streetsnsquares: Connecting the chowks of Kathmandu

Areas covered in this walk
(View Courtesy: Google Maps)

A walk through the narrow streets that connect these 'Chowks' starting from Indrachowk. All pictures taken in 2013. As you walk through this historic city core, and try and understand the relationship between the private, the public, the sacred; you realize the city planning comes very close to a traditional Islamic City with its clusters of interlinked private courtyards and a common open space usually a market place or a sacred site.

Indrachowk - now a busy often chaotic traffic junction.
Aakash Bhairabh Temple stands in the background of what
has historically been (and even today) is site of major Jatras and festivals

In between Indra chowk and Ason
You will find remnants of the past scattered in this historic route

A typical narrow lane
where the new and the old co-exist
Semi-Public

One of the oldest Bahals

Chusya Bahal (Sanskrit Name: Gunakara Mahavihara, Chusya Bahal means Monastery of the Sun-dried grain) located north of the Hanuman Dhoka area is one of the best examples of a Buddhist Vihara to have survived in its original form. Completed in 1648 with an image of Harihar Lokeshvar at the shrine, it's courtyard contains seventh century Chaityas. The Torana over the main entrance dates from 1673 while that over the shrine entrance dates from 1676. There is suggestion that they year 1648 may have marked the date of renovation, rather than the founding of the monastery; it is also Supported by the fact that most of the woodwork is older than the building itself (woodwork dating back to the fourteenth century). After a study conducted in 1977, an article suggested that the iconology of Chusya Bahal follows the prescriptions of Sanskrit Buddhist texts.