Day 16 - Patan & Kathmandu

I assumed that there was only one Durbar Square and we saw it yesterday. Well, each of the three kingdom’s palaces has a Durbar Square. We saw the other two today. The first was in Patan and the other was in Kathmandu.

In Patan, the palace and the square looked much like the palace yesterday. We got to see the second five leveled pagoda. Patan was the more artistic of the three local kingdoms. It was also one of the last that was conquered to form modern day Nepal. The Patan king was assisanated in the middle of the night and the new king’s guards occupied the palace. The Patan people did not want to believe that their king was gone. They believed he was playiung dice with Shiva and kept a window of the palace open. When he was done playing dice, he would come back in and rule his kingdom again.

Patan 

We entered a small Buddhist temple in the Patan complex. In the middle, you could see some statues that looked Hindu that had red and orange dust. It turns out that most of the shrines can be used by both religions. It was a great example of religious tolerance. Everybody can get along!

We went into a Hindu temple that had goats around. One of the forms of Vishnu welcomed sacrifice. Many, many years ago, they believed in human sacrifice. We stood on the alter where they were once killed. Once they stopped sacrificing humans they moved to goats. Now they just release the goats in the temple area instead of killing them. They feed on any food offerings such as rice and fruit that are left by the pilgrims. Hindu couples also come to this temple to get a blessing on their marriage. If Kim and I had stayed in Tibet another couple of days, we would have needed more than a blessing!

We then drove to the palace complex in downtown Kathmandu. Hundreds of years ago a temple was built in the center of town. It was said that all of the wood came from one single tree. Kath means wood and man means house. So Kathmandu literally means house of wood.

Temple that Kathmandu was named after 

Back in the 1960's, hippies from Europe and America used to hang out in downtown Kathmandu. It must have been the place to be. The locals had a name for where they used to live and hang out. It was and is still called “Freak Street”. There was a temple where they would congregate. They would sit all around the top step of this temple. It was renamed the Hippie Temple. Of course, Kim and I got our picture taken there.

Hippie Temple 

The Hindus have a young girl they worship as a goddess. They look for five year old girls that has 32 special body characteristics. She must have no marks or scars. They get several girls who fit the criteria. They then put them in a room full of scary snake and animal, statues. The girl that is least afraid of these statues is selected to be the Kumari. She leaves her family and lives with her attendants. Her family may visit her twice yearly during special ceremonies. The girl remains the Kumari until she starts to menstruate. Then she is considered unclean and another Kumari is selected.

Our guide took us into her courtyard. We had to pay the equivalent of fifty cents to see her. Our guide asked one of her care givers if she would come to the window so we could see her. After ten minutes, she finally made her appearance. She didn’t really look at us and she doesn’t respond to her audience She acted like she was very bored and put out to show herself to another group of tourists. After approximately 20 seconds she left her open window. I think Kumari means Spoiled Goddess.

We then went to Swaybuthnath temple. It was a Buddhist Stupa. I saw pictures of this place and was anxious to see it. It was also called the monkey temple because of the number of bright red ass monkeys that populate the temple. Kim was anxious to see the monkeys. Again we were swamped by the “merchants”. There were only two or three groups of Westerners at the temple and they could not let us alone. The stupa was very beautiful. There were many small stone stupas that families would put there to honor the family name. Our tour guide picked one out and told us it was the Meckley stupa. We got our picture taken at the Meckley stupa.

Swaybuthnath Stupa 

Got Milk! 

Meckley Stupa 

When we were done, our guide dropped us off in the main tourist and shopping district in Kathmandu. We purchased the last of the souvenirs we wanted. In the middle of shopping, it started to rain very hard. It is the monsoon season in Nepal. We waited out some of the rain in an Irish Pub. I got two cans of Guinness. It was the first real beer I have had the entire trip. I wanted a Hard Rock tee-shirt. They were making them on the spot. We found a guy who would sew on a logo in a half hour. It was neat to see him work on it.

Shopping in Kathmandu 

Best Damn Beer of the Trip 

Our last supper in Nepal was in the Italian Restaurant. We were the only customers when we arrived. Again, we had excellent food and service. Everybody working in the restaurant came to the table. There were at times four or five people swarming around the table.