Kathmandu - Tukan Bahal

The Tukan Bahal's small courtyard is a microcosm of Nepalese life: women do their housework in the open air, washing dries on lines, and children play. In the center stands a stupa with a pipal tree sprouting from the cube-shaped stone shaft (harmika) above the hemisphere, the tree roots slowly breaking up the masonry. The stupa, with shrines to the Dhyani Buddhas at the four cardinal points, is raised on a circular brick base, a common enough feature in Indian stupas but extremely rare in Nepal.

Some superb reliefs survive on the base, one showing a pair of lions with a vajra, another two antelopes and the Wheel of Law, and a third a human couple worshipping a flower vase. A fourth, with an inscription probably dating from the 6th c., has been moved to the National Museum. The style of the reliefs still in situ suggests they are 7th or 8th c. The hemisphere of the stupa is almost certainly 14th c. Also in the courtyard are some votive stupas and a vajra (symbol of Vajrayana Buddhism).