previously posted to our Twitter account – make sure you follow us for instant updates!

Mowed into this field in Canada is a large equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, of a design that has been shown to arise independently in any basket-weaving society. In other words, a 30 metre-wide Swastika.

Despite the very innocent Swastika symbol having been around longer than civilisation itself, these days the symbol has been almost exclusively associated with the Nazi Party, ever since they adopted it as their logo in the 1920s. Given that the symbol in this field is contained within a circle (the actual Nazi symbol is in a circle and set at a 45° angle), the likelihood is that this was indeed created by some nasty Neo-Nazis hoping to promote their evil cause.

Unfortunately for our inept villains, they’ve drawn it with the arms of the symbol left-facing, which despite having plenty of historical precedent is incorrect, as the Nazi swastika had right-facing arms, even on the rear side of their flag.

Previously on Google Sightseeing we’ve seen an unintentional Swastika building, a Swastika fountain and some Dutch neo-nazis who were equally incapable of getting simple shapes the right way round.

Thanks to S.Patrick.