South of Patan
Bungamati and Khokana are two Newar villages a few minutes' walk apart, a short drive south of Patan and almost never on an itinerary. Grain still dries in both squares.
Photo: loki TGM / Pexels
Two homes
Rato Machhindranath, the valley's rain god, spends half of each year in Bungamati and the other half in Patan. In the village you can see where he lives for the other six months.
Photo: Stan Tuladhar / Unsplash
Context
Each spring his chariot, about 60 ft (18 m) of timber and rope, is built at Pulchowk in Patan and pulled through the old town for about a month. Only in the twelve-yearly jatra is it built in Bungamati instead.
Photo: Roman Saienko / Pexels
Khokana
Next door, families press mustard oil in wooden presses, and the smell reaches you first. Khokana lies about 8 km south of the city, and one mill still works by hand, turning out 20 to 25 liters a day.
Photo: Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz / Pexels
A trade worth keeping
Cheaper oils have been arriving, and the town has been working to keep the old trade alive. The valley's cooks have long sworn by Khokana's oil, and a bottle from the hand mill is worth carrying home.
Photo: Sajan Rajbahak
Planning
Skip festival days and go on an ordinary afternoon, and you may well have both squares to yourselves. Pair the villages with a morning in Patan, a short drive north, so the rain god's two homes share one day.
Photo: loki TGM / Pexels