Madhyapur Thimi

Madhyapur Thimi

Madhyapur Thimi, Nepal

Madhyapur Thimi is a municipality in Bhaktapur District in the Bagmati Zone of central Nepal. Thimi lies between Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley. It is one of the ancient, cultural and historical places along the trade route from Bhaktapur to Kathmandu. Like other old cities this city is also situated on elevated land and therefore one has to climb up to reach this city. Thimi occupies an area of 2 square kilometers and is administratively divided into 17 wards.

Archaeology

There are now indications that the city may be as old as 3000 BC. A recent work by Mohan Pant and Shuji Funo compared the very regular grid layout of Thimi to other very ancient cities in Indus valley and Nepal. The details of the grid dimensions of city blocks are very close to those of Mohenjo-daro and Sirkap (part of Taxila) in Pakistan; also Patan, Nepal. The authors found that plot dimensions measure 9.6m by 19.2m, and are very uniform. These dimensions correspond to Indus Valley civilization.

Culture and Festivals

Being the ancient newar vilification the town celebrate various festivals such as Bisket jatra which falss on the mid April, to mark the end of the year and beginning of new year according to Bikram Samvat. Specially the Jatra celebrated all three major towns of Thimi Municipality. The chariot carrying the statues of different Devtas are circulated carried on the shoulders of the youngsters. Altogether 32 charioits are circulated. Similarly there is unique tradition in Bode to pierce the tongue of a young man to mark the day of escapement of the evil and Jatra begins nest to that. Although the Bisket Jatra celebrates in whole of Bhaktapur it has special importance and influence that those celebrated in other places of Bhaktapur. Similarly Neeplbarahi Naach of Bode Bhaktapur , which is celebrated in Bode during August month after there days of Gaijatra.The people wearing of the masks of various faces to mark as the reincarnation of the gods.They would dance with the traditional spiritual music .during the performance they are not allowed to speak, eat and even to drink water. Which shows the community has strong devotion toward their tradition and culture.