Patan City

Yesterday we visited a local farming village in the morning and then headed to the last of the three cities (founded when the kingdom of Kathmandu was divided into three separate kingdoms). All three city squares have three elements in common: the royal house, the pagoda temple and a tall column atop which sits the king, himself. Legend has it that the little bird on this guy’s head will one day fly away and then the stone elephants in the square will get up and walk over to the public bath for a drink.

All of the kings apparently spoke 15 different languages and dabbled in writing poetry and studying architecture. In addition, it seems that ‘it is said’ (which is obviously different than saying ‘it is so’) that all of the temples were built out of the ‘timber from a single tree’.

Arriving in Patan City, we were prepared to hear the same stories again. However, there are specific distinctions between the cities. Kathmandu has the Kumari Devi. Bhaktapur has the Palace of 55 windows. And Patan’s temple is NOT built from the timber of a single tree. This King broke with tradition and distinguished himself and his city by building his temple only of stone (no timber at all, no nails, nothing but stone).