Kathmandu Valley

Pop: 1.5 million
About 6% of the population of Nepal lives in Kathmandu Valley. The population density is 1800 per sq km.

Most visitors to Nepal when they first arrive in Nepal, the first place they come to is the Kathmandu Valley. There are three main towns in the valley — Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. All three cities have some great architecture and interesting culturally. Because of the great sculpture that can be found on buildings all over the valley it has been described as a “living museum.”

Kathmandu is the capital and largest city in Nepal. Patan is the second largest city in the valley and is separated from Kathmandu by a river. They are basically connected. Bhaktapur, the third biggest city in the valley, is in the eastern part of the valley. It is much more laid back than Kathmandu.
Throughout the valley they are many temples, shrines, interesting buildings, traditional villages and some great scenery. It can easily spend a week visiting the places in the valley.

Besides visiting the three main city in the Kathmandu Valley there are other interesting places to visit such as temple, stupas, villages and mountain viewpoints. Thing can get much quieter after leaving Kathmandu.

One of the main places to visit is the Buddhist site of Swayambhunath, which has a great setting on top of a hill. It is easy walking distance from Kathmandu. The most important Hindu temple is Pashupatinath, on the east side of Kathmandu near the airport. Also interesting is the Tibetan Buddhist site of Bodhnath.

Some of the good mountain viewpoints on the edge of the valley are Nagarkot, Khulikhel and Kakani. Some interesting temples you may want to visit are Changu Narayan, near Bhaktapur, which has some great ancient sculptures, Budhanilkantha, north of Kathmandu, which has an ancient 1400-year-old deity of Lord Vishnu, and Dakshinkali, in the southwestern part of the valley, which is a Kali temple.

There are some good one to three day walks in the valley. It is a pleasant walk from Nagarkot to Changu Narayan and then on to Bhaktapur. You could walk from Kirtipur to Chobar and then on to Patan. Another walk is from the Gokarna Mahadev Temple to Bodhnath.

A few books that gives details on walks in the valley there are: Treks on the Kathmandu Valley Rim by Alton C. Byers and Kathmandu: Bikes & Hikes by James Giambrone, which can be gotten at bookshop in Kathmandu.

Riving a bike around the valley can be a pleasant way to get around. As riding in Kathmandu can often be unpleasant because of the traffic and pollution, you may want take a taxi to Ring Road, the road around the city, and then start riding from there.

History
The Newars are considered to be the original inhabitants of the valley. They speak a Tibeto-Burmese language but their physical features are both similar to Mongoloid which indicated the origin from the east and Indo-Aryan features, which indicates coming from India.

In the 17th century the valley consisted of the three city-states of Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur. During this time the valley was important link on the route between Tibet and Northern India. During the reign of the Malla the palaces and many of the temples were built in the 16th and 17th centuries.

When King Prithvi Narayan Shah united Nepal in 1768, this was the end of the city states in the Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu became the capital of Nepal. The language spoken by the Khas of western Nepal became the official language of Nepal replacing Newari.

Geography
The Kathmandu Valley is around 25km from west to east and 20km from north to south. Kathmandu is at an elevation of 1300m and the surrounding area and hills range from 1500m to 2800m. There are three roads that come into the valley, two to the south going towards India and one in the north going towards Tibet.

Because of the growing number of people and vehicles in the valley, especially in Kathmandu, air and water population are becoming a real problem.

The valley is fertile and rice, wheat, corn, vegetables and a variety of fruit (bananas, oranges) are grown. Several rivers flow to the center of the valley and meet the holy Bagmati River, which then flows south pass the Chobar Gorge and eventually meets the Ganges in India.

Most of the land is used for farmland. There are some forests made up of oak, rhododendrons and pines. There are also eucalyptus and grevillea.

Travel within the Valley
The easiest way to get around the valley is by bicycle. If you are going somewhere near the edge of the valley it is best to have a mountain bike.
Swayambhunath can easily be gotten to by foot. Pashupatinath can also be gotten to by foot.
Buses and minibuses go to many places in the valley, but can be very uncomfortable and can limit your options. A taxi is a much better option if you can afford it. A taxi is around Rs 900 for half a day and Rs 1600 for all day.

Mountain Ranges
The Himalayan Mountains stretch across 800 kilometres of northern Nepal and is known as the Nepal Himalayan. There are more than 250 peaks that are higher than 6,000m (18,000 ft). 22 of the 31 mountains over 7,600m are in Nepal, including eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains including Mount Everest (Sagarmatha). The Siwalek and Churia hills, which would be mountains anywhere else, run parallel to the Himalayas north of Kathmandu.

 

 

Copyright ©2001 John Howley and Spiritual Guides