Festivals, rituals, architecture and the people keeping them alive. Nepal's cultural life is not a museum exhibit.
Culture
Nepal's living goddess is not a metaphor. There is a girl in Kathmandu right now who is carried rather than walks, who sits in silence on a throne while a queue of devotees files past her, who receives one hour of tutoring a day and cannot speak to
Culture
At 6:32 in the morning, a woman is sweeping. Her broom makes a dry scratching sound against the stone of the outer circuit, and the movement is unhurried. Around her, in one continuous stream, people move clockwise. Some carry malas. Some have their lips moving. A monk in ochre
Kathmandu
The contemporary art scene in Kathmandu is not large. What it is, is serious - galleries in converted courtyards, artists working with earthquake rubble, a conversation not aimed at tourists.
Chitwan
The Tharu were here before the tigers, before the park, before the buffer zones. A culture that survived malaria, displacement, and the tourism economy built on top of it.
The Nepal-India border is technically invisible. People cross it daily without documents, goods move without declaration, and the towns on either side have more in common with each other than with their respective capitals.
Culture
For eight days every September, Indra Jatra restructures Kathmandu. Chariot processions, masked dances, and a living goddess carried through streets that have not changed their route in 900 years.
Culture
Nyatapola Temple in Bhaktapur has five storeys and has never fallen - not in 1934, not in 2015. Built in 1702, engineers still study its construction logic.
Culture
Nepal does not observe a quiet month. From Dashain in October to Bisket Jatra in April, the festival calendar is one of the most loaded in Asia. A month-by-month guide to what is actually happening and where.
Culture
Bisket Jatra pulls Bhaktapur apart and puts it back together every Nepali New Year. Two chariots, two teams, a tug of war through the old city streets, and one very specific pole.
Kathmandu
Pashupatinath charges non-Hindus a thousand rupees to stand on one bank and watch the cremations from behind a fence. What happens on the other side of that arrangement is more complicated.
Culture
The Maya Devi Temple marks where the Buddha was born. Around it, forty-two monasteries built by nations from Myanmar to Germany. What the pilgrimage economy looks like and what it has built over.
Culture
Tihar is not Diwali. The five-day festival runs its own ritual calendar - lamps, animals, Deusi Bhailo, and Bhai Tika - and the shape of it is changing with migration and apartment living.