NEPAL: A LITTLE-KNOWN KINGDOM 



251 



medley of castes, the placing of the peo- 

 ple by any outsider is almost, if not quite, 

 an impossibility, and these Hill people 

 are far more strict in their caste rules 

 than any of their so-called coreligionists 

 (Hindus) in the plains. I say "so-called'' 

 advisedly, for though the bulk of the 

 people profess the Brahman or Hindu 

 religion, so many of the older forms of 

 Tantric worship and of Buddhism have 

 been retained and have so great a hold 

 on their imagination that it would now 

 be more correct to call them Brahmo- 

 Buddhists. 



ANCIENT TANTRIC RITES SHOW IX 

 CARVINGS 



With a large substratum of Tantric 

 rites appearing in many of their forms 

 and ceremonies, the same influence is 

 found in the carvings in the temples, 

 some of which are gross, and even im- 

 moral, although only in a few instances 

 is this very apparent. 



So, to look with understanding at the 

 varied and beautiful buildings, it must 

 be remembered that the workers have de- 

 rived their inspiration from a large num- 

 ber of sources and have adapted their 

 ideas to their immediate surroundings 

 with marvelous effect. 



In the structural features of their 

 architecture and its ornamentation, in 

 their sacred utensils, arms and armor, in 

 their household implements, vestments, 

 jewelry, everything, there is a similarity . 

 and special form which runs through all 

 these eastern Himalayan States. The 

 opinion of Sir George Birdwood, the 

 great authority on such matters, is as fol- 

 lows concerning the source : 



"It is a matter of some conjecture 

 where this civilization springs from. 

 . . . The traditions of the yellow, or 

 Turanian, races of central Asia point to 

 the west as the place of their genesis, as 

 those of the white, or Aryan, races of 

 Europe, Persia, and India point to the 

 east, the common center from whence all 

 these races took their exodus eastward 

 and westward being somewhere round 

 about the Caspian and Black seas. 



"Chinese tradition names Tibet as the 

 cradle of the race, which remained there 

 for some centuries before moving into 

 China. It thus comes that Chinese art 



has an Accadian source, and the stream 

 of commerce, which has from the remot- 

 est antiquity crossed Asia from the Medi- 

 terranean to the Yellow Sea, has modified 

 this by its inclusion with that of the 

 Hamites, Greeks, and even Xestorians 

 and that of Cathay. 



"Egyptian art, which is to be traced 

 throughout the whole of Turanian Asia, 

 has thus penetrated into the remotest re- 

 cesses of the Himalayas, and has helped 

 to mold the buildings, both of brick and 

 stone, the regal residences and strong- 

 holds, the houses and domestic arts of 

 these remote and shut-in States in the 

 heart of the Himalayas." 



In some ways the arts of these States 

 resemble very closely those of southern 

 India, and this may be accounted for by 

 the fact that they both escaped the Mo- 

 hammedan invasion. They have retained 

 unbroken to this day their arts as pro- 

 duced before the Mogul conquests of 

 northern India. Tradition has added 

 many a touch of local character born of 

 people living amid lovely surroundings 

 and having an artistic, temperament as 

 well as a religion which to them is still a 

 living one, the incidents of which they 

 love to depict magnificently. 



AN INGENIOUS METHOD OE FORTIFICATION 



The most -striking buildings of Nepal's 

 comparatively modern capital, Khat- 

 mandu, are, perhaps, those composing 

 the Dufbar Palace, with its many quad- 

 rangles and pagoda-shaped roofs, full of 

 chambers and courts with small commu- 

 nicating doors easily closed, which enable 

 the inhabitants to defend themselves in 

 case of political disturbances, which are 

 not infrequent. Some of the windows 

 are very fine and there are some striking 

 bits of wood-carving. 



The Royal Temple of the Goddess 

 Taleju, the protectress of the ruling 

 family of Nepal, is the finest in the 

 Durbar group and is kept exclusively for 

 the use of the royal family. 



Bim Sens Tower, a building nearly 

 200 feet in height, stands out above the 

 other buildings in the city. It is merely 

 a tower, with no particular meaning, al- 

 though the Nepalese have a legend that 

 the great Jung Bahadur leaped on horse- 

 back from the top and was uninjured. 



