Patan | Breath of centuries - Utsav Shakya Patan is easy to love. It’s a city that is full of life, one that breathes culture and art and history. This is its heritage. Its streets bustle with more people and less traffic. The shops are still small where the shop keepers will actually remember what you bought the last time you were there. They will ask after you. Like most great cities, Patan has a good mix of people of all cultures. Also like most great cities, it cannot be compared to others. The city has a charm of its own, an old world quality that has somehow managed to not give in to the seduction of Western lifestyles that the capital’s district of Kathmandu has adopted so easily. The older streets are cobbled, most houses have preserved the wooden tiki jhya- windows with ornate etching and most roads can only accommodate one-way traffic. When one moves deeper into the city, the roads become even narrower as if to discourage the vehicles from trespassing. Patan runs on its old laid back clock too, with men sitting out on their porches all day, smoking hukkas and having countless cups of tea as they discuss politics or chit chat casually. There is absolutely no sense in honking on your car or motorcycle’s horn in Patan, especially in the ever busy Mangal Bazaar. A traditional market place offering everything from the Nepali bhadgaule topi to ayurvedic herbs for every kind of ailment, shoppers seldom budge until they get a good deal and move on.

As Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal Friday kicks off a campaign to draw 1 million tourists to the country next year, the campaign will receive a boost from the launch of a forgotten epic on the life and teachings of the Buddha, that has been resurrected by a prestigious western publisher. The Oxford University Press, US has brought out an English translation of “Sugata Saurabha” - literally meaning the fragrance of the Buddha, an epic written in Newari, the language used by the indigenous Newar community of Kathmandu valley who claim to have descended from the same Shakya dynasty in which the Buddha was born nearly 2,500 years ago. It is the work of Newar poet Chittadhar Hridaya, regarded as one of the greatest literary figures in Nepal in the 20th century. The epic was said to have been written by Hridaya while he was imprisoned by Nepal’s dictatorial Rana rulers for having written a poem that displeased them. It has been translated ...

The Day Women Descend On the Streets - Utsav Shakya The Rato Matsyendranath festival: a celebration that mixes religion, culture and everyday life into a heady concoction might as well be famous for something other than just that - primal screaming sounds from women of all ages as they pull the famous chariot on the ‘yaka bhujya’ day of the festival. For a moment, this scribe was reminded of maternity wards in hospitals! Armies of women of all ages fill the streets. Some in comfortable kurta salwars or jeans and others in bright, red saris tucked tightly into their hips tug at the towering chariot, their sneaker adorned or sometimes bare feet digging into the earth as they heave at the chariot of god, demonstrating a freakish strength. Whoever said women are only emotionally ...

The Philosophical Concept of Mha Puja The omnipotent and omnipresent existential moment of life is embossed upon performing Mha Puja by the Newar community in Nepal. Mha puja is a grand celebration observed every year in recognition of existential moments of life on the first day of Nepal Sambat; the new year’s day of the Newar community. The New Year brings with it the lush and fresh fruiting season, the autumn; when life comes in bloom with the products of mother earth. This is a celebration that recognizes human worth, dignity, and prestige. Mha puja bears a deep sense of blessing the self for right conscience and right performance for all righteousness to disseminate inner light. This Vedic version is the conceptual essence of mha puja. The light of life glows from within us, this warmth entails all along the existential moments. It needs to be energized through continuous effort at all turns of life. The blazing oil fed wick is lighted in manifesting self existence. Mandap The mandap drawn in front of a person during the festival represents the luminous bodies in the universe and our planet earth in particular. All beings inclusive of human beings are the honey of the earth while the earth itself is a hive of all beings. Before the mandap is drawn, a mark is made with water which is then dressed up on top with mustard oil, colorful decoration using vermilion powder being added later on. The tracing of this mandap with water is to purify the ground and oil is used to impress the event for a longer period of time. The illumination that is made over the mandap signifies enlightenment inherent inside each person.