The glory of Kirtipur is visible these days through the voices of the mass standing on the ascending entrance of the city. What inner force makes them sing the songs of peace and freedom, one asks with wonder! When the people of the city can look at its capital in the north and look beyond at the snowy ridges of the lofty Himalaya everyday, when its people have the privilege of seeing daily the sublime Swayambhu, and when they can see the majestic temples of gods and goddesses emerging out of foggy sheet in the winter and washed steeples in the months of rain, the query becomes irrelevant.
One of the most overwhelming images of democracy we have seen these days is the crowd gathered at the city entrance. The students and locals shout slogans for democracy and sing dohari songs and recite poems. Kirtipur looks like an awakened earth!
The city one evening looked mysteriously beautiful when I was walking with Professor Abhi Subedi on its northern stretch just below the foothill. The lightening would create silhouettes of the ancient temples on the top of the huge mound, and soon after the rain with the scattered clouds in the sky the moon would loop the houses and trees with its silvery lights. That was an unforgettable experience to see the city within minutes both by the lightening and the moonbeams. I would never imagine reclaiming the moments of nature's magic of that evening.
There is yet another magic the city weaves around us. If personal experiences are momentary, history and its knowledge can be shared. The city has its pains to contribute in the making of this modern nation some two hundred and thirty eight years ago. From then on the city has juxtaposed two things: It bears the remains of medieval Nepal and just on its brow it also has institutional stretch known as Tribhuvan University for the quest of knowledge. Two of its most sublime inhabitants living together are the farmers of this ancient city and its migrant student community.
During these bandas and curfews, I daily imagine, how the people of the marginalized town sing the song of democracy watching the smoky lines soaring high into the air from the lanes and streets of Kathmandu and Patan. And when I asked a student from Kirtipur how the city looks these days, he replied on the phone, "A carnival of aesthetisized politics!"
Many of the university teachers have been seeing the city and its people for decades. The university and the city have grown out of complementing one another, a bond which is unique in the history of the valley. Unique because just on the foothill, there are modern centers of knowledge and wisdom, and just above, there are people living almost amidst the myths of the nation.
Kirtipur has always been historically dwarfed except its allusions with king Prithavi Narayan Shah's invasion in 1768. Kirtipur has always been a footnote to valley's history: Bhaktapur soars high due to its art and craft, Patan has Malla historical grandeur, and Kathmandu after all is the capital. Kirtipur's nearness to three of its magnificent sister cities makes it tinier. It has always been an alternative space ignored by all who think they care about the valley.
The most fascinating sight recently of this marginal space has been the democratic performance at the city's entrance and at Panga. How such political performances demonstrate resistance and fill the faces with glorious radiance - I saw with awe on the countenance of Sanjeev Upreti when he returned from jail recently - is a matter of ageless political will.
Sanjeev belongs to Kirtipur in mind and body. He roams around even when there are no classes, and when he descends down the ancient city, he lives with the ideas that he teaches and learns from the students. He was beaten by the police and he looked happy for being true to his ideas. There are many writers and intellectuals in Nepal who belong to this city's university and lanes from where they have rendered and received influences. Many of them are beaten, thrashed, and kicked into dust these days in the lanes of Nepalganj to Pokhara, Itahari to Bardia. One wonders how a nation and its modern ideas can afford to treat them as criminals! How even a single Nepali is ill-treated while asking for democracy in this very nation which boasts thousands of years of history, mythical narratives, artistic magnificence, poetic insights and philosophic knowledge?
Kirtipur is an awakened earth. One can think about Gangabu, Patan, and Bharatpur, and many other places like these, but what makes one think about Kirtipur in this context is that the city is the womb of some of the most honest intellectuals the country has produced. In terms of the wide range of influences the city has generated, Nepali education and knowledge owes to the city and which probably is unsurpassed by any other place in Nepal. I will have to learn more to respect this holy place when I return after the university reopens.
One of the most overwhelming images of democracy we have seen these days is the crowd gathered at the city entrance. The students and locals shout slogans for democracy and sing dohari songs and recite poems. Kirtipur looks like an awakened earth!
The city one evening looked mysteriously beautiful when I was walking with Professor Abhi Subedi on its northern stretch just below the foothill. The lightening would create silhouettes of the ancient temples on the top of the huge mound, and soon after the rain with the scattered clouds in the sky the moon would loop the houses and trees with its silvery lights. That was an unforgettable experience to see the city within minutes both by the lightening and the moonbeams. I would never imagine reclaiming the moments of nature's magic of that evening.
There is yet another magic the city weaves around us. If personal experiences are momentary, history and its knowledge can be shared. The city has its pains to contribute in the making of this modern nation some two hundred and thirty eight years ago. From then on the city has juxtaposed two things: It bears the remains of medieval Nepal and just on its brow it also has institutional stretch known as Tribhuvan University for the quest of knowledge. Two of its most sublime inhabitants living together are the farmers of this ancient city and its migrant student community.
During these bandas and curfews, I daily imagine, how the people of the marginalized town sing the song of democracy watching the smoky lines soaring high into the air from the lanes and streets of Kathmandu and Patan. And when I asked a student from Kirtipur how the city looks these days, he replied on the phone, "A carnival of aesthetisized politics!"
Many of the university teachers have been seeing the city and its people for decades. The university and the city have grown out of complementing one another, a bond which is unique in the history of the valley. Unique because just on the foothill, there are modern centers of knowledge and wisdom, and just above, there are people living almost amidst the myths of the nation.
Kirtipur has always been historically dwarfed except its allusions with king Prithavi Narayan Shah's invasion in 1768. Kirtipur has always been a footnote to valley's history: Bhaktapur soars high due to its art and craft, Patan has Malla historical grandeur, and Kathmandu after all is the capital. Kirtipur's nearness to three of its magnificent sister cities makes it tinier. It has always been an alternative space ignored by all who think they care about the valley.
The most fascinating sight recently of this marginal space has been the democratic performance at the city's entrance and at Panga. How such political performances demonstrate resistance and fill the faces with glorious radiance - I saw with awe on the countenance of Sanjeev Upreti when he returned from jail recently - is a matter of ageless political will.
Sanjeev belongs to Kirtipur in mind and body. He roams around even when there are no classes, and when he descends down the ancient city, he lives with the ideas that he teaches and learns from the students. He was beaten by the police and he looked happy for being true to his ideas. There are many writers and intellectuals in Nepal who belong to this city's university and lanes from where they have rendered and received influences. Many of them are beaten, thrashed, and kicked into dust these days in the lanes of Nepalganj to Pokhara, Itahari to Bardia. One wonders how a nation and its modern ideas can afford to treat them as criminals! How even a single Nepali is ill-treated while asking for democracy in this very nation which boasts thousands of years of history, mythical narratives, artistic magnificence, poetic insights and philosophic knowledge?
Kirtipur is an awakened earth. One can think about Gangabu, Patan, and Bharatpur, and many other places like these, but what makes one think about Kirtipur in this context is that the city is the womb of some of the most honest intellectuals the country has produced. In terms of the wide range of influences the city has generated, Nepali education and knowledge owes to the city and which probably is unsurpassed by any other place in Nepal. I will have to learn more to respect this holy place when I return after the university reopens.
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