Open space in Nepali traditional Architecture

There is something very special about Nepali architecture, which is hilariously not the architecture itself, but more the open space in between and how the buildings interact with it. I think the only comparable open space planning I’ve seen is the acropolis in Greece: sacred buildings of different height and shape gathered around a public open space, with the air flowing pauseless through and the light creating a timeless mystic atmosphere, where people meet and chat and all the religious iconography is melted inseparably within the buildings, which seem to have grown from the earth and show an incredible delicacy from the smallest details to the bigger picture of the edifices itself.

Kathmandu Durbar Square 

Baktapur Durbar Square


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 On the map, it seems like a scar in the urban tissue
 

Wooden façade of the Royal palace in Kathmandu Durbar Square

Wooden statues and carvings on the façade mixing 

buddhist and hindu iconography

Other carvings always found around the temples

Showing a couple (probably Shiva and Parvati) as

The creation gods and depicting erotic scenes

The carvings where painted with colors, but in most temples they are gone

Metal ornaments on the roofs seem 

like  tissues hanging from the top

The pigeons on the roofs

Public fontain


Carved wooden door





Exquisit wood carvings are inserted like
jewels in the plain brick facades

Close-up Kajuraho Temples

The early morning is the best time to catch the best light in almost every temple I've seen in India, since most of them are oriented east-west, with the deities illuminated by the first sun rays. This is also the case in Kajuraho, so about 7. a.m. we start our tour of one of the most famous temples in India, which I had just heard about because of the erotic sculptures on the outer walls. This amazing stone complex was built by the Chandella dinasty that ruled in central india in the middle ages. According to the legend its founder Chandravarma was born to Hemavati after being embraced by the Moon. He created a longlasting dinasty that believed in the universe as being created by the divine union of man and women. 

The main temples from afar

The first sun rays illuminating the shrines

The rising towers piling on top of 

each other

It's really amazing to see how this philosophy is applied from every single architecture detail to the complex as a whole. The whole stonework is held without the use of mortar, just by the use of "mortise and tenon" joints and believe it or not "gravity". 

Mortise and tenon joints, symbolizing UNION

Sculptures symbolizing the UNION of man and woman

These sculptures are placed at a very particular place: 

in the imaginary line between the main shrine (the divine) and 

the entrance porch (the mundane) symbolizing again UNION

This completely knocks me out...not just the architecture is breathtaking but is charged of so much meaning, and every detail is planed according to their philosophy. People think of these temples of being mere depictions of the Kamasutra positions...but it's not at all about that. Just 10% of the sculptures here are erotic, the most part of it being depictions of the life in the middle ages. It's just that for them, sex was a natural part of human life, with "divine" connotations since it's the source of creation. Women were also venerated as being the "mothers" of humanity. I like that part!   

Here are some of the other friezes:

This ceiling over the entrance porch is 

a complicated stonework

Other sculptures represent ordinary (but very sexy) women of that time

Woman removing a thorn from her feet

In the inner walls of the temple sculptures of nymphs are depicted

Impressive flat stonework

One of the corner shrines of the main 

temple also has nice flat stonework with

an interesting shadow effect 

Some of the towers suffered a low budget restauration!

Sri Meenakshi Temple – The Taj Mahal of south India

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This enormous hindu temple complex is the summit of south Indian religious architecture, as important to south India as the Taj Mahal is for North India. Built in 1560 for god Shiva and his wife Parvati, the most impressive about it are the 12 gopurams (towers), where gods, demons and heroes pile up on top of each other.

As the Taj Mahal in Agra, the temple seems to be the guardian of the city, no matter from which street you are coming, you will always see one of the towers from a different angle…sometimes they are shown from the front, sometimes from the side.

The towers viewed from the street

One of the inner towers viewed from a pedestrian street inside the complex

But it’s just when you see the complex from above that you notice its magnitude: 12 towers looking over a 6 hectare complex, most of which is not accessible to tourist. What a shame!

The promenade around the courtyard is quite amazing, with nice paintings on the ceiling and on the floor. From the corridors you can also see the towers rising up and again the perspectives are always changing as you go around.

As in most temples in India, the columns are so close to each other (about 2m) that you get the impression that the room is longer than it actually is, almost infinite!

Arcade inside the complex

Inside the 1000 column temple

The columns have all different shapes, sometimes geometrical,

sometimes human, sometimes animal

Unfortunately we can’t find the famous musical stone pillars, since some of the temple has been recently closed to visitors. These pillars made from massive stone make different tones when hit them (But you need to have very strong wrists or fingers, it almost killed my hand when I tried at another temple, where I was not able to photograph or video film). This is how it looks like in other temples with similar columns: