For our last day in Kathmandu, I wanted to spend the afternoon in our favorite place , the temple plaza area called Durbar Square. First we were shipping off a huge box of souvenirs back home. We had a big duffle bag full of stuff and our hotel manager said we could ship it with his friend. So Allynn carried it on his back and we followed Babu,the hotel manager on a long walk and down an alley way. I was feeling dubious about the whole thing. Everyone is in the shipping business here,so you can go to several places and compare prices. Another odd thing here is that the more your package weighs, the less it costs! Very Alice in Wonderland. Allynn could explain it- I was just hoping for the best, and feeling more dubious when the guy opened up a big cardboard box and began taping it up. But things were in motion and I just watched nervously as all of our new treasures which I lovingly chose on the streets of Nepal were tossed into the flimsy box willy nilly, along side with some winter clothes we were thru with- we’re onto warmer climates now. The box was taped closed and I ran my fingers over the tape, noticing the spaces where the tape was floating above the cardboard; it wasn’t sticking, and I thought oh well, it is on its way. Price to ship- $150. Time will tell- it is supposed to arrive in 5 days.
On to Durbar Square, feeling lighter and carefree- we resumed our walk on a sunny day towards Durbar Sq- a half hour walk down the arduous and dusty streets of KMD.
There is an entrance gate with a fee of $15.00 per person for foreigners.
And if you wish to return you can search for the special office, which we did the first time and we were given a special card allowing free entry as often as we wished afterwards. So we showed our special card and went inside the gate. We were approached by a gentleman who offers personal tours of the square and made a deal on the spot. He agreed to $5.00 and we were off.
First, he pointed out the three styles of temples on the square. The pagoda style which is the dominant look of the place is the Nepalese design. The softly rounded topped temple buildings are Moslem and
The pointy ones are Hindu. I found his information fascinating and so helpful. Next he explained that Gods and Goddesses control everything in the temples and in the lives of the people. He said there are over 33 Million gods and goddesses! No wonder I found all this goddess stuff confusing! He said there are three main ones-Shiva- goddess of destruction, Vishnu, God of protection and Brahma, God of creation. And Garuda- half man and half bird, who transports Vishnu. Oh yea, that is who that sculpture is of on the plaza- the figure seated with wings- who has one knee up. Ah ha! I’d thought that was a woman. Then he went on to say that of all the millions of gods there are, they are all reincarnated versions of the main group of 3 ! Comforting, I thought . They are all a big family! Our guide ushered us into a museum building that was once upon a time the residence of the king and queen of Nepal, and is now open to the public. We saw the bathing areas, one for the king and one for the queen. They were round pools made of concrete surrounded with concrete statues of snakes and fighting deities to protect the bathers. The windows are all covered with a wooden screen of sorts, so the person inside can see out but they themselves cannot be seen at all. This window treatment is seen everywhere in Nepal and Tibet and it is a distinguishing architectural element. Clever, discreet and captivating and those words are fitting for the next part of our journey at Durbar square.
Recently I picked up a book called The living Goddess. It is a fascinating tradition in Nepal of choosing a special young girl between the ages of 3 and 12 to play the part of being a Kumari- a living goddess. It is said that a mythological goddess takes over her body so the Kumari is powerful. And she is living in Durbar square and makes daily appearances – and we were hoping to see her! She is chosen by the ranking of her family line and by her beauty and clear skin She stays inside,every day with the exception of one day a year when she is paraded around in public for everyone to see. She is protected at all times , for fear that her skin may get a cut , for if she bleeds the mythological goddess will leave her body and when she has her first menstrual period her goddess days are over and she goes back to her home where she came from.;then a new Kumari is searched for.. Her main duty is to appear daily in the window overlooking the courtyard of her home. She is not supposed to smile and from reading the book about her it seems that between appearances she plays with her dolls. Allynn and I made our way excitedly to the house our guide pointed out at 4:00 pm and stepped nervously inside. There above us were three windows in a row and we watched the crowd growing in the courtyard. An announcement was made about no picture taking and suddenly two older women appeared in the outside windows and a moment later a girl wearing a red silk long sleeved dress appeared. I saw her face and I was looking for the red lips that are everywhere in pictures of the Kumari. I didn’t see red lips . She stared out to her public for about 5 seconds then she turned and vanished.wow, we Saw her! Then, suddenly there was some shouting about a camera, and a lady from one of the windows above was pointing across the courtyard to a gentleman near the stone wall. He was shaking his head -no- when a security man rushed to his side and grabbed his camera. He looked at it – I couldn’t tell what was going on too well- and the man was given back his camera and the incident was over. A few minutes later the girl in red appeared again, for the same short time,and I applauded. I was the only one who clapped but it felt like the thing to do. As we exited the stone chamber I saw a new crowd, waiting to enter and I realized this goes on and on! That was our final moment at Durbar Square and we parted, feeling we’d been touched by the magic, We thought -can you imagine this- at Disney!
