Durbar Square Cubed

(I've been having some internet issues, so this is overdue. But now I'm caught up!)

September 18, 2011

In 1482, after the death of a Malla king, the three kingdoms of Patan, Bhaktapur and Kathmandu were divided up and given to his three sons. During the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the three brothers competed for dominance in the Kathamandu valley. This rivalry extended beyond warfare to culture, arts and architecture, resulting in the creation of three complexes of temples and shrines, each know as Durbar Square. Each brother sought to “one-up” the others by ensuring that his Durbar Square was the most magnificent and the best testament to the gods.

From an architectural standpoint, the three Durbar Squares are quite similar. All three have many multi-tiered temples, some stone temples, some gold plating, lots of wood carved windows and some colorfully painted Ganesh shrines. Yet the preservation and modern functions of the three Durbar Squares could not be more different. I’m not much of a history buff; I think my brother and dad would probably appreciate the squares from an artistic point of view more than I do. I seem to gravitate towards the brightly colored shrines that the guidebooks call “gaudy.” Ha. So the “feel” of the Squares was much more interesting to me than the architecture, and after almost three weeks here, I actually think the three squares approach to tourism is pretty telling of the different attitudes towards tourists in Nepal.

On one hand, you have Bhaktapur Durbar Square, which is by far the best preserved of the three. The buildings and woodwork seem almost fixed in time, showing minimal wear and minimal vandalism. Ironically, the majority of the temples are not the originals, rather the restored versions after a 1934 earthquake damaged many of the buildings. I suspect that the better upkeep of Bhaktapur Durbar Square is largely due to greater financial resources than the other two squares: admission to Bhaktapur Durbar Square was 15 USD, compared to 4 USD for Kathmandu and 3 USD for Patan. The things you see in Bhaktapur Durbar Square are the same as in the other squares, for example Bhaktapur Durbar Square is famous for the peacock window carving, but there are actually peacock window carvings in all three squares. What is unique about Bhaktapur Durbar Square is that there is really nothing in Bhaktapur except for historically preserved buildings and alleyways: most Nepalis live in nearby Suryabinayak or somewhere else along the highway. The square has a ton of tourists wandering around and next to no Nepalis. After you walk in the gate, I had maybe five “guide” offers. All claiming they were history students just wanting to practice their English. (I can honestly tell them that I prefer to walk aimless and alone, though sometimes I think it would be easier to just pay one of them to walk silently with me so that others would leave me alone.) Eventually, they kind of figured out I was not going to budge and left me in peace.

Some wood carved windows in Bhaktapur Durbar Square

Peacock window in Bhaktapur Durbar Square

Next up, Kathmandu Durbar Square is like a feeding frenzy for beggars and trinket peddlers. It’s neck in neck with Thamel for least pleasant place in Kathmandu. I really hate the constant flow of people trying to sell me things, guide me around or just generally get money from me. Confronted with such poverty, I want to help, yet all the guidance from guidebooks, my host family and my office is to never give into the offers. Apparently there’s a bad chain of events as a result of tourists “encouraging” this behavior: folks migrate to the city from the country for jobs, but the jobs they can get without a good education are hard work and don’t pay well, so they start selling things on the streets to tourists from wealthy countries, then they notice that beggars make more than trinket peddlers and they give up selling things and just ask for money. Slowly, there is a proliferation of beggars and further deterioration of the workforce and economy in Nepal. Gut wrenching. I have great empathy for folks who make a “living” on the street, but I do think giving them money is probably not the solution. I think Kathmandu Durbar Square is also the least preserved of the three squares, with lots of wear and vandalism. This may be related to the higher volume of traffic the square gets or the higher number of unemployed Nepalis hanging out there.

Wood carved windows in Kathmandu Durbar Square

If you look closely, you may see the ring of
trinket peddlers surrounding the tour group...

Finally, Patan Durbar Square takes a slightly more laissez-faire attitude towards tourism. Patan is closer to Kathmandu than Bhaktapur, and has basically been eaten up by the growing metropolis of Kathmandu and is now kind of like a suburb. The zoo and the UN complex are the economic highlights of Patan. Folks in Patan pretty much completely ignore the tourists. I received zero guide offers, I saw maybe one or two beggars, and the shop owners are not aggressive. There is a fabulous museum in Patan Durbar Square about the art and architecture in Nepal and while I was in the museum, there were two festivals going on. Inside the courtyard, there was a literary festival in English that seemed primarily attended by expats and outside in the main part of Durbar Square there was a Newari Gunla Bajan celebration. My travel agent had sent me a flyer for the celebration a few days ago and when I saw the line “Experience a rare show featuring the beating of 100 drums at simultaneously,” my first reaction was: “Why would anyone want to do that? It sounds like a ruckus.” Ha. It was definitely a ruckus. The 100 drums were not all beating the same song, rather there were all these little drum groups, each with some dancers and some drums and some ladies just hanging out. I had a good laugh walking around the museum able to hear literary debates in English on one side and drums and Nepali singing on the other, both completely apathetic about the other.

Patan Durbar Square

Museum/Bathing Facility. Why not?

Happy man dancing in the drum festival

I guess in summary, although all the temples blend together, I really liked the way the different Durbar Squares have reacted to tourism and their changing roles in Nepali culture. None are the centerpieces of society that they used to be. Kathmandu won the battle to become the economic center of Nepal, but now the tourist areas and the local areas are almost completely separate, so Nepalis only come to Durbar Square to try to make money off tourists and it has this horrible “predator-prey” feel to it. Bhaktapur lost the race for dominance and has completely given in tourism. The city is a living museum and definitely the place to go to see fancy woodwork and such. And then there is Patan, which kind of seems to have this attitude of “who cares if we aren’t the economic hub, who cares if tourists come around (or not), we’re just going to live our lives.”

Interestingly, the majority of Nepalis I’ve met also seem to fall into one of these three categories. The folks I know through language school and my favorite English language bookstore are very Bhaktapur-ian about tourism, catering exclusively to tourists and seemingly making a decent living off of it. Most of the folks in the constant flow of extended family members who eat and stay with my host family have a Patan-ian attitude towards me, basically ignoring my presence except to laugh at my attempts at speaking Nepali. And then, unfortunately, the majority of people who talk to me into the street have a Kathmandu-ian attitude. You learn quickly that once you cross into the tourist zone of Kathamandu, anyone who talks to you wants money. There is no such thing as someone just helping you for kicks; they invariably want a tip. Very sad, but so far very true.

With the exception of some Buddhist stupas I still want to hit, I’ve now done the main tourist things in the city and can spend the rest of my time exploring more undiscovered local sights. Plus, I’ll be out of the city most of October, first to see some National Parks and then to do field work for my internship.