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Encompassing a former royal palace, a wealth of temples and many other monuments, Durbar Square is Kathmandu’s historic and spiritual centre. The square, after years of neglect, was renovated in 1972-75 in the Hanuman Dhoka Project, initiated after the ascension to the throne of King Birendra.<br/><br/> 'Durbar', or correctly <i>darbar</i>, means royal palace or royal court, but the locals prefer to call the square Hanuman Dhoka, 'Hanuman’s Gate', after the narrow palace gate which is guarded by a crimson-red figure of the monkey god Hanuman. The figure was set up in 1862 to protect the gate from ill luck and enemies of all sorts—or, as the Nepalese chronicles put it, from 'evil spirits, witches, and epidemics, such as smallpox'.<br/><br/> Hanuman is worshipped mainly on account of his bravery and strength, and has often been adopted by Hindu soldiers as their patron deity. In times gone by, fortresses were guarded by images of Hanuman hewn into their walls, and the kings of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur displayed Hanuman figures on their banners.
Encompassing a former royal palace, a wealth of temples and many other monuments, Durbar Square is Kathmandu’s historic and spiritual centre. The square, after years of neglect, was renovated in 1972-75 in the Hanuman Dhoka Project, initiated after the ascension to the throne of King Birendra.<br/><br/> 'Durbar', or correctly <i>darbar</i>, means royal palace or royal court, but the locals prefer to call the square Hanuman Dhoka, 'Hanuman’s Gate', after the narrow palace gate which is guarded by a crimson-red figure of the monkey god Hanuman. The figure was set up in 1862 to protect the gate from ill luck and enemies of all sorts—or, as the Nepalese chronicles put it, from 'evil spirits, witches, and epidemics, such as smallpox'.<br/><br/> Hanuman is worshipped mainly on account of his bravery and strength, and has often been adopted by Hindu soldiers as their patron deity. In times gone by, fortresses were guarded by images of Hanuman hewn into their walls, and the kings of Kathmandu and Bhaktapur displayed Hanuman figures on their banners.
The Seto (Shveta) Machindranath, the 'White Machindranath', also known as Janabaha Dyo, was built during the 16th and 17th centuries, and is frequented by Buddhists as well as Hindus, the Buddhists regarding Machindranath as an incarnation of the Avalokiteshvara while the Hindus regard him as a manifestation of Shiva.<br/><br/> Renovated and altered in the 17th and 19th centuries, the temple is surrounded by a number of small stupas, and its roof is capped with a particularly ornate pinnacle. The figure housed in the temple was discovered near Rani Pokhri, the Queen’s Pond, and every year in March or April it is carried in an exuberant chariot procession around the streets of Kathmandu. One of the spots visited during the procession is the place of its discovery. The festival usually lasts four days, but if some bad omen should occur, for example the breaking of one of the chariot wheels, the festival is easily, and joyfully, prolonged.
The date of construction of the Svayambhunath stupa, its origins steeped in myth, is unknown. According to the inscriptions on an ancient and damaged stone tablet at Svayambhunath, King Vrishadeva (ca. 400 CE) was the first to build a place of worship on the site. His grandson, King Manadeva I (ca. 464-505) may have made some additions.<br/><br/>The Muslim invasion of 1349 undid all the pious building work, the marauding Muslim warriors dismantling every kafir (infidel) sanctuary that they came across. An inscription at Svayambhunath records the date of the Muslim invasion as 20 November 1349, in all probability a very accurate account. After the raids Svayambhunath was restored, and most of the buildings seen today are from the post-invasion period.<br/><br/>Swayambhunath (Devnagari: स्वयम्भूनाथ स्तुप) is an ancient religious complex atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of Kathmandu city. It is also known as the Monkey Temple as there are holy monkeys living in parts of the temple in the north-west. The Tibetan name for the site means 'Sublime Trees' (Wylie:Phags.pa Shing.kun), for the many varieties of trees found on the hill.<br/><br/>For the Buddhist Newars in whose mythological history and origin myth as well as day-to-day religious practice, Swayambhunath occupies a central position, it is probably the most sacred among Buddhist pilgrimage sites. For Tibetans and followers of Tibetan Buddhism, it is second only to Bodhnath.
Edwin Lord Weeks (1849 – 1903), American artist and Orientalist, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1849. He was a pupil of Léon Bonnat and of Jean-Léon Gérôme, at Paris. He made many voyages to the East, and was distinguished as a painter of oriental scenes.<br/><br> Weeks' parents were affluent spice and tea merchants from Newton, a suburb of Boston and as such they were able to accept, probably encourage, and certainly finance their son's youthful interest in painting and travelling.<br/><br> As a young man Edwin Lord Weeks visited the Florida Keys to draw and also travelled to Surinam in South America. His earliest known paintings date from 1867 when Edwin Lord Weeks was eighteen years old. In 1895 he wrote and illustrated a book of travels, From the Black Sea through Persia and India.
The Nicobar pigeon (Caloenas nicobarica) is a pigeon found on small islands and in coastal regions from the Nicobar Islands, east through the Malay Archipelago, to the Solomons and Palau. It is the only living member of the genus Caloenas and the closest living relative of the extinct dodo.
Although an important town for hundreds of years, Bangkok sat on the sidelines, located beside the Chao Phraya River between the ancient capital of Ayutthaya to the north and the sea to the south. It was only following a sequence of kingdoms and invasions in the regions to the north that Bangkok evolved into what it is today.<br/><br/> The story of Bangkok begins in the far north of Thailand. The soil from which tall buildings now sprout once provided sustenance for rice. At that time, as little as 1,500 years ago, the site of the future capital city lay beneath the ocean’s waters. Each monsoon season, the powerful currents of the Chao Phraya River swept southwards, carrying the soil from eroded farmland into the sea, gradually nudging the shoreline a little further into what is known today as the Gulf of Thailand.