Sunday 26th, Rajesh and his wife take us to visit Bhaktapur, where she works as a Maths teacher at a state school. They do not have to pay for an admission ticket, but we do. The volunteer card is of no use here and we have to part with 750 Rs in cash. After all the city is being helped (read run) by Germans. Thanks to this long-term German-funded restoration and sanitation programme much of the city is pedestrianized.
Wandering around the herringbone –paved streets and narrow alleys is an experience in itself. Every turn of a corner brings a new wonder.
Everywhere the peach terracotta bricks contrast with the deep brown of intensely carved wood, the essential expression of Newar architecture.
Or a vibrant red and gold skirted pagoda.
There’s a rich atmosphere to Bhaktapur and it feels more like a big village than a small city.
The entrance to the Royal Palace is the famous Golden Gate (Sun Dhoka) made of gilt copper repousse. The torana above the door features a squat Garud and a ten-armed, four-headed Taleju, the Mallas’ guardian deity.
After entry, you follow an outdoor passage.
where a doorway on the left leads through to Naga Pokhari ( Snake Pond) the royal bathing tank dating from the early sixteen century.
Nepal’s tallest pagoda is the graceful five-tiered Nyatapola where five pairs of temple guardians (Malla wrestlers, elephants, lions, griffins and two minor goddesses) can be admired. Each pair is supposed to be ten times as strong as the pair below.
The mid-eighteenth-century stone shikra of Batsala Durga, the Taleju Bell and a small replica known as the Bell of Barking Dogs is also a must. Needless to say it made me think of our mad eight year old shepherd Tim and his persisting phobia to loud sounds.
Bhaktapur is a wonderful place and I am so grateful Rajesh and his wife have taken the time to show us around!
We visit a thangka painting workshop to get an appreciation for how painstaking the art is. Even the cheapest ones aimed at the tourist market are full of Buddhist symbolism and beauty. A good thangka is the product of hundreds of hours of work. They can be divided into four ‘genres’ : The Wheel of Life (where only Buddha exists outside the wheel of life and all its delusions), Buddha’s life story (tracing the major events), Deities (either benign or menacing) and Mandala (used in meditation).
To prepare for my visit to the school I read about the People of Tibetan ethnicity or Highland ethnic groups. These include the Humlis, the Dolpo-pa, the Lo-pa (better known as Mustang), the Larke, the Lhomi, the Olangchung and the Sherpas, but Nepalis call these people by the collective term Bhotiya, a rather derogative term that conveys the sense of ‘unwashed hicks from the sticks who can’t speak Nepali properly’. The Bhotiya label was applied to them in an 1854 government edict, intended to find places for all minority groups in the Hindu caste system, which placed them in the lowly category of ‘enslavable alcohol-drinkers’ because they ate yak meat, which Hindus regarded as being almost as bad as eating beef. Unencumbered by caste, highlanders are noticeably less tradition-bound than Hindus, and women are better off for it : they play a nearly equal role in house-hold affairs, speak their minds openly, are able to tease and mingle with men publicly and can divorce without stigma.