|
|
 | |  |
|
Nepal's Cities of Art - Patan and Bhaktapur
|
 |
|
|
| |
The car bounced, the car bumped. The car picked up speed, the car dropped to a snail’s pace. The driver and I exchanged sweets again; he pulled them out from the scratched dashboard and I from a scratched little travellers’ tin. We stopped for a while and gossiped over tea and discussed the dust under a winter-morning sky. Had the route been free of interruptions, cups of tea and The Terrible State of the World, then the journey to Patan past low rises and pampas grass, past little villages and fields preparing for a fresh sowing, would have been a bare half an hour’s drive from Kathmandu.
Built by the river Bhagmati and administratively known as Lalitpur or the ‘City of Beauty’, Patan has a population of about 170,000. This is the fourth largest city in Nepal and is believed to have been founded in 3.B.C by the Kirat dynasty. The Licchavis added to this in the 6.A.D, but it finally came into its own in the medieval period under the Malla kings who built many of its magnificent structures between the 14th and 18th centuries.
All those aeons ago, the town was designed to follow the grid of the Dhamma-chakra, the Wheel of Law or Righteousness. The fivestupas, mound-like structures with Buddhist relics, are said to have been built by the Indian emperor Ashoka in 250.BC when he visited with his daughter Charumati and are placed at the cardinal positions – four to mark the outer directions and one at the centre.
With numerous Buddhist and Hindu shrines and monuments, Patan is one the seven inscribed World Heritage Sites of the Kathmandu valley. The heart of this heritage is Durbar Square, packed with an unbelievable density and range of craftsmanship that pays tribute to the skills of the valley’s Newari community. In addition, Durbar Square is home to temples and the old palace that lies around the three chowks, or courtyards, namely the Mul Chowk, Sundari Chowk and the Keshab Narayan Chowk. The structures of Patan are largely built of stone and wood while metal, often bronze, finds its way around in statues and on doorways.
In a corner lies the octagonal tower-like temple of Teleju Bhawani, built by King Shree Niwas Malla in 1667. Between the Mul Chowk and Keshab Narayan Chowk is the shrine of Degu Taleju. Diverse architectural styles and materials have created something of a buffet fare that has half a dozen different cuisines lined side by side. For example, there is the stone Krishna Mandir built in the seventeenth century by Siddhi Narsingh Malla that has 21 shrines. Several scenes from the ancient Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are engraved on the friezes. An arm’s length away, and architecturally very different, stands the Mahabuddha temple, built of clay bricks with thousands of terracotta images of Buddha. As if that did not establish the diversity of the Durbar Square, there is the Hiranya Varna Mahavihar, a three storey golden pagoda and the Kumbeshwor, one of only two five-storied temples in the valley.
The other five-storied temple of the Kathmandu valley is the Nyatapol at Bhaktapur. If the Durbar Square and its array of temples and palaces at Patan seems quite compressed with buildings sandwiched in together, then Bhaktapur seems to breathe a little more freely. You can step back and see the temples one by one. As in Patan, Bhaktapur had its glory-days in the medieval period when the Malla kings ruled from here, and this too is protected as a World Heritage Site.
Bhaktapur is built by a river, the Hanumante, and is also one of Nepal’s larger cities. Here too, it is the Durbar Square that holds the core of its splendid architecture while a short narrow street takes you to its other square, the Taumadhi Tole. This square is dominated by the thirty metre high Nyatapola temple that was built during the reign of King Bhupatindra Malla at the start of the eighteenth century. One of its most interesting elements is of the guardians placed at every plinth along the majestic staircase and whose symbolic strength increases ten times at every rise. The lowest one has the legendary wrestlers, Jayamal and Phattu who were regarded to have the strength of ten men; then come two elephants, then two lions, then two griffins and finally two goddesses – Baghini takes the form of a tiger and Singhini that of a lion. Along with its remarkable temples and palaces, Bhaktapur also has interesting water tanks and columns. Largely free of vehicular traffic, most places can be accessed by foot and make a delightful walk tour. Some buildings that existed earlier are marked only their plinths, for an earthquake in 1934 levelled many structures.
In amongst the many themes depicted on the temples in both Patan and Bhaktapur are the erotic sculptures. Various explanations are given for their presence, but the one that I found rather charming is that the goddess of lightening, being a virgin, will be so offended by the presence of these images that she would never come near them and thus the buildings are safe from lightening strikes.
While both places seem like large open museums, with their centre-piece and flow of narrow cobbled streets packed with artisans, both also have museums and galleries. There are cafés and little shops interspersed with the old buildings and the overall ambience is easy and relaxed.
| |
 | |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Up to Rara lake with dohori dhun all the way
|
|
|
|
|
