Although now largely absorbed by
greater Kathmandu,
PATAN was
once the capital of a powerful
independent kingdom, and still
maintains a defiantly distinct
identity. Compared to Kathmandu it's
quieter, less frenetic and more
Buddhist (there may be a
correlation). Sophisticated and, in
a Nepali sort of way, bohemian, it's
Kathmandu's Left Bank: while
Kathmanduites are busy amassing
power and wealth, Patan's residents
appreciate the finer things of life,
which perhaps explains Patan's
poetic alternate name,
LALITPUR
("City of Beauty"). Above
all, it remains a proud city of
artisans
. Patan produces much of Nepal's
fine metalwork (the sounds of
tapping and filing ring out from
workshops all over town), and its
craftspeople have created some of
the most extraordinarily lavish
temples,
hiti and
bahal
in the country.
Bahal - their
doorways here always guarded by
cuddly stone lions with unscary
overbites - are a particular feature
of Patan, and a few still function
as active monasteries. In the past
two decades, Patan has also emerged
as the de facto
foreign aid
capital of Nepal: the UN offices and
diverse smaller organizations are
scattered around the western
suburbs, as are the residences of
many expats who commute to the big
USAID headquarters just across the
river.
In legend and fact, Patan is the
oldest city in the valley. Manjushri
, the great lake-drainer, is
supposed to have founded Manjupatan,
the forerunner of Patan, right after
he enshrined Swayambhu, while the
so-called Ashokan stupas, earthen
mounds standing at four cardinal
points around Patan, seem to support
the legend that the Indian emperor Ashoka
visited the valley in the third
century BC (historians are sceptical).
More reliable legend ascribes
Patan's founding to King Arideva
in 299 AD. By the seventh century
Patan had emerged as the cultural
and artistic capital of Nepal, if
not the entire Himalayan region. It
maintained strong links with the
Buddhist centres of learning in
Bengal and Bihar - thereby playing a
role in the transmission of Buddhism
to Tibet - and when these fell to
the Muslims in the twelfth century,
many scholars and artists fled to
Patan, setting the stage for a
renaissance under the later Malla
kings . Patan existed as part of
a unified valley kingdom until the
late fifteenth century, then enjoyed
equal status with Kathmandu and
Bhaktapur as a sovereign state until
1769, when Prithvi Narayan Shah and
his Gorkhali band conquered the
valley and chose Kathmandu for their
capital.
One of Patan's charms is that its
historic core is frozen much as it
was at the time of defeat. However,
see it while you can. Although a
number of temples and public
monuments have been skilfully
restored in the past decade, the
city has lost many of its older
private buildings. Here, as in
Kathmandu, most owners of
traditional old houses hope to
replace them with more comfortable,
modern concrete ones, and to finance
the redevelopment by selling off
their antique wooden window and door
frames.
