Kathmandu

“ One circumstance relative to the Bhotiyas is remarkable, and seems to me to decide a matter that has long been agitated concerning the natural history of man. All those that I have seen at Kathmandu, not only from the territory of Gorkha, but from Mostong, Kuti, Lasa, and Degarchi, are as black as the natives of Canton or Ava. Climate is not, therefore, able to change the colour of a nation ”

“ Disliking to have at the capital a person so venerable, and of such high rank as Brahma Sahi, he induced that chief to accept the government of Kumau or Almora, the most honourable in the kingdom, and augmented in dignity by the new title of Raja Brahma Sahi, exempt from ambition, and knowing from his character that he was safe from danger, accepted the office as more suited to his great years, than the dangerous intrigues of Kathmandu. ”

“ In a short time, therefore, it is highly probable that this people may unite with the mountain Hindus, and be considered as one of their casts. When I was at Kathmandu, indeed, I found that many people were then of this opinion; and Colonel Kirkpatrick [26b] p. 27includes them among the Kshatriya or military cast. But hitherto the tribe has been so powerful, that many people in the west speak its language although they do not belong to it; and by far the greatest number adhere to the original impurity of life which their ancestors embraced. ”

“ The following is the route to Kathmandu, by which I went to that city, and which is the one most frequented by merchants from the low country, especially by those trading to Patna, which is the principal mart for this commerce.
From the Company’s boundary near the Bera river are about ten miles to Gar Pasara, over an open plain, little of which is cultivated. An old fort, and many plantations of Mango trees, show that formerly it has been in a better state. We crossed the Bera, and passed some way along the banks of another river. ”

“ The Court often retires here in the winter, the situation being warmer than Kathmandu. The town is situated on a hill, overhanging a valley, which Colonel Kirkpatrick [194] estimates to be 2200 feet lower than Kathmandu, on which account, it is not habitable after the middle of April, being subject to the Ayul.
From Nayakot north, one day’s journey, is Dhayabung, a village chiefly inhabited by Bhotiyas, and situated on a high hill at the Bitrawati ghat. The Bitrawati comes from the east, and has a course of four or five hours’ (11⁄2 pahar) journey in length. ”

“ Corundum of the compact kind, such as is found in the western provinces under the presidency of Bengal, is called Kurran by the Hindus of the mountains, and is found in great quantities on the hills of Isma and Musikot; and at Kathmandu, I was shown some of a coarse nature, said to be brought from the surrounding mountains; but what is most esteemed in that capital is said to come from Thibet. In both the Company’s territory and in Nepal, it is always found in detached rounded masses lying on the surface, but often of considerable size. ”

“ Besides the countries which we call Thibet and Bootan, the Bhotiyas occupy, every where between the Kali and the Tista, the Alpine region adjacent to the snowy peaks of Emodus, on both sides of that chief of mountains, where none of the highland tribes above mentioned can endure the cold of winter any more than the Bhotiyas can suffer the moderate summer heats of Kathmandu. ”

“ At Kathmandu the common daily hire for a labouring man is two anas. Merchants pay three Mohurs for every porter who brings a load from Hethaura, and five Mohurs from Gar Pasara. The porter takes three days to come from the former, and five days from the latter; but he must return empty; the hire is therefore four anas a day. The usual load is twenty Dharnis, or a hundred pounds; but some strong men carry a half more. They carry their loads in a basket called Doka, of which a representation is given in the plate opposite to page 39 of Kirkpatrick’s Nepaul. ”

“ The utmost negligence may be also observed in a matter of more importance; for, in the route from Kathmandu to Beni, the capital of Malebum, given in page 290, all the stages from Deoralli 1st, to Ragho Powa, both inclusive, are evidently transposed, as going through the territory of Lamjun and Kaski, after having entered Malebum at Kusmachoor, while both Lamjun and Kaski are between Kathmandu and Malebum. ”

“ At Kathmandu the Plantain tree (Musa) dies to the ground in winter, but the roots are not killed, and in the spring send up fresh stems. Some good plantains come from Nayakot, and other valleys, that are situated lower than the capital is.
Such is the account I could procure of the cultivation in the plains of Nepal. On the sloping faces of the hills, bounding the smaller vallies in its vicinity, I observed another mode of cultivation. The soil there is not formed into terraces ”

“ It must be observed, that the inhabitants of both Thibet, and of what we call Bhotan or Bootan, are by the natives of India called Bhotiyas, and their countries Bhotan or Bhot. p. 56Some of these people, who inhabit near Kathmandu, call themselves Sayn; and the same name is given by the Newars to the whole nation. Thibet, I am inclined to believe, is a Persian word, totally unknown to the natives. At Kathmandu I had a patient who had been chief of a territory north from Lassa, and who had been dispossessed by the Chinese ”

“ South Tibetan basins.The Tibetan basins to the south of the Yaro-tsanpo which are included between the Himalayan chains of water-parting and of high snow-peaks are the Bheri, the Kali Gandak, and the Buria Gandak, subject to Nepal; then the following, which are subject to Lhása:— (1) the Tirsuli Gandak, on the direct road from Kathmandu to Dokthol via Kirong (9700 feet) ”

“ Again the merchants of Bhot or Thibet brought for sale to Kathmandu paper, coarse woollen cloths, horses, Shawl goats, common goats, sheep, Chaury cattle, chauries, (changwari or chaungri,) musk, salt, sal ammoniac, hurtal or yellow arsenic, borax, quicksilver from China, gold-dust, silver, preserved fruits, such as almonds, walnuts, raisins, and dates, and drugs, such p. 213as Indian madder or manjit, chirata, and charas, or extract of hemp. Formerly the Lamas of Degarchi (Teeshoo) and Lassa sent much bullion to the mint at Kathmandu, and made a very liberal allowance for having it coined ”

“ See Huc, Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet, Sixième Édition (Paris, 1878) , ii. 380 sq. 542. In the Dassera festival, as celebrated in Nepaul, we seem to have another instance of the annual expulsion of demons preceded by a time of license. The festival occurs at the beginning of October and lasts ten days. “During its continuance there is a general holiday among all classes of the people. The city of Kathmandu at this time is required to be purified, but the purification is effected rather by prayer than by water-cleansing. ”

“ The remote government of Saliyana is occupied by his brother Rudravir, but the youngest brother Hasthadal, and all his legitimate male issue, are held at Kathmandu, no doubt as hostages; for all the family is suspected not only p. ”

“ As one turns into the chief bazaar, it is soon realized that there is only one word to describe the city of Katmandu, and that is "picturesque." It is hardly artistic, as the best art and architecture are to be found at Bhatgaon and Patau, nor are its buildings, with one or two exceptions, anciently interesting, but on account of being the living capital of Nepal and bustling with brightly garbed people on business intent, it has an air and vitality of its own, which distinguishes it from its two sister cities of the past. ”

“ At a projecting rock, cairns and streamer poles are set up; the wall of rock is black, but all the side facing the road is painted red—“Ah, this is blood on Balder’s sacrificial stone.” Here the village of Tradum can be seen, its temple and its chhorten on a hill. To the south-west the dark snow-crowned rampart of the Himalayas appears, wild, grand, and precipitous. To the south-east lies the tasam, a light winding riband, and our path runs into it; it is 40 feet broad between grass-grown terraces of sand; it is the great trunk-road of Tibet. ”

“ Every now and again a stronger breeze tears great rifts in the moving mass of clouds, and expansive tracts of the sunlit opalescent country flash into view, with huge dark shadows charging over the green and gold, giving a glorious depth of light and shade to the whole scene. Glimpses of the three cities of the valley are permitted us at intervals—Katmandu, Patan, and Bhatgaon—each vignetted within its own diaphanous frame of mist, brown blots of innumerable roofs, Katmandu showing up most distinctly on account of the large white modern edifices which comprise its palaces and public buildings. ”

“ Kirkpatrick, one of the earliest European historians of Nepal, has remarked in his description of the Valley that "there are nearly as many temples as houses, and as many idols as inhabitants, there not being a fountain, a river, or a hill within its limits that is not consecrated to one or other of the Hindu or Buddhist deities." And just as almost every situation is sanctified by its altar or shrine, so almost every day in the year is marked by its religious ceremony or festival. ”

“ A more joyous style of Nepalese architecture than the Chaitya is the "pagoda," whose fantastic forms and rippling golden roofs are found in great exuberance all over the Valley. These buildings may be regarded as more essentially characteristic of Nepal than the foregoing, and not only in composition and construction, but also in detail, show their decided far-eastern origin. The richest and most remarkable example of a Nepalese pagoda is without doubt the temple of Changu-Narain, while the most dignified and monumental is the Nyatpola Deval or "Temple of Five stories." ”

“ Some fine bells from Nepal were evidently the lion of the temple. I emerged, adorned with a chaplet of magnolia flowers, and with my hands full of Calotropis and Nyctanthes blossoms. It was a horrid place for noise, smell, and sights. Thence I went to a holy well, rendered sacred because Siva, when stepping from the Himalaya to Ceylon, accidentally let a medicine chest fall into it. The natives frequent it with little basins or baskets of rice, sugar, etc., dropping in a little of each while they mutter prayers. ”

“ In Tibet there is no beautiful scenery except that of snowy mountains. When the snow-peaks disappear from sight, everything becomes monotonous and lonely.
The next day we rode into the post-town of Gyangtze, the third city of Tibet. The city contains a large Buḍḍhist Temple, Pankhor Choeten, inhabited by fifteen hundred priests, and in it was living the chief financial agent of the Lama Government, who was married to the niece of the old nun who once lived with me in the Minister’s residence. ”

“ We came from the wastes of Tibet to the greatest festival of the year, from solitude into the religious metropolis swarming with thousands of pilgrims, from poverty and want to abundance of everything we wanted, and the howling of wolves and storms gave place to hymns and fanfares from temple roofs glittering with gold. ”

“ STONE TEMPLE IN THE DURBAR SQUARE AT BHATGAON.
association between Tibet and the Valley, and the intercourse between that country and Nepal, commercially, religiously, and also artistically, has been constant for many centuries. Tibet obtained much of its Buddhism from Nepal, when its king in the sixth century A.D. contracted a marriage with a Newar princess, and how much of the beautiful Lamaistic art of that country has been produced by Nepalese craftsmen, specially retained at Lhassa for this purpose, is a subject open to considerable discussion. ”

“ Holy and thrice holy are these mountains, which from their cold lap give birth and sustenance to the river celebrated from time immemorial in legend and song, the river of Tibet and Assam, the river par excellence, the son of Brahma. One generation after another of black Tibetans has in the course of thousands of years listened to its roar between the two loftiest mountain systems of the world, the Himalaya and the Trans-Himalaya, and one generation after another of the various tribes of Assam has watered its fields with its life-giving floods and drunk of its blessed water. ”

“ Tibet, a country which accepted the faith at a much later date, employed Nepalese artists to prepare its temple pictures and to produce its sacred statuary, while from distant China ancient art is forthcoming which displays in its details an intimate association with the Nepal school of Buddhist art. ”

“ The ordinary old Indian cannot imagine such trim gardens, such an appearance of general finish, and such well-kept gateways and roads as are to be seen throughout Nepal, as a characteristic of ordinary Indian life. It should be understood that the Nepalese themselves, when referring to Nepal, mean the actual Nepal Valley, which comprises the plains surrounding the city of Khatmandu, in which are the ancient towns of Patan and Bhatgaon, besides several other large villages, one or two of which almost arrive at the dignity of towns. ”

“ The boundary between the two expanses of blue is sharply marked by an irregular bright white line; for what we see before us is the snow-covered crest of the Himalayas, and behind it lies India with its eternal summer. These are the most northern chains of the Himalayas, on the frontier between Tibet and Bhotan. Between them and the dark grey crest, comparatively near to us, yawns an 279 abyss, a huge fissure on the earth’s crust, the valley of the Brahmaputra or Tsangpo. The river itself is not visible, but we feel that we are now not far from our destination. ”