Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/126

 and are confronted with the culminating effect of the combined arts of the Newars, probably the most entrancingly picturesque city scene in Nepal. Around a rambling open space of flagged pavement, temples are irregularly grouped, most of them on terraced plinths, their pagoda roofs of red tiles and golden finials climbing into the blue sky. Some of these are approached by steep flights of steps, flanked by stone statues of humans in elaborate costumes, elephants, horses, and rhinos, gaily caparisoned and heavily chained to their pedestals, and monstrous fauna of the nether world. Truly the architect of these buildings felt that his creations were so fantastic that they did

Other edifices forming part of this scene are covered with a confusion of wood-carving picked out with colours or scintillating with brass incrustations. On a solid platform towards the centre of the square is a colossal bell, and overlooking this, on a high stone column surmounted by an immense lotus,