PONDS, TEMPLES, MISC, 9.7.18

This tree is just outside the largest constructed pond that I saw.
I appreciated the way this old tree moved the bricks aside to make room for it's roots. 

Amit tells me this pond is 3 feet deep around the edges and around 6 feet toward the middle. 

At the center of a royal bathing area. 

It is painful when a work of such skill and beauty is patched with indifference. 

At the head of a royal bathing area. 

A spout into a bathing area. 

A 'for the people' pond in amid homes and shops. 

These young boys are out with their begging bowls, aspiring monks I guess,
but I'm not certain why they are walking in line behind the flag. 

A wonderful detail; wood holding clay tiles, although
as far as I can tell it is decoration and has no function.  

 

There are many buildings being propped up like this, there are still shops being run on the first floor, which, if there is another earth quake seems like certain death for anyone in them. 

Yes, there are shops open below this wrecked dormer. 

This is not the best example because
the curved brick that meets the wood
is rough and the mortar splashes onto the wood,
but there are examples in which they have
put a radius on the brick--with hand tools--and
placed the mortar perfectly.
When it is done well it is a thing of beauty. 

Hard carved wooden roof struts, you
will see them on most of the temples. 

Clay tiles, which they still make in town are on most of the roofs I have seen.
The upturned clay piece at the end of the ridge is a tricky detail. Also, the ridge that is massed 
with flat tiles is a detail I would love to ask a
builder about. It does not seem like a functional detail, but perhaps  intended as just an architectural detail.
In any case many of the temples have just this detail. Imagine the weight the roofs have to carry. 

Hanging in there, barely. 

Friendly boys asking where I'm from.
The kid on the left has good English. 

I have no idea what these are,
but there are a lot of them. 

The Golden Gate, a palace entrance.
There is another Golden
Gate in Patan. 

The roof of the Golden Gate. 

A detail on the Golden Gate. 

The 55 windowed palace; all carved wood and all with latticed windows. 

Looking up into a roof soffit. 

A king, and I guess one of the good ones.
He was responsible for much of the large
scale building around this statuary. 

There will be another post soon.