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Welcome to Kathmandu! My first several days I was
on my own in this wonderful city, and I wandered/toured around with an
Australian gal I met on the airport transfer bus. This is a main street
in an area
called Thamel, which is the tourist/backpacker hub of the city. |
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Yeah. Thamel is full of hostels, restaurants of
all ethnicities, tourist shops, you name it... The streets are
full of people, cars, rickshaws, motorcycles, dogs, cows,
occasional chickens, and the odd monkey. The smell of incense
always in the air, the sound of Tibetan chanting music.... Oh,
this sign: we just thought it was funny as we walked by; unfortunately
never went in. |
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From Thamel we walked on south to Durbar Square, or the
old palace square, full of Hindu temples. Makes sense, since
Nepal is a predominantly Hindu country! :) Here are some
temples... |
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More Hindu temples. I'm sorry, but we were so on
sensory overload that we never got around to looking up which one was
dedicated to which god! |
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I just thought this was cool, all these motorcycles
parked... |
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It was quite common to see cows wandering in the
streets -- they're sacred to Hindus, so nobody bothers them. |
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Rickshaw driver waiting for a fare. |
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Now we're off to visit our first temple. These are the
stairs leading up to Swayambunath, a Buddhist temple with a few
elements of Hinduism mixed in. It's up on a big hill to the east of
town, which was thought to have once been an island in a huge lake that
covered the Kathmandu valley. |
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On the way up the stairs you see a lot of neat stuff,
including this Buddha |
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Swayambunath Stupa. Stupa refers to the dome structure
with the pair of eyes and the spire above it. |
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Around the outsides of the stupa (which, by the way, is
a solid dome structure -- there's nothing inside except theoretically
some wierd relics or something) are several stone depictions of Buddha,
like this one decorated with offerings... |
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...and several shrines with Buddha statues and Tara
statues and probably some others... Swayambunath is also known
popularly as the "Monkey Temple," and here's one of the resident
monkeys looking out from one of these shrines. People would leave
offferings of rice, flowers, etc., and the monkeys would jump in and
eat the offerings! (no one seemed to mind...) |
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And a zillion prayer wheels... |
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(more prayer wheels) |
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There were a few of these lion-gargoyle things around,
guarding shrines I think. |
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In one area there were a number of these little
monuments -- here's one with the stupa peeking out behind... |
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People had likewise decorated these with offerings |
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I particularly like the light in this picture of that
same little monument. |
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Unfortunately this one is a little dark, but still one
of my favorite pictures -- monkeys sitting up above one of the shrines.
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This was a Hindu shrine up at Swayambunath -- this guy
is a Hindu priest performing rituals for these people, but
interestingly a lot of the symbolic objects he's got are rooted in
Buddhism. The religions have really melded in a neat way here. |
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Closer look at the Hindu priest. |
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Another of my favorite photos. This was right by that
Hindu shrine. |
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Another nice one, if you ask me... same place. |
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Monk with prayer beads sitting just outside one of the
monasteries right by the Swayambunath stupa. |
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Prayer beads for sale at a shop by the Swayambunath
stupa. |
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Prayer flags for sale nearby. |
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Also at Swayambunath, I just thought this was a
particularly yellow scene, so took a picture of it. |
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Okay, now on to a new temple. Here we are at Boudhnath
Stupa, another Buddhist temple. This is the largest stupa in Nepal, and
one of the largest in Asia... It's a major pilgrimage site for
Buddhists all over the world. |
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My little obsession with prayer wheels continues. |
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A few monks were sitting here doing some very
cool-sounding chanting. This was right around sunset; every day
at that time the entire community of Tibetan Buddhists living nearby
comes out to walk circles around the stupa. We walked with them
one evening and were the only tourists there! Beautiful community
event. |
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The "all-seeing eyes of Buddha," Boudhnath. |
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I like this one, Boudhnath Stupa with all these prayer
flags in front... |
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I really like this one of all these prayer beads for
sale. |
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Veggies for sale, down one of the side streets at
Boudhnath |
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An example of a thangka painting, Tibetan paintings on
cotton canvas done with vegetable and stone dyes, with really intricate
designs -- this one depicts the life story of Buddha. Others
depict mandalas, symbolic representations of enlightenment, etc. |
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Shifting gears again, we have now travelled to
Bhaktapur, the oldest city in the Kathmandu valley, and its original
capital. These are a couple of Hindu holy men, though their main
purpose today seemed to be to make money by attracting tourists to take
their picture. |
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Durbar Square (I think), Bhaktapur. (Nancy's photo). |
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View from a rooftop cafe in Bhaktapur, of the square
where the tallest temple is. |
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The tallest temple in Nepal, in Bhaktapur. You may be
interested to know that, according to our tourguide here anyway, the
pagoda structure originated in Nepal! Hmmm... |
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Here I am in front of a temple in Bhaktapur. (I
know, Mom, I'm not getting enough pictures taken of myself!) |
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Wandering the streets now... Bhaktapur is an
agricultural town, and in several places you could see grains out
drying... |
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...and peppers, and corn... |
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...and corn, and laundry... |
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...and chickens! |
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Bhaktapur is also known for several crafts, one of them
woodworking. Here is an example of some woodwork above a doorway... |
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More woodwork typical of what we saw all over
Bhaktapur. (Nancy's photo). |
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Another craft for which Bhaktapur is well-known is
pottery, and here we are in Potters' Square. |
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Here was a guy working on some pottery... |
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More grains |
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More grains out to dry. |
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Kids playing, Bhaktapur. |
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Right. |
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Funny scene in Bhaktapur (Nancy's photo -- and by the
way, she's entitled it "Door Number 3") |
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This was funny. |
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Okay now we're in Pattan, the third major city in the
Kathmandu Valley. This is their Durbar Square, packed full of more
temples than either of the other two. |
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Looking up at one of the temples. Historical details:
in maybe the 14th century-ish, one of the line of the successful Malla
kings died leaving 3 sons, each of whom became king of one of the 3 now
kingdoms/city-states (Kathmandu, Pattan, and Bhaktapur) -- they fought
over control of trading routes with Tibet and their competition
extended to art and culture, so particularly in the 15th century, these
temples were built in more and more elaborate fashion... |
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A couple more temples, I couldn't tell you whose they
were. |
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The Golden Temple, a Buddhist temple in Pattan.
While we were visiting, an apparently-very-important young lama was
there participating in some sort of ceremony that we couldn't
understand. It was an interesting experience, being in such a
foreign situation that you have no idea what to do with yourself so as
to avoid offending anyone! |
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Buddha statues at the Golden Temple. |
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A bell, Golden Temple. |
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More temples, Pattan... |
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It had become our habit by now to go find a rooftop
cafe for a break when we were bored... By this point, we had decided,
"seen
one Shiva temple, seen 'em all!" |
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As we were leaving Pattan, we spotted this cow that was
sort of just wandering in traffic... |
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Now we're approaching Pashupatinath, the major Hindu
templee... Dyes for sale... |
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Pashupatinath is set on a sacred river, which flows
into the Ganges in India... Here are cremation pyres being set up,
presumably for a funeral to occur soon. |
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Tourists sitting across the river looking on... I
couldn't believe how disgusting the river looked, trash floating down
it and all, for kids to be playing in it... |
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Another view by the holy river at Pashupatinath. |
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Monkey at Pashupatinath. |
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