A favourite place: Patan Durbar Square

At the halfway point of our stay in Kathmandu, one of the places that continues to fascinate me the most is Patan Durbar Square. Walking in or near this former royal complex is an exercise in absorbing  one interesting sight or impression after another. It’s a microcosm of Nepal’s diverse peoples, cultures and languages, though Newari influences still dominate. Tiny shop fronts, with merchants seated passively waiting for sales of – so much, and a visually sensuous feast at that. There’s metalwork, golden Buddhist idols or Tibetan “thanka” paintings, plastics and homewares, stainless steel pots jostling with traditional brass and copper, carved Newari woodwork, watercolours for tourists, locally woven shawls for the approaching winter, the odour of meat from the butcher’s, fruits, vegetables, chickens in coops, tailors and sari shops, bike repairs, candles, mobile phone covers and cards, rice, grains and lentils oozing from tins and sacks, grey pigeons fossicking. And that’s before you even reach the Square and the Palaces. There you find the old temples, sadhus and yogis, bells and bikes, jostling groups of shoppers, cyclists and passers-by, the bright saris and kurtas worn by the women, children playing and teens congregating.

The Royal Palace itself is now a UNESCO World Heritage site, steeped in the architectural achievements of Nepal’s former kings, and the gracious lines of tall brick walls, pagoda roofs, massive windows and solid pillars of carved hardwoods, and terracotta paving underfoot. Nothing synthetic is in sight; everything is wood, clay, stone, slate or brick. Religious images and carvings abound, seated on plinths or greeting one at entrances to low doorways (most people must have been shorter once),or in the courtyards where royal events and audiences were held. 

We went with our friend Anthony to an international blues festival in one such courtyard recently. It was a perfect evening – neither too hot nor too cool, and the audience revelled in music from Nepal, the US and New Zealand. Here are some of our memories of that pleasant night.

The Patan Museum also contains gardens set in paved brick walkways with the pagoda backdrops of the Palace buildings nearby. The surrounding trees and bamboo hide many sparrow and little birds, and you can refresh with a cup of coffee in the secluded garden rooms.

The sense of history, ancient and sometimes mysterious beauty, and these enduring, magnificent edifices whose walls and courtyards could tell so many stories, will be one of the things I will most miss when we return to Australia.