Visiting the Monkey Temple, Kathmandu

October 18, 2012

The unbelievable complexity of temples on this hilltop
Collecting visual imagery
Having a day free to explore Kathmandu on foot, I heard about the Monkey Temple and decided to check it out. Walking through the streets of Kathmandu is an experience in and of itself. Street vendors, a few record shops, food prepared on carts, smelly overloaded buses weaving around endless rickshaws.
I was lead much of the way by street hustlers. A young boy latched onto me and lead me to the entrance to the hill climb up to the Monkey Temple. I asked him what he wanted, and at his request I bought him a pint of milk.

There were lots of monkeys in this area, hanging out by the stairs and navigating between buildings on the power lines.
I bought some bracelets and a metal engraved singing bowl from vendors on the steps. In a shop at the top I got this beautiful hanging.

Pen and ink drawing

I didn’t do much sketching here, just drawing out shapes lightly in pencil. It is impossible to concentrate on drawing with throngs of people around, being curious about my drawing as well as blocking my subject matter. Better to take photos and compose later. Plus, it is an incredibly rich visual experience that I wanted to absorb, just to meditate a bit on being there. I often think “Wow, I am actually here. Pay attention.”

Adding color and texture

I may create an acrylic painting of this drawing sometime, but for now I just added some textural effects in the fields of color. In this case, the color fields filled very specific areas in the drawing, while adding their own shapes in places not contained by the ink drawing.

My photos of the Monkey Temple area