1 Day to Durbar Squares of Kathmandu & Patan, Bouddhanath Stupa

This morning, our private guide and the driver will go to your hotel to pick you up. Our Kathmandu city tour will start from an old Buddhist temple on the Swoyambhunath Mountain in the west suburb of Kathmandu. The giant stupa is conical with a golden top and square base, having a long history of about 2,300 years, thus it has been one of the oldest Buddhist relics in Asia. It is a world cultural heritage with four eyes painted on the base in four different directions, which means that the eyes of wisdom are looking around Kathmandu. You can overlook the city of Kathmandu in the distance as well.

Next, our guide will lead you to Kathmandu Durbar Square, a major attraction in old Kathmandu with more than 50 ancient buildings built in the 16th – 19th centuries surrounded, including royal palaces and temples in styles of diverse religions. In the Kathmandu Durbar Square, we'll visit Kumari Temple, which is a well-known Buddhist temple. The living Kumari goddess, the chosen girl who has been possessed by the Taleju Goddess, live in the temple and accept the worship. At noon, she will go out on the balcony to see her people.

We will continue the Kathmandu city tour to watch the Taleju Temple and Kal Bhairav from outside with the guide. In the northeast of Kathmandu Durbar Square, Taleju Temple built in 1549 AD is the largest-scale temple in the square and the highest pagoda in Kathmandu of Taleju Goddess, who is the most revered god as the protector of the country. As a special temple of the royal family, it closes to common people. You can see the grand pagoda with golden roofs in a distance.

Kal Bhairav is a huge black relief of Kal Bhairav on a wall in the north of Kathmandu Durbar Square. Based on Hinduism, Kal Bhairav is the most dangerous and horrible incarnation of Lord Shiva. He has a terrible face and six arms, holding a sword, enemy's skulls and magic weapons in his hands, with a corpse under the foot. The relief is 4-5 meters (13-16 feet) high. People usually go to pray in the morning. It is said if a person lies before him, the man would get punished by heaven. In the past, people went to Kal Bhairav to pledge.

After that, you'll be guided to Bouddhanath Stupa, a symbol of Nepal. It is one of the largest pagodas all over the world. In the northeast of Kathmandu, the round stupa is at the end of the ancient road from Lhasa to Nepal, thus there are quite a few Tibetans and Tibetan crafts, temples and restaurants. In ancient times, Tibetan businessmen would pray for safety there before they returned back to Tibet.

Then, we'll proceed to visit Patan Durbar Square in the afternoon, the last stop of our Kathmandu city tour, including the Golden Temple. Patan Durbar Square is a rectangle with the imperial palaces on the east side and a variety of temples on the west, which is quite important in the world with highly praised architectural achievements.

Located in the north part of Patan Durbar Square, Golden Temple is an old Buddhist temple that was firstly constructed in the 12th century, however, what we can see now was rebuilt in the 1800s. The roofs were tiled with gold, looking glaring; the long corridor was decorated with carved lions in various shapes; the murals describing the life of the Buddha are pretty vivid.

Till now, our tour today brings to a close and the guide will drop you off at your hotel. Hope you have a pleasant trip today.