Kathmandu: Most Happening Place - New Road

If you ask me where is the heart of Kathmandu, I would definitely say either Basantapur or Newroad. Well both places are nearby each other. From kids to teenagers to the old people, New Road is the most happening place in town. I mean you name it and you got it there. From beautiful big restaurants where you can sit back and relax to small ones with very cheap price menus, from big shopping malls like Bishal Bazar, Pashupati Plaza, R.B. Complex to the shop unnamed shops for buying the things your needs, with a nice park in the middle of the New Road called Bhugol Park (Bhugol means the globe or the earth itself) which is currently under construction, from clothing, jewelry to electronics, you name it you get it at New Road.

New Road came from the old name Juddha Sadak which was named after one of the Rana Prime Mister Juddha Samsher Rana. Then it was named as Naya Sadak in Nepali or Nhugu Satak in Nepal Bhasa language which means New Road in English. Well since lots of tourists, mainly hippies, used to be here in the 80s the place became famous with the English name as New Road. Literally New Road has four lane street which is in the center of Kathmandu.

Though the place is usually crowded by people I never tend to get enough of the places. When I am out for a walk with my friends. I would be most probably going to that place once or twice a day. It really is one of the happening place in town as lots of people with different interests are gathered in the same place at most of the times of the day.

Kathmandu - New Baneswhor

This post has been provided by my dearest friend Jenisha. I thought of gathering someone else’s thoughts than mine about my city Kathmandu and I asked her to comment her views of her hometown. She has just beautifully tried to describe the town where she was born and tried to explain the landmarks and important and happening places in Baneswor.

“The battered buildings, the crowded markets, the dusty streets, and the unreliable weather!” Some find these traits of Kathmandu very hard to deal wit but for some like myself these are the reasons why Kathmandu valley is so special and unique. There is no city in the world that I can fit in so well as I do in Kathmandu, and there is nowhere else I can feel at home as I do in New Baneswor.

Baneswor is located at the heart of Kathmandu. It is so wide that for the convenience of the people the whole area is divided in to two; the northern area called Old Baneswor and the southern area called New Baneswor. New Baneswor is the new, very happening place in Kathmandu. The main landmark of the New Baneswor is the Birendra International Conventional Center where programs of high importance concerning education, environment, entertainment, felicitations, etc are held. New Baneswor houses many good colleges in the valley as Himalayan White House College, Ace Management Institute, etc. The place is always buzzing with crowds as it is where two very reputed departmental stores, Navadurga and Baneswor Departmental Store, are located. With leading banks like Standard Chartered and Everest Bank and exquisite hotels and restaurants like Everest, Alinas, Nanglos, etc for all the food lovers and a very reliable nursing home namely Everest Nursing Home.

It won’t be very incorrect to say that New Baneswor is probably the most developed part of Kathmandu. The roads and public vehicles to all the part of the city have made New Baneswor even more accessible. It is the one stop for all the needs of everyone in all walks of life. My Baneswor is the best part of Kathmandu.

Newari Instrument: Dhimay

Dhimay is one of the most precious Newari cultural musical instrument. It is played in special ceremonies and festivals, like Indrajatra, Dashain, Tihar, Holi, etc. It is an ancient musical instrument which was played by famous Hindu gods like Mahadev, Bhairav, Harati Mata, Naasha Dyo, etc. It is said that gods play Dhimay whenever they are happy. It was especially played by Mahadev. Dhimay are made of steel and animal skin. Dhimay are often made of wood and animal skin. There is a belt attached to Dhimay that is kept around the right arm of the player. Only Newari people are trained to paly Dhimay, especially Jyapu (farmer where “Jya” means work and “apu” means easy) group are trained to play Dhimay. Mainly Dhimay is practiced in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur. These days, Dhimay is especially trained to the children who are of 11 to 12 years of age to the different parts of the city. Not only boys but girls are also encouraged to play it in this modern world. In the old ages, girls weren’t allowed to play it.

There are basically two types of Dhimay:

1. Thulo or Big Dhimay
2. Sano or Small Dhimay

Thulo Dhimay is big and heavy, which is played very slowly. It is played in special festivals and ceremonies whereas Sano Dhimay is small and may be light or heavy. The Sano Dhimay is usually played in very fast beat. It is played in special Jatras (festivals) like Indrajatra, Ghodejatra, Bisketjatra, etc.

Since it is the instrument of the Newars it is trained in Nepal Bhasa language only and the beats and sounds are pronounced as Nepal Bhasa too. Dhimay training is usually of one year’s duration. The instrument Dhimay really has been one of the precious trademark of the Newars.

Kathmandu - The Capital Of Nepal

“I walk the lonely road, the only one that I have ever known…” This is a line from the song of Green Day called Boulevard of Broken Dreams. Well it was the same with me couple of years back but I cannot say the same now though. Yes, I am talking about the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, and the crowd being on the street and never leaving the street lonely as it was couple of years back.

There is a long history of the nomenclature of our capital. There is a structure near the durbar square of Kathmandu called Kasthmandup, where kastha means wood and mandap is covered shelter in Sanskrit. It has a legendary story that this two-story pagoda-styled structure is build out of a single structure. It is believed that the Kathmandu is derived from the Kasthmandap to Kantipur to Kathmandu. The original inhabitants of Kathmandu are Newars, who speak Nepal Bhasa (Newari language). In their language Kathmandu is called Yen.

Kathmandu is actually a valley which is surrounded by high hills. There is only a very small gorge near Chobar, where one of the holy rivers Bagmati goes out of the valley to south on its way ton the of course. It is believed the Manjushree from China cut the hills of Chobar and saved the valley from drowning. So a valley was created with the beautiful topsoil which is enriched for cultivation.

At present the Kathmandu valley consists of four primary cities: Kathmandu, Kirtipur, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur. Most of the streets in the Kathmandu valley are named from Nepal Bhasa language, owing its origin to the rich Newari culture and heritage. There are lots of Buddhists and Hindu chaityas, temples, and palaces, mostly from 17th century but many of those landmarks have been damaged by earthquakes and pollution.

That is a brief introduction of the city where I was brought up. When I was a kid, the city was not so crowded. There no traffic rushes. It was just so peaceful. At present, the population has grown up enormously and due to the increased population and pollution, the city has become a crowded place where you will have lots of traffic rushes here and there with the disgusting smell of littering around the city corners. People still haven’t been able to organize and make it a better urban civilization as of yet. May be it is due to the government stability and lack of funds, but anyhow people should be serious in improving the city which is also the capital of our country.

Kirtipur – Glorious City

The name Kirtipur is derived from Kirti which means Glory and Pur which means City. This is one of the other city along with Kathmandu which still remains isolated and unexplored. It is the city where my mom was born and she grew up there. Though it is not so far from Kathmandu it is still out of reach from the tourism activities. I still wonder why hasn’t anyone seen the glory of Kirtipur. I mean lots of other cities like Bhaktapur and Patan are overwhelmed with tourist but since my lifetime I haven’t seen any tourists roaming in the streets of Kirtipur. May be it is due to the fact that the city has less amount of land to cover and the due to its hygiene factor back some years ago. Kirtipur is spread in 14 hectares of land, and is located 5 km from the center of Kathmandu.

May be the history has something to do in regards to the popularity of Kirtipur as well. There are many stories of the battle of King Prithvi Narayan Shah back then when he was trying to unite all the small countries into one single Nepal. Amongst all Kirtipur was too tough to beat. Kirtipur back then was a small country ruled by a king and the kingdom was basically a hill where people lived uphill. King Prithivi Narayan Shah was defeated so many times due to the hill factor. It is said that people just captured lots of weapons of the Shah King back then, and amazing the tools or weapons the people of Kirtipur fought was only stones; big and small ones. They would just roll over huge stones over the hill and soon the Shah King troopers would have to retreat. Finally, in 1826 B.S. (Nepalese Calendar as Bikram Sambat) it was annexed to the kingdom of Nepal by King Prithvi Narayan Shah in his third attempt.

There are lots of beautiful landmarks situated in Kirtitpur amongst which Bagh Bhairav Temple is one of the most popular temple dedicated to God Bhairav in the form of a tiger. This god is regarded as the guardian of Kirtipur and the locals call it Ajudeu, a grandfather god. The three-storey temple is rectangular and the weapons like swords and shields are showcased in the front roof of the temple which are said to be presented by Newari troops after their defeat by Late King Prithivi Narayan Shah. Just some minutes walk over Bagh Bhairav comes Uma-Maheshwor Temple of goddess Uma (Parvati) and god Maheshor (Mahadev). This temple is at the tip of the Kirtipur and we can see most of the Kathmandu valley from here.

The other main glory of Kirtipur is Tribhuvan University which is the largest and the oldest university of Nepal and is situated in Kirtipur. The university was established in 1959 as the first university of the country. It is the largest university in Nepal with more than 150,000 students and faculty.

Something About Nepal

From what I know, the word Nepal is derived from the word Nepa, also Nepal Bhasa, the language of Newars. In old days only Kathmandu valley was called as Nepa by the Newars. Right after the King Prithivi Narayan Shah united Nepal, he named the country as Nepal after making Kathmandu the capital of Nepal. Still in those days whenever people visited to Kathmandu and when they were asked where are you going to, their answer used to be I am going to Nepal. According to Skandha Purana, a rishi called "Ne" or "Nemuni" used to live in Himalayas. According to Himwatkhanda, a Hindu scripture, the word Nepal comes from "Ne"' (the seer) and "pal" meaning protection.

Geographically, Nepal is in Asia. It is a landlocked by China and India. Nepal is of roughly trapezoidal shape, 800 kilometers (500 mi) long and 200 kilometers (125 mi) wide, with an area of 147,181 square kilometers (56,827 sq mi). Nepal is commonly divided into three physiographic areas: the Mountain, Hill, and Terai Regions. These ecological belts run east-west and are bisected by Nepal's major river systems. Nepal is divided into 14 zones and 75 districts, grouped into 5 development regions. The 14 zones are:
Bagmati, Bheri, Dhawalagiri, Gandaki, Janakpur, Karnali, Koshi, Lumbini, Mahakali, Mechi, Narayani, Rapti, Sagarmatha, and Seti

There are different groups of people living in Nepal with different views, customs, and tradition. Lots of Hindus reside in this beautiful country and mostly the capital is filled with temples build by the ancient kings in the old ages. The cities in the capital are often called city of temples. The temples are mostly of made of pagoda style. Nepal has the great honor of having Mount Everest situated in it and still holds the title of being the World’s second highest water resources.

A single post can never define Nepal, but yet I tried my best in gathering all the brief details in this post. I am sure by now you will have at least gathered some ideas about where and what kind of country Nepal is with some knowledge about its customs and traditions. I will be posting more of the posts will details in posts to come.

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Encouragement For This Blog

I have been writing lots of posts in my word document and it just hit me about the friends who had helped me in these months who have provide me so much of information and lots of assistance as well. So I would like to dedicate this post for those who has helped me in this world of blogging.

First and foremost, as usual the name Sameer comes the first. This time too he bought me this domain. Actually he had bought this domain for his own purpose but for some reason he declined his posts and handed me this site and started working for one of my other proxy site. So basically we traded for this domain. Thanks to him I am back in business creating another blog.

Then comes my dear Smreeti, who has always been there with my hard times and good times as well. She has been encouraging me the most to work on my blogs from the past and had been advising me to create one another from a long time. So here I am doing it dear. Then comes one of my dearest friend ever, Jenisha. She has been actually helping me to write the posts and choose the template for this blog as well. Many of my credits goes to her for helping me out writing some of the posts in this blog. She has given her thoughts and ideas over the posts. My nephew, Ajay, also has helped me in giving me ideas and sharing views of what his generation would like to read in this age and what kind of posts should I write in this blog. He also has provided me some posts which will be posted in this blog soon after a review.

Finally, I dedicate this blog to my parents who have been so supportive over the past few months. I am the their only son and my duties are to look over my responsibilities but since I became serious into this blogging world, I had hard time looking after the family finances but somehow they have been so supportive and they helped me a lot with my responsibilities.

I am sure lots of more friends are to be added in this post but as for now I am ending this post and may in future I will be updating this post with lots of helpful friends or may be creating yet another blog post dedicating it to those who have always been there to help me out. Thanks all of my friends and families for supporting and helping me in this creation of mine!