2,500 years of history. One very good day.
Four UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Two of the oldest temples, one living goddess, the fearsome god, and the street that launched the Hippie Trail and several monkeys. This is the Kathmandu One Day Tour.
Swoyambhu: Once an island. Now the best view in Kathmandu.
The morning begins early in Kathmandu, with ringing bells and a hot cup of chiya. You will find the weather cool with a little crowd. The dawn seems pleasant after climbing the 365 steps to the oldest Buddhist temple, Swayambhunath, not to miss the spectacular sunrise over the Kathmandu valley. The temple sits on top of a hill west of the city, harbouring the resident monkeys who slide down the double barristers of the main stairway.
The resident monkey population is venerated; they've lived here for centuries, and they know it. Keep snacks inside your bag, keep your sunglasses on your face, and enjoy the show. Through the lush forest to the stupa, visitors are advised to keep a safe distance and avoid bringing food, as the monkeys tend to swarm.
An entry fee of 200 NPR is payable if you enter through the car park on the western side, unless you muster up a boastful strength through the eastern stairway. Legends relate that Swayambhunath was an island when the Kathamandu valley was a lake.
The flat hill-top sits a central dome, topped by a golden-plated square block, beholding the watchful eyes of Buddha guarding the city. The question mark-like ‘nose’ is the Nepali number ek (or one), a symbol of unity. The culture suggests that you must always walk around the stupa in a clockwise direction.
To the right of the staircase after the massive dorje, is a monastery or gompa, with chanting and trumpeting inside by the monks. Inside the gompa, there’s Avalokiteshvara’s statue and a huge prayer wheel.
Behind the stupa is the image of Harati, the goddess of smallpox, who is also responsible for fertility. This interweaves the cultures of Hinduism and Buddhism, sitting in harmony.
Durbar Square: Where kings were crowned, a goddess still lives, and telling a lie can kill you
Kathmandu Durbar Square is perhaps the most iconic vista that beholds the old Royal Palace (Hanuman Dhoka), and clustered around are numerous temples, including Kasthamandap, the temple made with the wood from a single sal tree, and Kumari Bahal, the house of the Living Goddess.
Hanuman Dhoka marks the entrance to the palace that garners the king’s arms and possession of the Shah and Malla kings who once ruled the area. Entrance to the place costs 1,000 NPR for foreigners, and 150-500 NPR for SAARC officials.
The Durbar Square area is made up of three loosely linked squares. To the south is the open Basantapur Square area that runs off to Jochne or Freak Street, which was the famous old street as the stop to the Hippie Trail.
You will find Gaddi Baithak on the eastern side of Durbar Square with a white neoclassical building, inspired by the European style architecture, contrasting with the wooden Nepali edifice dominating the square.
At the junction of Basantapur Square and Durbar is a reddish-brown three-storey building with intricately carved red windows. Inside the Kumari Bahal (House of the Living Goddess) lives a two-year-old girl (the Kumari), who was recently chosen after meeting the 32 strict physical requirements.
Photography inside the Bahal is forbidden when the Kumari makes her appearance from the top of the window. Locals show respect by bowing or joining hands to the living goddess. Just beside the Kumari Bahal, a huge chariot conceals the Kumari around the city once a year.
Once chosen, Kumari attends the Indra Jatra festival from August to September, where she travels through the city on a huge temple chariot over three days.
Her reign ends with her first period, or a serious accidental loss of blood, which marks the first sign of puberty, and she reverts to being a mortal, and the search for a new Kumari begins.
A stroll around will lead the wanderer to many crowded mazes of bustling streets, courtyards and alleys in the market north of the Durbar Square. There are temples and shrines you will see in the most unexpected areas.
Along the greater path is the large figure of Kala (Black) Bhairav, Shiva’s most fearsome aspect, who has six arms, wears a garland of skulls and is trampling on corpses. Legends say that telling a lie while standing before the icon will bring instant death, and it was once a place to hold trials.
Boudhanath: Earth, water, fire, air, and ether–stacked 36 metres into the sky
Moving to the eastern side of Kathmandu, just north of the airport, is the huge stupa of Boudhanath. The eyes find you before you find the stupa. Painted high on the whitewashed dome, that calm, all-seeing gaze looks out in four directions over the city, and when you first walk through the gate, and the full scale of Boudhanath reveals itself, most people stop walking.
At 36 metres high, it is one of the largest Buddhist stupas in the world and the spiritual heart of Kathmandu's Tibetan community.
Juniper incense drifts from every rooftop. The low hum of mantras. All day long, from the first light before dawn to well after dark, monks, grandmothers, and pilgrims walk the kora. The circular path that rings the stupawith spinning prayer wheels and murmuring mantras–you can join them. Walk clockwise. Let the rhythm take over.
The base of the stupa takes the shape of a mandala (symbolising earth); on this four-tiered base sits the dome (symbolising water); then the spire (symbolising fire); the umbrella (symbolising air); and the pinnacle (symbolising ether). The spire is made of 13 steps, representing the 13 stages on the journey to nirvana.
Boudhanath lies on the ancient trade route between Tibet and the Indian subcontinent. Merchants would stop to pray here before moving north to the Himalaya–a tradition going back over 1,400 years.
After the 2015 earthquake damaged the spire, it was rebuilt entirely by hand using traditional Newari craftsmanship.
Pashupatinath: Nandi never looks away. Neither will you.
As evening dawns, we head towards Nepal’s most important Hindu temple, Pashupatinath, that stands fiercely alongside the banks of the sacred Bagmati River and is also one of the most important Shiva temples on the subcontinent, drawing a multitude of devotees from India, including colourfully dressed Sadhus dotted all over the divine premises.
Pashupatinath is a popular place to be cremated beside the banks of Bagmati, as you might fall into an enigmatic trance watching the ritual. The log fires are laid, and the inanimate body is lifted up the pyre, and the fire is lit.
Although non-Hindus are not allowed inside the temple, you may catch a glimpse of Nandi, Shiva's devoted bull, standing guard at the western door as a bronze statue. He faces the inner sanctum permanently, devotees say he never looks away.
It's one of the most quietly profound experiences in Kathmandu. Photography is allowed, but the time calls for discretion, bringing in the sensitivity and accorded respect.
The inner sanctum of the main temple is reserved for Hindu devotees, but the riverside ghats, the surrounding forested hills, and the 518 smaller temples and shrines that crowd the complex are open to all. The forest above the ghats is home to a large troop of monkeys, and a quieter, forested walking path most visitors miss entirely. Ask your guide.
Every evening on the banks of the sacred Bagmati River, the city pauses. Bells ring out, conch shells answer, and three priests lift ghee lamps into the darkening air in slow, perfect circles. The Sandhya Arati (light ceremony) has been performed here every single day since 2006, and on most evenings, it draws hundreds of people who come for entirely different reasons and leave feeling the same thing.
The aarati itself is free to attend. The main Pashupatinath complex entry fee is 1,000 NPR and is paid separately at the gate. Come prepared to be still. This place rewards patience over pace.
You won't understand Kathmandu in a day. Nobody does. But you will feel it, and that is the thing that brings people back.
When you're ready to see it for yourself, Encounters Nepal is ready to take you.
