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Thirty-eight-year-old Dawa Lama is known as the silver man. He has been standing as a statue at Buddha Park in Swayambhu, Pashupati Nath, and other areas of Kathmandu for the past three years. He changes into his gear and puts on makeup near the performance site, in a narrow street where he tries to make sure no one can spot him.

Earlier, he used to wear a silver-colored suit and hence he was known as the silver man. But since most people are attracted to the golden color, he has now transitioned into wearing a golden suit. He uses chemical-free golden makeup for his face.

Born in Sindhuli in Bagmati Province, Lama lives alone in a rented room in Lalitpur. His wife and three children are back in Sindhuli, with Lama’s parents. He uses ride-sharing apps to travel to his desired location. During festivals, he has taken his act to various parts of Nepal. He plans to perform at the Sali Nadi festival before thousands of people.

“I was fascinated by this act after I saw videos of people doing it in China and other countries,” he says. However, it wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be. He couldn’t stand for long. One and a half hours were the longest he could manage. Now, he can stand without moving an inch for up to five hours. The locals of his regular places have given him many names. He is the ‘sun manche’, ‘golden man’, and ‘dummy’, among other things.

There have been some scary incidents during his act as well. “Once, in Dang, these two girls thought I was a dummy and started taking pictures with him. As a joke, I moved a little to surprise the lady. She was so shocked that she fainted,” he says, adding he now refrains from giving the impression that he is an actual statue but he boasts that he can easily trick people if he wants to.

Lama is happy that he can take care of his family. And he loves what he does. He can also afford to part with a small fraction of his earnings to feed those in need. That is more than enough, he says.

I recently visited Angel Horse Stable in Chundevi in Kathmandu. I wanted to see what all happened at a horse-riding school. I met Suman Bhujel, 20, who is currently an instructor at the center. He has been working there for the past seven years. He started as a helping hand at the center, cleaning the stables and feeding the horses, and later learned horse riding and underwent buggy management training as well.

Bhujel says he has always been fascinated with horses. As a child, he used to peek through the walls of the center and watch people ride horses for hours. “It’s an unconventional job but it’s exciting and I love it. No two days are the same,” he says.

In recent times, horse buggy or horse carriages have become popular in some parts of Nepal. It’s often used in weddings as it adds a festive and ceremonial touch to the marriage procession. Bhujel says many couples have been favoring beautifully decorated horse buggies as part of the wedding celebrations instead of the regular cars and jeeps.

Traditionally, horse-drawn carriages were used at weddings. It was once reserved for princes and princesses. The carriages were usually velvet-lined and adorned with flowers. The practice is now back in fashion again as more and more couples have started opting for this regal mode of transport during what is perhaps the most important day of their lives.

Apart from using horse buggies for weddings, the general fascination with horse riding seems to have increased too, says Bhujel. There are lots of children and adults alike coming in for weekly riding classes at the horse-riding school. Bhujel says the younger you start learning the better it is but horse-riding is fairly easy once you grasp a few important techniques. 

There’s something extremely calming about lighting oil lamps, especially in the serene environment of a religious space. Watching others light the wick is also quite comforting. It’s something I find solace in whenever I feel overwhelmed.

Butter lamps, commonly found around stupas, hold cultural and religious significance in various Buddhist traditions. They symbolize dispelling darkness and ignorance and represent the light of wisdom. Devotees often offer butter lamps as a form of prayer and to generate positive karma.

Recently, I talked to an elderly woman, Chhiring Sherpa, at Boudhanath in Kathmandu. She was lighting oil lamps in memory of her late husband. It was a way for her to remember the good times they shared and offer prayers for his well-being in the afterlife.

In front of the Boudha stupa, someone was readying the materials needed to make the lamps. There was butter (ghee), and cotton wicks with a thin bamboo stick inside them to hold the flame in place. The butter is made from pine trees and is melted into liquid form in a big container and then poured into lamps. After the lamp is burned, workers use prayer flags tied at the stupa for cleaning purposes.

Every day thousands of butter lamps are lit at this place. The price of a single oil lamp ranges from Rs 15 to Rs 15000. The most expensive lamp can be lit for almost a month. The culture of lighting oil lamps has existed for centuries. People today still have faith that lighting oil lamps brings harmony and that all their prayers will be answered.

Mithai shops are a dime-a-dozen today but the Shree Nanda Mithai Bhandar stands out with its timeless recipes. It’s popular with people lining up for their daily dose of Nepali sweets on a daily basis.

“The shop first opened its doors 165 years ago and has been passed down for five to six generations,” says Radha Krishna Rajkarnikar who currently manages the store. The shop is located at the heart of Patan Durbar Square right behind the Krishna mandir. It’s famous for its amazing traditional Newari sweets which carry many cultural values and emotions. Newari sweets are used in almost all of their festivals and marriage ceremonies.

This store prepares more than 35 varieties of sweets. The ‘khuwa ko barfi’, ‘lakhamari’, and ‘jeri swari’ are some of the bestselling items. Despite good business, they haven’t expanded and still make all their items at the store premises itself. Rajkarnikar says this is intentional as they believe their popularity is because of the quality of their products and they don’t want to compromise with it.

“We didn’t open a cafe despite the demands for one because we want to maintain strict discipline regarding cleanliness and quality. We have a lot of regular customers that we don’t want to let down at any cost,” he says.

Behind the shop is a little space where the workers make all the mouth-watering sweets. The Nepali month of Mangsir sees a lot of weddings and the store gets inundated with orders. “Sometimes we make sweets till one in the morning, sleep for four hours, and wake up to complete the orders,” says Rajkarnikar.

Interestingly, the shop isn’t just a place that sells sweets and occasionally allows its workers to take long naps. It’s also where an important part of the Kartik naach takes place. On the second last day of the festival—when Narasingha, the fourth avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, kills the evil power Hiranyakashyap, an asura king of the daityas in the Puranic scriptures of Hinduism. The ceremony is held inside the shop on that day. They empty the cooking room for the ritual.

The country’s first bus rapid transit lane, between Bhaktpur’s Suryabinayak and Kathmandu’s Ratnapark, was inaugurated on Sept 20. It was introduced with an aim of providing express passenger transfer service during office-time rush hour, from 9–11 am and 4–6 pm.

Authorities claim with the BRT, the 13.5 km commute between Suryabinayak and Ratnapark, which usually takes up to two hours under normal traffic conditions, will take just 45 minutes.   

During the service hour, vehicles other than designated buses, ambulances, fire brigade, and emergency vehicles are not allowed to drive on the lane, marked with red paint. 

The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport has planned to deploy 25 buses on the BRT lane, and they will depart at an interval of every five minutes.

I recently decided to hop on one of the express buses and experience the service, and I was surprised to see that many motorists are still unaware of the BRT. Non-designated vehicles were still traveling on the lane during the service hours. 

I asked my bus driver if he had noticed any changes with the BRT service. “Barely,” he told me. “In the initial days traffic, police personnel were deployed to clear the lane, but they have stopped doing so.”

The problem of traffic congestion remains unchanged.“What’s the point of introducing this service if it cannot be implemented,” the driver said. I wondered the same thing after getting off on my stop. 

Bhaktapur Durbar Square is a historic center of the ancient city that holds a tremendous cultural, historical, and architectural significance. Located in the heart of Bhaktapur, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the three squares in the Kathmandu Valley.

During the medieval period, it served as the seat of power for the Malla kingdom. The area is well-known for its breathtaking historic architecture, which includes palaces, temples, courtyards, and sculptures.

These structures represent Nepal's rich creative and architectural heritage. Some of the major attractions within the squares are the 55-window Palace, Nyatapole temple, Vatsala temple, and Dattatreya temple.

This morning I decided to take a tour around the square. As I walked in, I noticed women dressed in the traditional Newari attire ‘Haku Patasi.’ With their offerings in hand, they were all walking toward a temple. I could also hear men chanting Hindu devotional songs (bhajan) to the beats of their traditional musical instruments.

After I parked my vehicle, I started walking, observing the local vendor market.The place was buzzing with people, many of them shopping for groceries from local vendors. Around the square, there were numerous shops and stalls filled with handicrafts, paintings, statues, and posters of  Hindu deities. 

The square is still undergoing renovation after being devastated by the 2015 earthquake. With the majority of the temples already restored, this important historical and cultural site has regained its old charm.

An artist makes the wall his canvas at Mid-Baneshwor.

The wall art is a tribute to the family members the homeowner lost during the earthquake of 2015.

A portrait of late Satya Mohan Joshi in Kupondol.

Freak Street at Basantapur has a lovely mural of a Newar girl.

Mural of a girl on the wall of Hotel Summit, Kupondole.

Mural of a lion on a wall of a restaurant near the UN park in Lalitpur.

A wall art in Jwagal, Chakupat by Kaalo.101 in collaboration with Dalit Lives Matters-Nepal.

A man walks past a mural in Kupondol.

A festival called Pancha Dan, which means ‘Five Offerings’, is celebrated in the Mangal Bazaar area of Patan, Lalitpur, every year which is a testimony to the generosity and compassion of Buddhism. The act of giving is considered a way to accumulate merit and create positive karma. It’s also an opportunity to receive blessings from monks and nuns. The festival is also celebrated in other parts of Kathmandu Valley including the city, Bhaktapur, and Banepa.

Pancha Dan celebration is the act of giving five different things including rice grains, wheat grains, salt, money, and fruits. Communities join hands to provide for those who’ve devoted their lives to religion. Beyond material offerings, Pancha Dan is a time to share knowledge. Elders pass down teachings to the younger ones in the family, fostering interconnectedness.

As the day begins, the surrounding comes alive with melodious chants of Buddhist scriptures and vibrant prayer flags. Younger monks (vhikchu) circle the designated core area of Patan with copper bowls in their hands, receiving the offering from the devotees. Following this ritual, they dine together with their seniors inside a large hall.

Another aspect of the festivities involves the custom of hierarchical seating of grandfathers, referred to as ‘ajus’ in the Newari language. The eldest among them is honored with the title ‘Chakreshwor aju.’ Ajus are placed alternately in combination with people from the Shakya and Bajracharya communities. Devotees also line up to receive blessings from the ajus.