In a city build inside a mountain perimeter
on what used to be a lake, now unstable and waiting for the big earthquake,
where roads and streets struggle to get names is not easy. I have not yet
chanced a taxi and have generously been given lifts by my hosts and the
neighbours. Crossing roads in the Asian countries I have visited is probably
worth a book in in itself. Mercifully I have survived the two wheelers whom a
Tibetan neighbour describes as warding off fear of instant death should their
feet touch the ground.
And there are the wires. Some of which have
caught passing pedestrians and one of which was caught by a motorist and
dragged down nearby posts.
My second trip
to Durbar Square involved more backstreet interesting routs than the first. The
whole Patan area around the Square is notable for artists of all kinds. Little
shop after little shop, dark inside with a dirty window on to a laneway is
crammed with religious or cultural or just superstitious pieces. Many are of
great beauty and most wonderfully crafted. The two below are a couple studying
at university and doing process work in their spare time.
The museum is
wonderfully laid out and full of good examples and simple explanations of
Buddhist and Hindu theognies.
The wooden
structure of older buildings incorporates jutting crossed beams resting on
lintels supported by one or more commonly two carved columns. As the people of
Delphi learned to build with stone to withstand earthquake so did the Nepali
people using wood.
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