VISITING KATHMANDU

The history of Kathmandu goes back two thousand years, and all the grandeur of that past lives on in the everyday experience of the people. Legend has it that the Bodhisattva Manjushree drained the lake that once filled the Kathmandu valley and made it habitable. It now boasts a 2000 year old urban civilization. Dynasties rose to power one after the other, only to be lost in the march of time, but every one of them left behind fabulous testimonies of their presence.

By the early first millennium AD, a state on the new North Indian model had emerged in Nepal, controlling the valley and probably also the hills between the Trisuli in the west and the Sun Kosi in the east. The rulers called themselves Licchavi.  The valley's strategic importance and its flourishing commerce, which greatly impressed Chinese visitors in the seventh century, rested on its location on a major trans-Himalayan route.

The Mallas were to rule Kathmandu for more than 500 years. As kings of a rich valley that also straddled the lucrative trade route between the Indian plains and the Tibetan plateau, they soon became the most powerful force in the region. The valley had been divided into three separate Mallas Kingdoms. The result of this rivalry is what gives Kathmandu valley some of its most wondrous sights, including the three-place square of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, all of which are World Heritage Sites.

Everything inside the ancient cities of Asia was regarded as sacred and each one imagined itself to stand at the centre of the world. We may call this “Nostalgia for Paradise”, the desire to transcend the human condition towards the divine, that means: the self, the city, the cosmos.   

Last year, I was invited by the president of the Nepal AOTS Alumni Society (NASS) for WNF training “Interior Design” at Kathmandu. Being an interior designer, I was selected as a trainer for Nepalese interior design students. Interior designing is closely related to culture, heritage and tradition. Hence, we visited some architecturally significant places.

Kathmandu's Durbar Square is the site of the Hanuman Dhoka Palace Complex, which was the royal Nepalese residence until the 19th century and where important ceremonies, such as the coronation of the Nepalese monarch, still take place today. The palace is decorated with elaborately-carved wooden windows and panels and houses the King Tribhuwan Memorial Museum and the Mahendra Museum. It is possible to visit the state rooms inside the palace.

Time and again the temples and the palaces in the square have gone through reconstruction after being damaged by natural causes or neglect. Presently there are less than 10 quadrangles in the square. The temples are being preserved as national heritage sites and the palace is being used as a museum. Only a few parts of the palace are open for visitors and the Taleju temples are only open for people of Hindu and Buddhist faiths.
At the southern end of Durbar Square is one of the most curious attractions in Nepal, the Kumari Chowk. This gilded cage contains the Raj Kumari, a girl chosen through an ancient and mystical selection process to become the human incarnation of the Hindu mother goddess, Durga.

The Kathmandu Durbar Square still displays an ancient surrounding that spans abound five acres of land. It has palaces, temples, quadrangles, courtyards, ponds, and images that were brought together over three centuries of the Malla, the Shah, and the Rana dynasties.

In 1908, a palace, Gaddi Durbar, was built using European architectural designs. The Rana Prime Ministers were highly influenced by European styles. The Gaddi Durbar is covered in white plaster, has Greek columns and adjoins a large audience hall, all foreign features to Nepali architecture. The balconies of this durbar were reserved for the royal family during festivals to view the square below.

The old towns of the Kathmandu valley have slowly grown from the agglomeration of rural settlements to market towns and centres of royal power without any preconceived ideas of functional planning. Over hundreds of years, the Newar cities developed an incomparably rich infrastructure of public amenities and shrines to all gods, yet some of their sacred geometry was only the emerging physical patterns with the cosmic qualities of heaven on earth. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the mental image of these cities was widely understood as a “mandala”. A mandala has definite borders around these cities just as their temples, pagodas and Stupas.  Two, three decades ago the compact architecture in built-up areas of Bhaktapur and Patan were impressively distinct from the surrounding agricultural land, with the howl of jackals as a nocturnal horizon. Last few years these triangle borders rapidly vanished, swallowed up by traffic and uncontrolled urban sprawl.

The Patan Museum, a former palace of the late Malla dynasty of the Kathmandu valley, was restored and adapted over a period of 15 years and completed professional and financial assistance from the Austrian Government. The exhibition areas of the museum are housed on the first and second floors of the renovated 18th century palace. While it is hard to comment on the changes without having seen the original, one can say with impunity that the remodeled 'new' premises are exceptionally beautiful. Set in one world's most beautiful squares, it was conceived not only to display a collection of artifacts as a showcase for the cultural legacy of Nepal but also to Mala period palace itself.

The majority of the objects exhibited are sculptures of Hindu and Buddhist deities created in the Kathmandu Valley. There are some tales that people are still carrying inside their heart. After the last Patan king was defeated and left the palaces, a legend arose that one day he would return, and thus, until 1950, the throne, the king's bed, and hookah were kept in readiness behind the golden window.

We visited another unique architectural site called Bhaktapur. Durbar Square is a conglomeration of pagoda and shikhara-style temples grouped around a 55-window palace of brick and wood. The square is one of the most charming architectural showpieces of the valley as it highlights the ancient arts of Nepal. The golden effigies of the kings perched on the top of stone monoliths, the guardian deities looking out from their sanctuaries, the wood carvings in every place -- struts, lintels, uprights, tympanums, gateways and windows -- all seem to form a well-orchestrated symphony. The main items of interest in the Durbar Square are:

The Lion Gate: Dating as far back as 1696 AD, this gate is guarded on either side by two huge statues of lions. Alongside there are two stone images of Bhairab (Shiva) and Ugrachandi.

Lu Dhowka (The Golden Gate) is said to be the most beautiful and richly moulded specimen of its kind in the entire world. The door is surmounted by a figure of the goddess Kali and Garuda (mythical griffin) and attended by two heavenly nymphs.

The Palace of fifty-five Windows was built during the reign of King Yaksha Malla in 1427 AD and was remodeled by King Bhupatindra Malla in the 17th century. Among the brick walls, with their gracious setting and sculptural design, is a balcony of fifty-five windows, considered to be a unique masterpiece of wood carving.

Batsala Temple: The stone temple of Batsala Devi includes many intricate carvings; however, it is most famous for its bronze bell, known to local residents as "the bell of barking dogs," as when it is rung, dogs in the vicinity bark and howl.

The royal palace was originally situated at Dattaraya Square and was only later moved to the Durbar Square location. The square in Bhaktapur was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1934 and hence appears more spacious than the ones at Kathmandu and Patan.

Nepal is famous for handicrafts. We visited tamal for gorgeous stone setting jewellery and bought some striking silver with Turkish and Amethyst trinkets. Nepal is also famous for shawls and Kashmiri shawls are also available at tamal. We visited a wood carving factory. Nepalese wooden windows, doors, decorative pillars, etc. are excellent for home decoration.

Journeys to the sacred cities of neighbouring India, Burma, Cambodia and the old capital of Laos Luang Prabang have helped me to appreciate the regional context of these ancient cultures among which Nepal may be counted as a crown jewel. Especially its architecture and lifestyle, which is free from colonial influences.

Nazneen Haque Mimi
Interior Consultant
Journeyman
E-mail: [email protected]
Special Thanks: Mahesh Nakarmi