Bell - Kathmandu

KATHMANDU

Thomas Bell

First published in the UK in 2016 by

Haus Publishing Ltd

70 Cadogan Place

London SW1 9AH

www.hauspublishing.com

Copyright Thomas Bell 2016

ISBN: 978-1-910376-38-6

eISBN: 978-1-910376-39-3

All photographs except where otherwise stated by courtesy of the author.

Passages quoted on pp. 260263 from The Life of Bhupi Sherchan (2010)

by Michael Hutt are reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press.

For Subina

The past is never dead. Its not even past.

William Faulkner

Contents

PART I THE BEGINNINGS

. The rooftops of Patan The allies and squares The traffic system The caste system The chariot festival of Bungadya The arrival of the monsoon

. A teddy bear bomb The beginning of the peoples war The royal massacre The state of emergency It leads to the dissolution of parliament A journey to meet the Maoists in the countryside Elections would not be possible

. Ancient stones The discoveries of Cecil Bendall M.A. Daniel Wrights Ancient Chronicle The monastery of Sunayasri Mishra The citys foundation and development A visit to the chroniclers family

. Is Kathmandu a process or a system? The declining community of ghosts The electricity, telephone, water, and god networks Gayahbajye of Pimbaha His daughter-in-law, their house Consecrating a new building The city as a mandala Interview with the gubhaju The ideology of the mandala Dhana Laksmis story of the Konti hangings

. Another year of festivals A man needs a maid The king dismisses the prime minister A dinner at the British embassy An assassination, and the ceasefire The Maoist contact office Another trip to the hills Maria

. Sylvain Lvi peels back a layer King Manadeva The order and chaos of the Hindu past Linguistic archaeology Tracing the ancient trade routes Yangala and Yambhu Remains of the Licchavis today

. The end of the ceasefire Pressure-cooker bombs Protests in Kathmandu The king is a tyrannical thinker The police club Kathmandu parties Back where they first began

. Fake shit from China The spirit of enterprise The first Transitional Period Uku Baha Artistic influences from north and south A god-makers foundry The Gopalarajavamshavali

. The possession of a God-Mother Shakti and the rise of Tantra Bungadya becomes Karunamaya Invisible monasteries, hidden monks Lefthanded practices No holier place than woman Himalayan sex drug Awful beauty puts on its arms Gayahbajye and the witches Dhana Laksmi sees a human sacrifice Chinnamasta Another meeting with the gubhaju The terror of masked dancers

. Three Kathmandu winters Jayasthiti and the golden age of the Mallas The coinage Pratap Malla invites the Kashmiri Muslims The communal riot of 2004 The Theatre State Karunamaya becomes Matsyendranath Gods appear among the people Malla warfare The siege tactics of Mao Tse-tung and Prithvi Narayan Shah Indra Jatra Prithvi Narayan arrives

PART II THE REVOLUTIONS

. Army day Gorkhali nationalism The Battle of Beni A Maoist video, and encounters with the Royal Nepal Army in Pokhara The mission to Kathmandu of Captain William Kirkpatrick

. Another visit to Maoist territory I move to a ruling-class district of the city The mad king Rana Bahadur Shah The mission of Captain Knox Francis Buchanan (Hamilton) The Anglo-Nepal War 181416

. The Royal Coup of 2005 A special ritual at the Gorkha durbar Brian Hodgson at the British residency His scholarly and diplomatic concerns Bhimsens tower, and his house The vexed situation at the Gorkhali court Hodgson equivocates The awful downfall of Bhimsen Thapa The Kathmandu Mutiny The British ministry and the departure of Brian Hodgson

. The high rate of attrition among mid-nineteenth-century politicians The massacre at the Kot The Indian mutiny and Jangs warm relations with the British The Thapathali palace The concept of pollution The Muluki Ain, or Law of the Land The rediscovery of Kathmandus sacred past The purity and the pollution of the rivers Dr Oldfield, and the character of Jang Bahadur The squalor of Kathmandu in the nineteenth century

. Baikuntha Rana, he slaughters a sheep The death of Jang Bahadur and the Shamsher coup The last darkroom Photographs of the Ranas Their 141 extravagant palaces, and their decline The Ranas, the Gurkhas, and the British

. Some beguiling diamonds A small shoot-up, and
a bribe The Rana method of extracting resources Chandra Shamsher emancipates the slaves Dhana Laksmi and Himalaya Shamsher survive the earthquake A new political consciousness appears Now we will have to bear the shit falling on our heads King Tribhuwan escapes and makes common cause with the Peoples Liberation Army of the Nepali Congress party The modern age puts down its landing gear

. The rules that govern everyday life The society of The Window of the House Opposite They woke up one fine morning from the sleep of the Middle Ages and found themselves exposed to the neon lights of
an electronic age King Mahendra creates national unity The rise of a cash economy, and a middle class A first glimpse of the donors Bhupi Sherchan

. Les Chemins de Katmandou A psychedelic theorist telephones the palace on average, one girl a month would flip out on acid and insist on walking through the centre of the city completely naked the Chief Censor Kathmandus youth eat a crazy salad

. The Physical Development Plan of 1969, and the Inventory for Protection Professor Riccardi recalls the experts and the researchers The gods leave the Valley Art historians, diplomats, gangsters, and princes The Values Crisis

. The Revolutions The 1990 Peoples Movement Democracy The population boom The corruption boom The peoples war gets started A visit to 234 Rukum, meeting the raja there A country is greater than democracy and human rights The Second Peoples Movement A taxi for Mr Shah!

PART III WITHOUT END

. Interval in Bangkok The first high-rises The Comprehensive Peace Agreement The evil eye The rage of the poor and the rich The Madhes Movement transforms the agenda Communists against Democrats The Maoists encircle Kathmandu

. Aid is too good for the poor The development cycle what do aid programmes do besides fail to help poor people? Remittances, cartels, and the rentier state If our moneys not making this work, are we paying for it not to? Dont rock the boat Flying kites at Dashain Walnut theory

. Operation Mustang The High-Altitude Research Centre The death of Sadhuram Devkota Kathmandu is a nest of spies saam daam danda bhed MISG and the NSC Mustang working well Nobody asks, who were the victims? Glass and mirrors The political strings The Brits are the worst, theyve got an answer for everything

. Sabitrididi In everything the old overlaps the new The drummers identity politics Inclusion is Communist Rage The kids by the rivers are the worst Kathmandus lovely The road-widening programme The constitutional process Dhana Laksmis parting thoughts

Photos and illustrations

Preface

1. Manjushree statue in a shop window, Hakha Tol, Patan, 2010.

2. Shivaratri at Pashupati, 2005.

3. View to Swayambhu across the Kasthamandap, c. 2011.

Chapter 1

4. Maru Tol, 2011.

5. Bungadya at Sundhara, Patan, 2010.

6. Bungadya between Sundhara and Uku Baha, 2010.

Chapter 2

7. A group of rebels in the Western hills, c. 1998 (photographer unknown).