A tainted day in Patan

A few weeks ago I went to Kathmandu Durbar Square and have already written about it on the blog.  Patan Durbar Square is the same kind of place, a concentration of temples and a royal palace, but much better.  The architecture is superb, with temples and sculptures ranging from the 14th-18th century.  Most are Newari in style, with tiered roofs and beautiful wood carvings, but some show Indian mughal influence (see the temples on the right and left respectively of the photo below).  Unfortunately, none of my photos come close to doing justice to the place.

I spent a very happy 90 minutes or so wondering around the square, admiring the architecture and watching the crowds.  I particularly enjoyed sight of the locals collecting water from the beautifully carved crocodile head water spouts of Manga Hiti:

I also rather liked this elephant guarding the entrance to the Vishwanath Temple:

After exploring the square, I went to Patan Museum, housed in the old Royal Palace.  It is reportedly one of the best museums on the subcontinent and it's easy to see why it's so highly praised; it's full of exquisite objects which are well presented with interesting captions.  The whole museum is extremely informative about Hinduism, Buddhism, the gods in their various manifestations and the symbolism in the statues and shrines.  It was tough to pick one example to include in this post.  Below is one of my favourite objects, a 12th century copper sculpture of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha.

The accompanying label reads: "This superb example of Nepalese metalcraft depicts the historical Buddha in his most typical pose, seated in meditation, one hand in his pap, the other pendant in earth-witness gesture.  In keeping with traditional representations, this Buddha has a cranial protuberance (ushnisha) signifying supernatural wisdom and a mark between the eyes (urna), signifying spiritual illumination.  His distinctive coiffure represents the curls with grew back after he cut off his long, princely locks with his sword.  The curl-covered ushnisha is also surmounted by a knob representing a symbolic jewel (cudamani).  As an unusual feature, the sumptuous earrings the Buddha wore as the prince Siddhartha Gautama have been restored to him here, and although he wears a monk's robe its decorative borders are more in keeping with princely raiment."

After the museum, I left the square to explore some more of the town of Patan.  Although the main streets are a little touristy, you can still get a sense of the place as an old Newari town.  The streets around the square full of lovely houses and quiet courtyards as well as over six hundred more temples and stupas, from the very simple to the mighty five-story Kumbeshwar Temple.

By 3pm I was all templed and architectured out and still facing the prospect of the unpleasant cycle back into Kathmandu.  The ride should only be half an hour but along roads with heavy traffic.  I'd got lost on the way, which had almost doubled the time, and was wary of a similar misadventure on the way back.  I decided to stop for a bite to eat before attempting the ride.  I went to a restaurant that I'd read very good reviews of and ordered an apple spring roll with ice cream and chocolate ginger sauce, a very promising sounding treat.  It arrived and I took a big bite.  It was not an apple spring roll but - horror of horrors - banana.  Some of you already know of my hatred of bananas.  It is passionate and intense, verging on a phobia.  Even saying the word 'banana' makes me feel sick (writing this post is beginning to have the same effect).  So, as I'm sure you can imagine, I was not very happy to have swallowed a mouthful, to put it mildly.  The way the management responded to my complaint did not help the situation.  I'm not actually physically allergic to bananas but given how sick I felt, I may as well be.  And, on top of that, I felt totally contaminated, even violated.  I had a severe case of the emotional hives which lasted several hours.  It felt like my whole day was ruined.  Only now, a week later, am I able to think of Patan and remember the wonderful temples over and above my horrible time at the restaurant.