Continuing from there, where I left the blog about exploring Thimi in one day.
The Digu tole, Madhypur Thimi’s famed pottery square is literally crammed with clay products. It was drizzling when we arrived, despite people working with the muck, preparing clay for another batch of clay vases.
They were covering all their undried crafts (Clay vases ) with plastic. By crossing the Digu Bhairava temple, one of the major temples of thimi, (where the tongue-piercing festival of thimi is held) we reached the northern corner of the site, where we found a small temple named Gorakhnath.
The temple was shuttered, and it appears that it is only visited on rare occasions.
We then, return to the main site after a brief exploration of the area. We were fortunate enough to witness live pottery too. Despite the fact that it was a dimly lit room with a single bulb, we enjoyed watching a live ceramic artist at work.
We then went to the western half of the site, where we were even more impressed by the sheer number of clay vases lined up to dry. It was incredible. We discovered another little temple and some folks determining the final products over there.
We arrive at the Pottery baking factory after following the same path. It was encouraging to learn that they are now utilizing technology to carry on with their conventional career. We also discovered that they bake their products one at a time.
Following that, we returned to the Digu Bhairava temple and resumed our journey by bike. We head towards Naso dyo pati. My friend insisted that we go and see it. The pati was the most one-of-a-kind pati I’d ever seen. Its architecture was, as expected, eccentric. It was still under development, but the overall layout was fairly foreseeable.
You could claim it was a coincidence, but later (on another day), I met the person who made that lovely pati in person.
We thereafter decided to head to the Siddhi Kali temple. Despite the fact that the temple was on the western outskirts of Madhyapur Nagara, it only took 5 minutes for us to get there. But, just as we were about to enter the main temple, we were drawn to a massive sculpture of Avalokiteshwora.
Avalokiteshvara is a Buddhist deity famed for having a thousand pairs of hands. Those hands are considered to be aroused to assist others. As a result, he is seen as an assisting god rather than a blessing god.
The statue was really stunning. While we were enjoying it, we noticed another lovely sculpture. It could have been Tara. We were so taken aback by how well the Buddhist and Hindu religions coexisted over there.
Then we go around the temple grounds for a time. The temple was really stunning. The struts and carvings tell us that we are, indeed, in Madhyapur Thimi, the city of ancient newari arts and crafts.
The environment was quite serene and tranquil.
We next proceed to Nagadesh, another section of Madhyapur Thimi.
We only knew about Nagadesh because of the Siddhi Ganesh temple, its beautiful dyo chhen, and the Sileshwor temple (also known as the Bisanti tirtha).
We initially go straight to the Siddhi Ganesh temple because we’d heard so much about it. To go to the temple, we had to first travel through the Dhyo chhen. The dyo chhen was grand, and its golden window, as I’d read, was literally guarded by iron bars.
Though we couldn’t see it properly, it offered us some relief because it means it is, at least secure. We went through a gate between the dyo chhen to get to the Siddhi Ganesh temple. After all, the temple is well-known in the neighbourhood. They claim it is the son of the Balkumari temple, who has once been dispatched to battle a demon in Nagadesh.
And was eventually settled in Nagadesh.
The environment was extremely amusing. The residents were playing cards on the nearby pati, some were working on a renovation, and above all, we could smell the fresh green veggies. After all, it is the farmer’s neighbourhood.
We then proceed directly to Shileshwor Mahadev. It was quite a distance away. The space was tiny, but the landscaping and surroundings made it a pleasant location to visit. My friend told me that they used to swim there when they were kids. That was very nostalgic for them. They also mentioned how much the area had changed.
When we arrived, there were not many people, but during aaunsi, the place got packed.
We next proceed to another beautiful section of Thimi, Bode. And there will be more bode in my next blog post.