But since Nepal was shattered by a mammoth earthquake a week ago, those eyes have gazed upon a nation in mourning - and on a microcosm of its despair inside the ancient temple itself.
Here, monkeys scurry across the demolished ruins of a pair of precious bullet-shaped edifices built by King Pratap Malla in the 1600s. Saffron-robed monks haul golden relics and carpets out of a ruined monastery. The temple now has its own population of displaced - priests and vendors huddle under tents, after their own homes in the complex crumbled.
Few would compare the loss of Nepal's historic treasures to the massive human misery wrought by the magnitude-7.8 quake, which has claimed nearly 7,000 lives, damaged more than have a million homes, and displaced nearly 3 million people.
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Shrestha said at least 18 other monuments are known to have been damaged elsewhere, but information has been incomplete because phone networks have been disrupted and roads severed by avalanches. The sites most heavily affected were made of brick and wood.
Terrifying footage posted on YouTube of the moment the quake hit one temple complex in Bhaktapur, just east of the capital, shows chunks falling from the top of a crumbling temple as it is enshrouded in a cloud of brown dust. Tourists can be heard screaming as some struggle to stand and others try to run as buildings disintegrate around them.
In an impoverished country already struggling to help the living, though, it is unclear when that will happen, or how.