Category: Nepal

Do you know why the names Boudhanath and Swayambhunath end with – nath? I hope you do. Because nobody else seems to. If you’ve ever noticed the naming structure of places in Nepal you’ll find many end with the letters “n a t h“. It turns out the answer is this is not as straight …

Continue reading “How did Swayambhunath and Boudhanath get their names?”

Nepal and China still share Mount Everest, for now There’s an invisible border at the top of Everest between Tibet (China) and Nepal. Back in the 1950s when the British were going full on to be the first to the top there was real concern the Chinese would have issues with the “Illegal border crossing”. …

Continue reading “Will Nepal lose Everest to the Chinese?”

The statues so beautiful they cost the artist his hands As tales go in Nepal the one about the Ugrachandi and Bhairab statues has been one that has stayed popular for the past 300 or so years. It’s a short one (no pun intended) that shows the rivalry of the Malla kings was not as …

Continue reading “Ugrachandi & Bhairab Statues in Bhaktapur & the Artist who lost his hands”

A tourists guide to not getting bitten by a street dog in Nepal About 12 years ago in Nepal there was a massive dog cull to deal with the out of control dog population problem within the country. The numbers reduced dramatically, as did the number of dog bites. However, international animal rights protests and …

Continue reading “How to deal with stray street dogs in Nepal”

Nuwakot, where kings of old plotted the downfall of the Kathmandu Valley It’s not easy reaching Nuwakot, one of the most important sites in Nepal. Few make the journey to this ancient crumbling fortress that was once one of the epicenters to the formation of Nepal as country. For hill walkers the area is a …

Continue reading “Making a trip to Nuwakot before it’s gone!”

Have the gods left Nepal or did the people leave the gods? Following the 2015 earthquake there was a spate of news articles about the how’s and why’s of it all. Most of it was scientific. In a country with a “living heritage” there were other cultural repercussions. This included why god or the gods …

Continue reading “The Forgotten Gods of Nepal”

A photograph of a stonemason symbolizes … You may recognize the above photograph from my article on reconstructing the Vatsala Durga temple. It was about being the first independently funded temple to be rebuilt. The donor list is virtual empty … and that’s okay. There’s much more going on with this photograph Nepal is looked …

Continue reading “Stonemason at work in Bhaktapur”