L'Arte di Viaggiare - Art of Travel - Francis Galton

I hate the insufferable traffic and pollution of Katmandhu! By comparison the air we breathe in the most polluted European city is a breath of fresh air!
Part of my daily routine is to leave in the early morning for one of the smaller surrounding towns.
Today is the turn of Bhagdaon or Bhaktapur.
It is one of the Royal towns which competed with Katmandhu to be the capital city.
You can get there by bus or tram and it takes about 20 minutes.
According to mythology the city was founded by King Ananda Deva Malla, but in reality the squares with their temples and fountains were ancient villages that over the centuries grew and merged into one.
The original centre rose in the east in the area of the temple of Dhattatreya. However, when the town became the seat of the Malla and the capital of the entire valley between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, the building of new temples and palaces moved the centre westwood around Taumadi Tole. Durbar Square, the main square is flanked with temples and artworks. I like this square. In particular the wood cuttings by the Newari craftsmen. The palace of the 55 windows is a good example. Opposite this in the same square is the Golden Gate, a complex and elaborate carved work.

There are the usual gods; Kali with eight arms and four heads, Garuda, Ganga, Jamuna, Hanuman, Narsingha, Narayan and many others.
In front of the Golden Gate on an enormous pedestal is the statue of the king Bhupatindra with his sword and turban which he offers in homage to Kali.
Beside the pedestal rises the stone temple of Batsala Devi, home to the huge “bell of the barking dogs”. It is said that Ranjit Malla had it made so that it’s tone caused the dogs to howl and therefore scare away death from his palace. I ask around if this strategy works, but the response is negative.
Five minutes from Durbar Square is my favourite square. Here you find the temple of Nyatapola, a beautiful five storey pagoda. It is built on a high platform reached by a steep staircase flanked by pairs of guardians that encourage you to enter. In order from the top there are: the gods Baghini & Singhini, two griffons, two lions, two elephants and two wrestlers . Each figure is considered ten times more powerful than that immediately under it and the wrestlers are considered more powerful than any man. In this square there is also the temple of Bhairavnath which is rectangular in plan. The reason I love this square however is not purely artistic. There was once a traditional temple in the form of a pagoda that had erotic carvings on the beams under the roof which has now been converted into a restaurant. From the balcony that runs around the whole building one can enjoy the magnificent view of the square. This became my favourite place for breakfast. One morning I watched the interesting way in which the waiter cleaned the glass table tops. First he spat generously on the table two or three times and then scrubed energetically with a rag that was in urgent need of cleaning itself. Who knows whether they clean the cutlery in the same way!
Bhaktapur has remained my favourite place even after visiting many other beautiful and interesting places in my two month stay in Nepal.

8 July Swayambhunath

9 July h. 9 Katmandu