Day 22 - Around Kathmandu

---

Busy day today, lots of temples to see - you can never see too many temples, can you??

As usual I decided to reach my destinations the hard way - by local transport. The bus station or rather the part of the road where all the buses and minibuses parked is adjoining the park south east of Thamel. Obviously none of the buses had a sign displaying their destination so I had to keep wandering up to the drivers shouting Patan Patan until one said yes. I got chatting to a couple of students on the bus, they had been in Kathamandu voting in the student elections the day before, he was saying that the elected student have a lot of power and had a say in how the Government run things. I started to explain the last people I'd want to be involved in Government would be students but I think it was lost in translation:-)

A nice local lady in the bus (which cost 20 rupees) was walking the same way as me and volunteered to take me to Patan's Durbar square. I'm sure lots of people want to talk to me because of my charm and personality that all the locals want to talk to me but it may be to improve their English:-)

Patan lies about 5 km from the Kathmandu. It is a city of Buddhist monuments, Hindu temples and fine wood carvings. Lalitpur is the another name of this city which 'means the city of beauty'. The city is known as the paradise of fine arts.

Patan is an excellent trip out from Kathmandu and worth a visit, after there I visited. I then got another local bus back into Kathmandu and they had to resort to a taxi to Pashupatinath as there weren't any buses there (that I could find)

Pashupatinath temple is a Hindu temple located on the shores of the Bagmati river in the eastern part of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The temple served as the seat of national deity, Lord Pashupatinath, till Nepal was secularized. The temple is listed in UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site list.

It is regarded as the most sacred temple of Shiva (Pashupati) in Nepal.

I nicked this from wickpedia if you're interested:

Pashupatinath is the oldest Hindu temple in Kathmandu. According to Nepal Mahatmaya and Himvatkhanda , one day Lord Shiva grew tired of his palace atop Mt. Kailash and so went in search of a place where he could escape to. He discovered Kathmandu Valley and, without telling anyone, he ran away from his palace and came to live in the Valley. He gained great fame there as Pashupati, Lord of the Animals, before the other gods discovered his hiding place and came to fetch him. He disguised himself as a majestic deer and would not help the other gods when they asked for his help. When Shiva did not yield to their pleas, they planned to use force. Vishnu grabbed him by his horns and they shattered into pieces. Vishnu established a temple and used the broken horns to form a linga on the bank of the Bagmati River. As time went by, the temple was buried and forgotten. Then a cow was known to have secretly sprinkled her milk over the mound. Apparently, when the cow herders dug around the spot, they found the lost lingas and again built a temple in reverence. However, Shiva once more escaped from Mt. Kailash and came back to the valley as a Kirati hunter. Parbati, his wife, followed him disguised as a beautiful huntress. Shiva tried to seduce her, discovered who she was and returned home shamefully.

To summarise all the above it was like a very small Varanasi - so there was more burning bodies.

I walked from Pashupatinath to Bouddhanath which took around 30 mins. Bouddhanath is the center of Tibetan culture in Nepal. The 36-meter-high stupa of bouddha is one of the largest stupas in South Asia. Bouddhanath Stupa was renovated by Licchavi rulers in the eighth century. The mandala design in Bouddhanath is a copy of the one in Gyangtse in Tibet. The stupa is located in the area of ancient trade route to Tibet where Tibetan merchants rested and offered prayers for many centuries. When refugees entered Nepal from Tibet in the 1950s, many decided to live around Bouddhanath. Hence, a complete township has developed around Bouddhanath. The stupa is said to entomb the remains of a Kasyap sage venerable both to Buddhists and Hindus. Smaller stupas are located at the base.

When I approached the monastery a monk kept looking at me and smiling - I wasn't sure whether it was my looking day or I was about to be converted:-) I kept ignoring him but he kept on looking at me so I plucked up my courage and went over and said hello. We then proceeded to have a chat about the usual how long in Nepal etc and then he took me into his temple and gave me a blessing, throughout all this I was wondering whether he was for real or not (after a month in country it does make you very cynical) but in the end we said our goodbyes and I continued on, he even gave me a nice scarf - I felt really guilty then so I put some money in the donation box.

After avoiding the taxi drivers on exiting the stupa I then flagged down a minibus for the journey home.

Next day more temples!!

---

Photos

Using the bell for practical purposes
Scratching that itch

Comments

[Maggie]

Nepal
Very entertaining and educational. Good advice and a peek into traveling in Nepal. It gave me good ideas for our trip late this summer.