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Published: September 21st 2009
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From our bedroom window
We had a great view of the square Bhaktapur is the city to go to Nepal if you want to see stunning temples. We loved our 48 hours there! It was made even better by the fact that the main areas are traffic free though the odd motorbike still managed to find its way through. Our hotel room had a window seat which overlooked the main sqaure and in the evening (when the day trippers left) it was a wonderful place to sit. To get to Bhaktapur was not much fun - it is now virtually a suburb of Kathmamndu, separated only by a few rice paddies. The road is polluted and overcrowded and it is not doing much to increase the amount of tourists who visit Bhaktapur. The local shopkeepers said that they have seen tourist numbers drop as the road has become busier. There were three main squares all crowded with marvellous temples and statues. We just wandered and kept discovering even more of them. There were also many water tanks, some very ornate. Our favourite was in the grounds of the 55 Window Palace (behind the Golden Gate and currently closed for renovation) which was surrounded by a massive bronze cobra. Whilst we were there a
group of teenage girls were collecting the mud from around the taps as they said that it would prevent them getting wrinkles. If only it was so easy!
We loved spotting the erotic carvings which adorned the temples - there was so many of them - and some were very graphic! The evening we were there it rained and the local people celebrated the Indra Jatra festival. No chariots this time but a golden palaquin and lots of music and candles. We couldn't see much as everybody was carrying umbrellas though. They left the main square to go from temple to temple and it was about 3 hours later that we heard them come back to put the idol away for another 12 months. In the meantime we saw our first animal sacrifice. From our window we heard drums and cymbols becoming louder and faster so we went outside to find out what was happening. We arrived in time to see the goats'innards being draped all over a small statue in the square. The people around were very happy for us to watch. Fascinating! The religious practices in Nepal involve a lot of animal sacrifices. At the end of the
month a huge festival called Dasian is on and hundreds of animals, including 108 bullocks will be killed in Durbar Square in Kathmandu. The government is rounding up thousands of goats at the moment (and paying top ruppee for them too) to be used as sacrifices at the end of the month.
Next morning we were up early to watch the dawn parade of people worshipping. We walked to a temple on top of the hill outside the city - it was very interesting yet again. Everybody lines up to worship - from old ladies in traditional dress to teenagers in trendy tshirts and tight jeans. All carry Puja trays - offering trays full of flowers and food for the idols. We saw a hen killed at the temple and a lady spent a long time praying in front of it's severed head. Later in the day we saw another noisy parade of men taking yet another goat off to be sacrificed.
We found Bhaktapur a really historic, relatively peaceful and quite beautiful town. The side streets were full of fascinating shops and interesting people. Lots of old wrinkled ladies sitting on the steps of houses twisting pieces of cotton
into wicks for the oil lamps. Constantly whilst there we heard a group of elderly men singing and playing music around all the temples. They moved from one to another as the day went on - In guess that they do that every day as well. We were sad when we left to go back to the chaos of Kathmandu where we stayed one more night before catching a bus to the Royal Chitwan National Park.
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nabin
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Virtual Tour of Bhaktapur
Bhaktapur, Nyatpol Temple one of the tallest temple of Nepal. You may also visit this place virtually. Click the following link and visit virtually. http://www.NepaloPedia.com/Default.aspx?TOUR=0035