Nyatapola

Bhaktapur Durbar Square is a royal palace complex located in Bhaktapur, Nepal. It housed the erstwhile Malla kings of Nepal from 14th to 15th century and the kings of the Kingdom of Bhaktapur from 15th to late 18th century until the kingdom was conquered in 1769.

The Nyatapola is a five tiered temple located in Taumadhi Square, in central Bhaktapur, close to the Durbar Square. It is the tallest monument within the city and is also the tallest temple of Nepal. This temple was commissioned by King Bhupatindra Malla. Its construction lasted from December 1701 to July 1702. Its name is derived from the local Nepal Bhasa name "ṅātāpola", where "ṅātā" means something with five storey while "pola" means roof in the Bhaktapur dialect of Nepal Bhasa.

Since the public is not allowed in, the deity housed inside is also not known to the public although it is generally accepted that the temple of Nyatapola is dedicated to the Tantric deity of Siddhi Lakshmi, who is considered the ancestral deity of the Malla royal family of Bhaktapur and is also regarded as the mother deity of the Newars of Bhaktapur. The idol of the statue is made of stone and was carved by a group of sculptors led by Tulasi Lohakarmi. The main entrance of the temple faces the south.

A palm leaf manuscript called the "Siddhagni koṭyahuti devala pratiṣṭha", a contemporary ledger written in Nepal Bhasa, contains the details of the construction, and religious rituals performed during the construction and inauguration of the temple. The temple is made of Sal wood, 1,528 Stones, and over 1.2 million bricks. Much of the timber was cut from the forests near Bhaktapur. While much of it was paid for, some quantity of the timber was obtained in the form of donations from both ordinary citizens and nobles. 1,135,350 bricks were used in the construction of the temple, in addition to bricks that were used to pave the plinths, the road, and courtyards in the area.

There are five plinths on the stairways to the entrance of the temple and each of the plinth has a pair of stone guardians. At the bottom are two Rajput wrestlers named Jai and Pratap. Above them are the giant statues of two elephants and above them are the statues of two Singhas, (mythical big cat). One level above the cats are the statues of two Shardula (a griffin-like creature of local Newari mythology). The topmost plinths features Tantric deities, Simhanī and Vyāghranī, the lioness and tigress deity.

The temple is adorned with carved wooden struts, and windows featuring mythical creatures and floral patterns. The wooden carvings flanking the doorways feature elements drawn from Hindu mythology. There are five Ganesha idols in four shrines, one on each corner of the structure(one of the shrines, the south western one has two idols in one shrine)

The Bhairavanath Temple is a west-facing temple on the eastern side of Taumadhi Square, with a rectangular base, and a three-tiered Nepali roof.

The central section of Bhaktapur Durbar Square has a number of temples and royal quarters. While originally built in the 16th-18th centuries, these structures were damaged and large parts of the structures were destroyed during multiple earth-quakes, including devastating earthquakes in 1833, 1934, and 2015. The structures seen here today are reconstructions of the buildings which once stood in this space.

The Yaksheshwara Temple is known as the 'Pashupati of Bhaktapur' because of the architectural similarities with the Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu. The temple was consecrated by Karpura Devi in 1484 and was dedicated to her deceased husband, Yaksha Malla. This temple is noted for its erotic wooden carvings.

The Shilu Mahadev temple on the north-eastern side of the square was destroyed by the 2015 earthquake, and reconstructed subsequently. Much of what is seen today is of recent construction, with only a few elements of the original structure incorporated in the new temple.

The Siddhivatsala temple and the Nrityavatsala temple are two dedicated to the Goddess Vatsala in Bhaktapur, occupying a central position in the square. These two temples feature magnificently carved guardian statues, which include a man and a woman holding a child and a chained dog, a pair of camels, horses, rhinoceroses and mythical beasts. A bell has been erected on the plinth of the Nrityavatsala temple. The Siddhivatsala temple houses the deity Siddhi Lakshmi, while the Nrityavatsala temple features the Goddess Shakti placed above a representation of her consort, Shiva, as the god of dance and music, giving it its name. The Annapurnavatsala temple, also known as the Guhyeswari temple, and it stands just south of the Yaksheshwara temple. A fourth temple, the Yantravatsala temple stood on the north of the Siddhivatsala temple and was destroyed by an earthquake in 1934.

The Chyasilin Mandap was commissioned by Srinivasa Malla of Lalitpur as a token of his friendship with Jagat Prakasha Malla of Bhaktapur. It is a three-storeyed structure, with elaborately carved pillars, struts, and windows. The two tiers of the traditional Nepali pagoda style roofs have been modified by chamfering the edges, giving it an eight-cornered roof. 32 carved wooden struts containing various depictions of Krishna standing above couples in erotic poses were taken to Kathmandu after the earthquake of 1934, and never restored to the pavilion during despite subsequent restorations. This pavilion was used by Bhaktapur kings for meetings with ambassadors and other officials as well as for watching festival processions that passed through the square. Ths building has also been modified several times due to destruction by earthquakes, much like several other buildings in Bhaktapur.

At the western end of the Bhaktapur Durbar Square stands a cluster of five temples commissioned by Yaksha Malla in the 15th century with the intention of giving his citizens the satisfaction of worship the Char Dham without having to go on a pilgrimage to these sites. The temples in this cluster include terracotta facsimiles of Kedarnath, Badrinanth, a replica of the domed temple of Ramanathaswamy Temple (Rameshwaram) and a temple modeled after the Jagannath temple of Puri. A Nepali pagoda styled Gopinath Krishna temple which was consecrated in 1667 is the largest temple in this cluster.

However, the single largest structure in the square is the royal palace itself. The entrance to the royal palace is the small, yet intricately ornate, Golden Gate (Lum Dhvakha) which was built in the 1750s after years of planning and budgeting. The Golden gate has two Newar language inscriptions of Ranajit Malla, on either side. Ranajit Malla is the king who commissioned the gate. The complex includes the shrine of Taleju Bhavani, the tutelary goddess of the Mallas. The main figure on the arch of the gate is an anthropomorphic form of the goddess.

The external facade of the palace features 55 windows on the southern side, which gives the palace its name. These windows and facade have been modified and re-constructed several times - for reasons of stylistic choices and because of destruction by earthquakes. After the 1934 earthquake, the windows on the top floor which previously protruded out of the façade forming a balcony like structure were simply plastered to the façade and European style roof tiles were used instead of the Nepalese traditional ones. The European roof tiles were replaced with traditional Nepalese tiles, and the top floor windows were renovated as a balcony during the course of a 2006 renovation initiative. However, the top floor windows in the western and eastern façade still lack the original floral tympanum. The wooden struts decorated with the images of various deities which once supported the windows have been replaced by plain wood struts.

The lattice windows once featured glass panes, an extremely rare material in contemporary Nepal. 147 miniature carvings of musical ragas are seen on the cornice separating the ground floor from the first.

The palace features a grand mural with a multi-armed figure of King Bhupatindra Malla, and his queen consort, Vishva Lakshmi. The mural incorporates several stories from Hindu mythology - Vishnu with a lotus growing out of his navel and Brahma seated on the lotus (Padmanabha rupa); the battle of Rama and Ravana from the Ramayana; Ganesha and Kumara (sons of Shiva), and stories from the life of Krishna. The murals also cover hunting scenes, lesser nobles, and other aspects of royal and everyday life.

The palace complex also includes the shrine of Taleju Bhavani, and the serpent tank of Sundari square.