Body
(Re)colonizing Tradition
A Pedestrian Guide to a "Traditional" City
Welcome to Bhaktapur
[1] The Tea Stall at Guhepukhu
[2] Nava Durga Chitra Mandir
[3] Khauma Square
[4] Tourist Motor Park
[5] Indrani Pitha
[6]Lasku Dhwakha Gate
[7]Char Dham
[8]Cafe de Temple
[9]Batsala Temple
[10] Batsala Temple
[11] City Hall
[12] The Procession Route
[13] Pujari Math
[14] The Peacock Restaurant
[15] Sewage Collection Ponds
[16] Bhairavanath Temple
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Cultural Pollution
Many saw tourism as "cultural pollution." The greatest effects of cultural pollution were seen as affecting religious practice and young people. For instance, Ram Locha Jha felt that tourismıs pure business motive was destroying the cityıs religious structure:
Tourism has changed the city because tourism is based on the business motive. Just about earning money. . . . It is not good to break [religious] rules for money. All the rules are being broken for money, people are leaving the kind of work they should do, they are not doing their own religion, and they are not doing their rites of passage. This has caused harm to the city (personal interview, 9 May 1999).
Others like the chief of the National Museum located in Bhaktapur, Damodar Gautamnot a native of the city but a Parbatiya Bahunsaw the worst effect of tourism as changing young peopleıs attitudes:
If people have regular interaction with tourists, they learn [bad habits] from them. Like warning skirts. Tourists wear #transparent# clothes. Isnıt that true? And our women are not allowed to wear that kind of thing. And men grow long hair and wear earrings. And the most important thing is that tourists take drugs and smoke (personal interview, 21 June 1999).
Yet it was the college professor and local activist, Yogesh Raj, who seemed to have given the negative aspects the most thought. After talking with him about tourism, I asked him how it was harming Bhaktapur. He answered in length:
[It is harmful] because it increases self-consciousness about our culture, about everything. We used not to know who we were. What kind of us, what kind of we. It took outsiders to tell us that we are antiques and we have lots of culture. When we found this out, something went wrong. When we realized this we became #alienated# from ourselves. In my grandfathersı time they didnıt care about outsiders. Theyıd get up at four and go bath in the river, visit temples. Theyıd combine that with their regular work. They didnıt know about the history and they where happy (Yogesh Raj , personal interview 6 February 1999).
  
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Maps
Mandala Map
Tourist Map
Government
Map
Pedestrian
Tour Map
Bhaktapur
Durbar Square
Tacapa Map
Satellite
Photograph
Kathmandu
Valley
Goddesses
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