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Seen from a distance in the early morning light,
the long stretch of ochre brickwork blends perfectly with
the landscape of gentle hills. Roofs are a double line of
gray and a single temple rises into the sky like a beacon.
At the foot of the hill, the sacred Hanumante River draws
the southern border of the city of Bhaktapur.
Bhaktapur - which is almost as well known by its alternate name
of Bhadgaon - is said to have been designed sometime in the
9th Century in the shape of Vishnu's conch by its legendary
founder. King Ananda Malla. in fact, the backbone of the city
is a double S-shape, directed east-west, opening here and there
on squares with temples, shrines and sunken fountains. These
open spaces were old village centers established along the ancient
trade route to Tibet. Chroniclers of the time recall locations
like Khopo, Khuprini bruma and Bhaktagrama, the latter name
implying village (grama) status. After the 8th Century, these
villages joined and grew into a town. This urban growth was
the result of an evolutionary process rather than voluntary
planning, or so legend would have us believe. Certainly, a concentric
growth pattern, such as that of Patan, is absent in Bhaktapur.
The original center of Bhaktapur was the eastern
square around the Dattatraya Temple. When the city became
the capital of the whole Kathmandu Valley between the 14th
and 16th centuries, there was a shift from east to west with
the develop ment of a new palace area. There are in dications
that the town was fortified by the mid-1 5th Century, as the
new focus of the city moved to Taurnadi Tole with its Bhairav
and Nyatapola temples.
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