Patan

The first explosion of the monsoon has come to Bouda. The streets and alleys have been washed and we have running water more regularly. This will be a brief entry, a conduit for showing you pictures from the beautiful city of Patan, the medieval capitol of Gujarat. First, in other news, the first week of class has begun and I have moved in with my Tibetan family, Samten and Choedon. They escaped from Amdo, the eastern most region of Tibet, and were recently married seven months ago here in Nepal. Choedon works at a local shop and is studying English, so we manage broken conversations regularly. Samten works as a Thangka painter who is quite skilled in his trade and clearly brings in most of the family's income. He and I don't converse much due to the language barrier but Choedon acts on occasion as our translator. They are fascinated and enamored of America and my less than convicted attitude, as to our country's innate virtue and magnificence, does not dissuade their enthusiasm. Much of the time we have brief conversations interspersed with the World Cup, which blares from every flat (with a TV) day and night. Finally, as a matter of complete trivia, Crocs are the official apparel of the Tibetan monks. Enlightenment not guaranteed unfortunately!

Our guide through Patan, south of central Katmandu, was a jovial Nepalese artisan, educated in engineering in the states. He led us through the North of Patan beginning with nearly fifty of us in an narrow street adjacent to the bridge over the Bagmati River where we left our tour buses. The temples, he explains were constructed by the artisan guilds that continue their craft to this day. While India and Nepal are full of the gaudy new cement temples so prevalent in India, the old Newari style remains vital by necessity, Nepal being an active earthquake zone. Temples have been leveled and swiftly recreated throughout history due to the continued flourishing of these artisan guilds. Every temple depicts a montage of ages, a large archway of hammered bronze may have been fitted several hundred years prior to the carved wooden struts supporting the temple roof.