Patan City Tour

PATAN CITY TOUR

‘around Patan or Lalitpur a city of impressive arts and crafts’

Patan City also popularly known as Lalitpur means city of intricate and impressive arts and crafts which you will witness in this delightful tour of half day to full day around beautiful and cultural areas of Patan steeped with historical monuments since Malla Kingdom regime.

Once a famed separate kingdom around 6th to 17th Century, located a mere distance south of Kathmandu city divided by bridge over Baghmati River, where tour begins after breakfast with short drive to reach within Patan or Lalitpur old Durbar Square teemed with full of local traditional activities.

On entering the premises where you will be amazed with ancient buildings a masterpiece architecture of intricate carving arts, most of the monuments listed in UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Places around Patan-Lalitpur of great interest to visit for few hours to full day as per your time duration and interest, where our expert city guide will show you the wonder of ancient culture and heritage.

Patan also known as Lalitpur a separate district within the valley, renowned for famous temples, monasteries, stupas and durbar square (royal courtyard) history from early 6-7th Century, however the recent earthquake of 25th April and 12th May 2015 damaged few of the old building slowly maintaining into its original and former shapes.

Great monuments and places of interest:

• Patan Durbar Square
• Mul Chowk (royal court yard and verandah)
• Sundari Chowk)
• Keshav Narayan Chowk
• Krishna Temple
• Mahaboudha
• Kumbheshwor
• Jagat narayan Temple
• Rudra Varna Mahavihar
• The Asoka Stupas
• Patan Industrial Estate
• Tibetan Refugee Camp

Patan Durbar Square:

Right in the center of Lalitpur, houses are of ancient Newari architecture. There are three main courtyards in the palace: Mul chowk, Sundari chowk and Keshav Narayan chowk. Mul chowk is the oldest one and is at the centre of Patan square.

Several multi sized and a multi-styled temple houses the western part of the complex. Main among these is Krishna Temple, Bhimsen Temple and the Golden Temple of Hiranya.

Mul Chowk (royal court yard and verandah:

One of famous and largest courtyards among three main chowks, the Bidya Temple is located at the center of the courtyard and the Taleju temples stand around the courtyard.

Sundari Chowk:

Sundari Chowk is to the south of the Mul Chowk with a sunken tank known as Tusha Hiti Mul Chowk & Taleju Temple.

Keshav Narayan Chowk:

Keshav Narayan Chowk on the northern part with Degutale temple, it is the site of the earliest Malla palace in Patan, the Chowk sits on the older foundations of a Buddhist monastery.

Krishna Temple:

This temple dedicated to Hindu Lord Krishna was erected in the 17th century, considered to be the first one to be built in Shikara architecture, it commands a vital position around durbar square. The elegant shikhara-style temple is ranked as one of the gems of Durbar Square. The temple is compared with sacred Mount Meru, which is abode of the god Shiva according to Hindu scriptures.

Mahaboudha:

A Buddhist temple of Mahaboudha, which is made of clay bricks, lies to the east of the Durbar Square. Hundreds of Buddha images are engraved in the bricks. The temple is known for its fine terra cotta work.

Kumbheshwor:

Just at rim of Drubar square lies five-storied pagoda temple of Lord Siva built by King Jayasthiti Malla, inside the temple premises a natural spring, its source the belief is from the famous glacial lake of Gosainkunda around Langtang Himal of Rasuwa district .

The golden work on the temple was added later in 1422 A.D.

On the festival of Janai Purnima (month of August), ritual bathing and fair takes place.

Jagat Narayan Temple:

Jagatnarayan temple is a tall shikhara style temple devoted to Lord Vishnu, red bricks are used for the construction. The temple also holds a fine metal statue of Garuda, Ganesh and Hanuman, all related to Hindu religion and mythology.

Rudra Varna Mahavihar:

This Buddhist monastery holds amazing collection of images and idols in metal, stone and wood. Legend holds that the Kings in the ancient times were crowned in this monastery. Many of the treasures offered by the people can be seen here even today.

The Asoka Stupas:

The Indian Emperor Asoka visited Nepal in 250 B.C and constructed four ancient stupas around four corners of Patan. The four stupas are located in Pulchowk, Lagankhel, Imatole and in Teta (way to Sano Gaon) respectively.

Patan Industrial Estate:

Located outside the city suburb near the Stupa at Lagankhel, an interesting place to visit and shopping for souvenirs, where all the handicrafts are hand made from metal, wood to stone art work includes carpet, pashmina shawl are woven here, as Patan / Lalitpur is city of beauty and arts, it will be an opportunity to observe the work and skill of craftsman and to purchase some items from this place.

Tibetan Refugee Camp:

Tibetan Refugee camp located on the south of Patan area near the only Nepal Zoo, where one can observe the happy-cheerful workers weaving carpets.

This place was established in the early 1970's after the Chinese invasion in Tibet where a great number of Tibetan migrated here, and the Nepal Government established this place as a permanent camp or settlement for the Tibetan Refugees here you can shop souvenirs as well.

EXTENSION FOR FULL DAY OR MORE AROUND LALITPUR DISTRICT:

KHOKANA AND BUNGMATI A HERITAGE VILLAGES:

An extension tour of Patan or Lalitpur district area takes you to witness heritage and cultural village beyond the city limit, where you will be in undisturbed surrounding with an era of medieval period of times around Khokana and Bungmati farm villages of great old heritage traditional life.

A short drive from Kathmandu or after tour of Patan areas leads you beyond city ring-road to exceptional areas of Khokana a village of over six hundreds individual households.

Khokana a traditional and small Newar, the native of Kathmandu valley located eight kilometers south of Kathmandu on the suburb of Patan / Lalitpur city, a village with its own history and has retained its tradition and culture.

Truly a lively museum of medieval period, the farming community of Newar life-long dependent on agriculture and much of their daily activities take place outside of their dwellings.

Witness women sitting outside spinning, men crushing seeds, and other daily activities, the village is famous for its special mustard oil and its products, which they harvest and makes oil using ancient method of heavy wooden beam to crush mustard seeds to extract the oil.

The oil of Kokana and Bungmati villages, besides cooking used for therapeutic massage, and the first village, indeed the first habitation, to be electrified, before Kathmandu.

In the center is a three-storey temple, Shree Rudrayani, with a particularly wide main street, especially for a village of such small size.

Khokana yet to be listed as World Heritage Sites as a real model villages of ancient times with its age-old farm life

Bungmati, nearby from Khokana similar type town and a village with hundreds of master wood carver and sculpture producers.

The ancient village came into existence as early in the 7th Century, at one time used to be an autonomous province within Kathmandu Valley. However with rapid changes in lifestyle of the urban population and the globalized way of living, the Bungmati locals have remained untouched by modern civilization and thus living a traditional life that they know simply from the past several centuries.