Kathmandu, Nepal

Kathmandu, Nepal

Kathmandu, June 2011

Thamel

Kathmandu’s Durbar Square was where the city’s kings were once crowned and legitimised, and from where they ruled (durbar means ‘palace’). As such, the square remains the traditional heart of the old town and Kathmandu’s most spectacular legacy of traditional architecture, even though the king no longer lives in the Hunuman Dhoka —the palace was moved north to Narayanhiti about a century ago.

Once a fiercely independent city-state, Patan (pah-tan) is now almost a suburb of Kathmandu, separated only by the murky Bagmati River. Many locals still call the city by its original Sanskrit name, Lalitpur (City of Beauty) or by its Newari name, Yala. Almost everyone who comes to Kathmandu also visits Patan’s spectacular Durbar Square —arguably the finest collection of temples and palaces in the whole of Nepal.

The Swayambhunath (or Monkey Temple) is one of the crowning glories of Kathmandu Valley architecture. This perfectly proportioned monument seems to hint at some celestial perfection with its gleaming, glided spire and white-washed dome.

As with many other towns in the valley, Bhaktapur grew up to service the old trade route from India to Tibet, but the city became a formal entity under King Ananda Malla in the 12th century. The oldest part of townm around Tachupal Tole, was laid down at this time. From the 14th to the 16th century, Bhaktapur became the most powerful of the valley's three Malla kingdoms, and a new civic square was constructed at Durbar Sq in the west of the city.