p.r.bullen - travelogue

courtyard of the kumari, kathmandu We walked around, looking at the temples and the palace from the outside. We couldn't get into the palace, as it was closed that day, and we never made it back to try again. There are three squares, actually, linked at their corners. The first one we entered, Durbar Square, had a bunch of really big temples and the entrance to the palace. The next, Basantapur Square, was flat, a large rectangular plaza, mostly empty except for a line of souvenir vendors along the back. The facing side was a whole side of the palace, including a tall many-roofed traditional building entirely made out of intricately carved wood (Basantapur Tower, I see from the map in the guide book).

Walking back through to Durbar Square is a traditional looking house, very nicely kept up. We go in, and it turns out to be the home of the Kumari, a living Goddess. A young girl is identified as the incarnation of the Goddess, and lives there with her family until puberty, when a new young girl is chosen as the next incarnation. What a life! The courtyard inside is a mass of finely carved wooden windows; the incarnation comes and has a look at us, or rather, lets us have a look at her. I take a picture of an empty window with a towel hung out to dry, as you can't photograph the incarnation.