Insight Guides Nepal by Insight Guides

Author:Insight Guides
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Travel, Nepal
Publisher: Apa Publications
Published: 2017-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

Nyatapola Mandir towers over Bhaktapur.

James Tye/Apa Publications

Taumadhi Tol

Locked in the heart of the Old City and presided over by two spectacular temples, Taumadhi Tol is the most atmospheric part of Bhaktapur. The buildings here were restored in the 1990s with revenue from tourist entrance fees.

The Nyatapola Mandir G [map] is Nepal’s tallest temple, standing more than 30 metres (98ft) with a total of five storeys (nyata in Nepali means “five-stepped”). Carved wooden columns support the tapering roofs and form a balcony around the sanctum. The temple is balanced superbly upon five receding square plinths, and the steep central stairway is flanked by huge stone guardians on each plinth. Each pair is believed to have ten times the strength of the pair on the plinth immediately below. The two famous Malla wrestlers at the bottom of the stairway are ten times as strong as ordinary people, and the elephants above them ten times as strong as the wrestlers, and so on. The list extends with lions, griffins, and the goddesses Baghini and Singhini. Metaphysical power culminates at the top of the steps in the closed chamber housing Nyatapola’s secret deity, Siddhi Lakshmi, a Tantric goddess to whom her patron-king, Bupathindra Malla, dedicated the temple in 1702. Exactly 108 painted wooden struts supporting the roofs show the goddess in her different forms. Despite this looming manifestation of Tantric power, no ordinary Bhaktapurian has ever seen the goddess. Only priests are allowed into the inner sanctum to attend to her hidden idol. The huge steps provide perfect seating for the first day of the New Year festival, when they are crowded with spectators.

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