Around Kathmandu

The next day it is raining heavily and we are taken to two tourist sites. The first is the Buddhist temple of Swayambhunath.  This is an ancient Buddhist site, but nowadays it combines a mixture of Buddhism and Hinduism, which reflects the way the different religions co-exist and often cross-over in Nepal. Nowadays 35% of Nepali people are Hindhu and 11% Buddhist. Anil tells us proudly that there has never been any conflict about religion in Nepal. The entrance to the site is swathed in prayer flags and there are 365 steps up to the stupa. This temple is also known as the monkey temple, but today the monkeys are finding shelter from the rain wherever the can.

Monkeys sheltering from the rain

At the top of the site is the main stupa – a stone-built platform painted white, showing the eyes of the Buddha and topped with a golden spire made up of 13 increasingly smaller circles, which signify the 13 steps to enlightenment. Around the main stupa are various other temples, shops, houses, smaller stupas and a Buddhist monastery.

Stupa

365 steps down

Prayer wheels

Carved wooden door

This statue of the Buddha was carved in the 7^th century from one piece of stone.

Statue of the Buddha

We go into the monastery. In the entrance there is an enormous golden statue of the Buddha.

Buddha statue

Further inside is a beautifully decorated room where monks are praying. The tourists are allowed to watch from the door and take pictures.

The prayer room

Inside about 6 monks are sitting on the floor. They are chanting prayers, reading from books in front of them. From time to time the chanting stops and instruments start – cymbals, long wooden trumpets and a big drum all combine to make a huge clashing sound.

Monks praying

Sitting against the wall on a mat on the floor in front are two small boys, perhaps 10 years old. They are dressed in the same red and yellow garments of the monks. They nudge each other and giggle and scribble something on a piece of paper on the floor in front of them; then scrunch it up and throw it out of the window behind them.

It is still raining heavily as we return to the bus. We drive about 10km out of Kathmandu to a medieval city called Bhaktapur. This is a world heritage site. The streets are paved with red bricks and the 3 main squares are joined by a network of small streets and alleyways. There is a royal lace here, many temples and also tourist shops alongside local people living their lives. It is a major tourist destination, but today because of the heavy rain it is quite quiet.

Durbar Square

We are all very wet!

We inspect the carvings around the roof of a Hindu Temple and notice that the ones at the bases of the struts are erotic. Here is a particularly gymnastic one!

Erotic carving

The 2nd square houses the highest temple in Nepal. It has 5 stories and is dedicated to the particularly blood-thirsty incarnation of the Hindu Goddess Siddhi Lakshmi. It has huge stone statues on either side of the stairway to guard the goddess. Each pair of figures is said to be 10 times stronger than the pair below. The first pair are legendary wrestlers, then come elephants, lions, mythical beasts and finally two demi-Gods, who must be pretty powerful.

Temple stairway

We climb to the top and walk around the balcony in a clockwise direction, as dictated by Hindu and Buddhist convention.

Carving around temple balcony

A couple of Nepali women are camped at the top for the day, begging. There are 3 small boys with them, passing the time by playing marbles. They are incredibly skilful and can fire a marble from finger and thumb to hit another marble 2 feet away. I guess they have a lot of time to practice.

Marbles

Going back down the stairway we are all very cautious; it is very steep and wet from the rain and the steps are not very wide. Looking back up one of the begging women is coming down behind us, thinking nothing of the descent and laughing at us for making such a meal of it.

Stairs down

Next we go to the 3^rd square which is where a community of potters live and work.

Buildings around pottery square

There are two types of clay dug outside the city – black and red. Normally the area would be full of local craftsmen throwing pots, but because of the rain it is pretty deserted. We can see some pots drying naturally under the roof of some open-fronted workshops.

Money box pots drying

Behind here is the kiln. The fires are made on the ground, using broken pottery to create air spaces. The pottery that has already dried naturally for a week, is then piled carefully in layers, with straw and sand in between. The pots are left in the kiln for a week. We watch some pots being removed from the edge of the kiln heap. The fired items are money boxes and oil lamps which will be sold locally and across Nepal. Money boxes are important because in the Hindu religion, in worshipping Gods, money is also often given to children.

Pots coming out of the kiln

Next we visit a school of traditional Tibetan Thanka art. First we see a sand mandala, which is an aerial view representation of a stupa, with its 13 steps to enlightenment. It first we can’t believe it is made from sand, it is so intricately constructed. It almost looks like embroidery. A guide explains how the monks make it by first marking out the design using rice flour and then tapping different coloured sand out of wooden tubes. They wear masks over their mouth and nose to ensure that a cough or a sneeze doesn’t destroy the work. Once made there is some sort of ceremony and then it is destroyed, to represent the impermanence of things, by gathering the sand together and floating it down a river, thereby distributing the prayer.

Sand mandala

The guide then shows us examples of the painted form of Thanka art, explaining that the pictures are painted onto cloth. There are two styles – the mandala and the wheel of life, which represents the ‘om ma ni pad me hum’ chant and the human sufferings that Buddhists seek to overcome in order to reach enlightenment.

Explanation

Painters at work