Kathmandu

Thomas Bell

Description

Kathmandu is the greatest city of the Himalaya; a unique survival of cultural practices that died out in India a thousand years ago. It is a carnival of sexual licence and hypocrisy, a jewel of world art, a hotbed of communist revolution, a paradigm of failed democracy, a case study in bungled Western intervention, and an environmental catastrophe.Closed to the outside world until 1951 and trapped in a medieval time warp, Kathmandu's rapid modernization is an extreme version of what is happening in many traditional societies. The many layers of the city's development are reflected in the successive generations of its gods and goddesses, witches and ghosts; the comforts of caste; the ethos of aristocracy and kingship; and the lately destabilizing spirits of consumer aspiration, individuality, egalitarianism, communism and democracy.Kathmandu follows the author's story through a decade in the city, and unravels the city's history through successive reinventions of itself. Erudite, entertaining and accessible, it is the fascinating chronicle of a unique city.

Sujets

• India

Informations

• Publié par: Random House Publishers India Pvt. Ltd.
• Date de parution: 04 septembre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184006469
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Thomas Bell

KATHMANDU
RANDOM HOUSE INDIA
Contents
Dedication

List Of Photos And Illustrations
Preface
Part One: The Beginnings

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Part Two: The Revolutions

11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Part Three: Without End

21
22
23
24
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Follow Random House
Copyright
For Subina
The past is never dead. It s not even past.
-William Faulkner


List Of Photos And Illustrations
PREFACE
1 . Manjushree statue in a shop window, Hakha Tol, Patan, 2010.
2 . Shivaratri at Pashupati, 2005.
3 . View to Swayambhu across the Kasthamandap, c. 2011.
CHAPTER 1
4 . Maru Tol, 2011.
5 . Bungadya at Sundhara, Patan, 2010.
6 . Bungadya between Sundhara and Uku Baha, 2010.
CHAPTER 2
7 . A group of rebels in the Western hills, c. 1998 (photographer unknown).
8 . Watery hills. The View from Bandipur, September 2009.
9 . Tea-stall widow in Patan durbar square, 2005.
CHAPTER 3
10 . Mangal Bazaar (Patan durbar square), c. 2010.
11 . The Saugal Surya, as photographed by Cecil Bendall in 1884 (left) and the author in 2010 (right).
12 . Chowk between Lagan Tol and Bhimsenthan, 2011.
CHAPTER 4
13 . Dhana Laksmi Shrestha, April 2014.
14 . The pattern of chowks (map courtesy of Wolfgang Korn) and the view across the rooftops towards Khumbeshwar, Patan (c.1970s? Shrestha family collection).
15 . Elevation of a typical Newar house (drawing courtesy of Rohit Ranjitkar), section of a typical Newar house (drawing courtesy Niels Gutschow), partially demolished house near Nakabahil, Patan, 2014.
CHAPTER 5
16 . Family group outside their house at Matya, near Chyasal, Patan, 2012.
CHAPTER 6
17 . The ancient trade routes in Kathmandu s street plan (map courtesy of Niels Gutschow).
18 . Licchavi chaitya, c. 7th century. Vam Baha, Patan, 2010.
CHAPTER 7
19 . Kid with Stalin, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party rally, New Baneshwar, 2005.
20 . Police after rioting on Putalisadak, 2005.
CHAPTER 8
21 . Wax gods, Patan, 2010.
22 . Opening the moulds, 2010.
CHAPTER 9
23 . Shankamul at dawn, 2010.
24 . Falgun Purnima at Harisiddhi (demon lover), 2013.
CHAPTER 10
25 . Lakhe dancer, Indra Jatra, Hanuman Dhoka, 2010.
26 . Scramble for beer (chyang) from the mouth of Seto Bhairab, Indra Jatra, Hanuman Dhoka 2010.
CHAPTER 11
27 . Soldiers charging with khukuris, Army Day, Tundikhel 2005.
28 . I love you . Photograph of Maoist artefacts recovered by the army after the battle at Beni, April 2004.
29 . Chinese map of the trade route (or would-be invasion route) from Nyalam (known as Kuti to Kathmandu merchants) at the bottom of picture, to Kathmandu at the top. (The invasion of 1972 followed a different route, through Rasuwa and Nuwakot.) By the Chinese official Son Yun, stationed in Tibet 1794-1799 (from L. Boulnois, Kailash 15).
30 . The Kathmandu Valley as an ashtray: a diagram produced by Kirkpatrick s expedition, which camped between Swayambhu and Kathmandu, 1793.
CHAPTER 12
31 . Captain Crawford s trigonometrically accurate map of the Valley, 1802-3.
CHAPTER 13
32 . A cartoon by Rajesh K.C. published in Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post during the period that telephone services were shut down following Gyanendra s coup, February 2005 (courtesy of Rajesh K.C.).
33 . Workers at a brick factory in the east of the Valley, 2011.
34 . Hodgson s Gothic residency at Lainchaur, 1835.
35 . Bhimsen s Gothic: the wall around his Dharahara in 2011.
CHAPTER 14
36 . An eagle flies up the Bishnumati River, 2010.
37 . The Bishnumati riverbank, 2011.
38 . Doing the books in a slaughterhouse near the Bishnumati, 2011.
CHAPTER 15
39 . The Bagmati from Kalopul, 2010.
CHAPTER 16
40 . Washing the blood from a rickshaw, Karkarbhitta, 2005.
CHAPTER 17
41 . The education minister (and historian) D.R. Regmi signing a teacher training agreement with American aid officials in 1954 (photo courtesy of USAID).
42 . Drunk by Maruhiti, 2011.
43 . The decaying symmetry of a house near Nara Devi, 2010.
CHAPTER 18
44 . Guita Tol, Patan, 2010.
CHAPTER 19
45 . The urban octopus -the pattern of Kathmandu s unplanned development as accurately foretold by the authors of the 1969 Physical Development Plan (image supplied by Niels Gutschow.)
46 . A buffalo sacrificed near Ason Tol, c. 2011.
47 . A nineteenth century banner painting on display at Guitabahil, Patan, 2010.
48 . The growth of Kathmandu between 1977 (left) and 1996 (right) (maps courtesy of Niels Gutshow).
CHAPTER 20
49 . Maoists in Rukum, 2005.
50 . Female riot police, c. 2008.
CHAPTER 21
51 . An advertisement for a new housing colony, near Dhapasi, 2013.
52 . A poster depicting Prithvi Narayan Shah as part of a campaign by the Thakuri Samaj (an organization seeking to represent a high status category of Chhetris) on New Road, December 2012. For Nepal s unity, national sovereignty and prosperity.
CHAPTER 23
53 . An intelligence document produced by the MISG Maoist terrorist contingents, their leaders, cadres and military formations active in the CPN(Maoist) Eastern Command. Eastern Division M.I.S.G. Itahari 2060 [2003/4] .
CHAPTER 24
54 . Drummers rehearsing for Matya, Patan, 2012.
55 . Teenagers rehearsing a film-style dance routine for Matya, Patan, 2012.
56 . Curtains of bricks. Near Chyasal, Patan, 2012.
Preface
I found myself sitting in the upstairs room of an old house at around eight in the morning. I d been walking past it for nearly ten years. I knew the outside well, for the stucco columns in the form of palm trees, and I knew that it belonged to a medical family who also owned the pharmacy across the road. A member of the family had once treated me in a hospital across town, and when he started talking (to take my mind off the endoscopy) I understood exactly where he was from.
It was the day after we d flown back from England. My wife and I had woken early and gone out to buy fruit and bread. While we were away the monsoon had begun. The streets were muddy and plants had sprouted on the buildings, which were turning green in places. There were piles of wet sand at the building sites, punched frequently into the crowded rows of old houses, and there were piles of sodden trash in the gutters. People were picking their way among the puddles.
My wife was pregnant and she d been told to get a tetanus shot. Since we were walking past the pharmacy, just around the corner from the fruit market, we bought a phial and a needle and took them up the steep wooden stairs of the doctor s house to the waiting room at the top. I sat down while my wife went through to get her injection, and up the stairs after us came two women with three children. A boy of about ten stood in front of me. He was a goofy-looking kid.
Hello, I said. What s your name? but he didn t have any words, only noises. He was pointing at the small terrace, supported by the stucco palms. I followed him outside. Can you see your house from here? I asked, but he just pointed at my head and made his sounds.
Inside the doctor s room I could hear my wife and the doctor speaking their own language-Newari, not Nepali-which neither I nor the women in the waiting room could understand. Then I saw, on the beam beside where my head had been, there was a wasps nest, crawling with wasps.
Oh yes, I said. Insects! Are you afraid of them?
The boy s mother and the other woman came and repeated what I d said and laughed, and congratulated him on his discovery. My wife was finished and we left.
She said, In this country, even doctors are so narrow-minded.
What makes you say that?
I told the doctor, I think that boy s deaf. He s just slow, the doctor said. I told him I thought the boy was deaf and he said, Deaf people are slow anyway.
You should have said something to his mother, I said, then after a while, If he was diagnosed as deaf I suppose that would make a big difference to him.
It would change his life.
A while later she said, My cousin Dinesh used to live next door to a family; half of them were deaf. Very well-educated, the whole lot.
When we got home I said, They must be regular patients.
He d never seen them before. I asked.
Let s go back.
They ll have gone.
I dragged her back. She followed me puffing up the stairs. They were still there, pleased and surprised to see us again. He pestered me to find out what s wrong with the little brother, my wife said. Can he hear?
He can hear, said the boy s mother. And now that he had heard us the boy was out of the doctor s room, squirming from his mother s grip, refusing to let go of my legs. I had to lure him back inside. We left as soon as we could. It was an awkward situation; a decade hasn t been long enough to learn to avoid those.

When I was a student I wanted to go to Africa to become a foreign correspondent, but I realized there are very few African countries that British people are ever at all interested in, and those were already covered. I considered Cairo (it seemed like an important place without many foreign journalists) but I settled on Pakistan-until the September 11 attacks filled it with more qualified rivals. By then I was back home in Newcastle, working in a call centre, paying off my student overdraft by selling boiler insurance.
The call centre manager was a barrel-chested Geordie hardman, partly raised in Delaware, who d been a US Marine. If he caught me reading at work he would creep up and slam the desk so the book leapt from my hands. When he heard about t