Window seat of power
The intricately carved wooden frames
of the 55 Window Palace gaze out over
Bhaktapur’s Durbar (Palace) Square to
the elegant 17th-century Siddhi Laxmi
Temple (centre), recently restored after
its destruction by the devastating 2015
earthquake. The city was founded in the
12th or 13th century (some say earlier) by
King Ananda Malla, launching a dynasty
that dominated the Kathmandu valley
for five and a half centuries. King Yaksha
Malla built many of the city’s best-known
structures in the 15th century, but Bhak-
tapur reached its architectural apogee
under Bhupatindra Malla (r1696–1722),
with the construction of such edifices as
the 55 Window Palace.Despite a series of destructive
earthquakes, Bhaktapur retains
a peerless collection of palaces and
temples. Paul Bloomfield visits the
showpieces of the South Asian city
Nepal’s
medieval
masterpiece
Æ