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Kathmandu
Kathmandu is the greatest city of the Himalayas; a unique survival of cultural practices that died out in India a thousand years ago. It is a carnival of sexual licence and hypocrisy, a jewel of world art, a hotbed of communist revolution, a paradigm of failed democracy, a case study in bungled Western intervention, and an environmental catastrophe.
Closed to the outside world until 1951 and trapped in a medieval time wrap, Kathmandu's rapid modernization is an extreme version of what is happening in many traditional societies. The many layers of the city's development are reflected in the successive generations of its gods and goddesses, witches and ghosts, the comforts of caste; the ethos of aristocracy and kingship; and the lately destabilizing spirits of consumer aspiration, individuality, egalitarianism, communism and democracy.
Kathmandu follows the author's story through a decade in the city, and unravels the city's history through successive reinventions of itself. Erudite, entertaining and accessible, it is the fascinating chronicle of a unique city.
Closed to the outside world until 1951 and trapped in a medieval time wrap, Kathmandu's rapid modernization is an extreme version of what is happening in many traditional societies. The many layers of the city's development are reflected in the successive generations of its gods and goddesses, witches and ghosts, the comforts of caste; the ethos of aristocracy and kingship; and the lately destabilizing spirits of consumer aspiration, individuality, egalitarianism, communism and democracy.
Kathmandu follows the author's story through a decade in the city, and unravels the city's history through successive reinventions of itself. Erudite, entertaining and accessible, it is the fascinating chronicle of a unique city.
463 pages, Hardcover
First published September 4, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
September 18, 2014
This book is the perfect tribute to the City of Gods; Kathmandu.
A fantastic read that sketches the city from its historical documented and fabled ambiguities tracing through alleys, shrines, chowks and traversing through unnamed streets that are testament to culture, rituals and the unveiling of the social revolution of Kathmandu’s civilization and bygone architecture to its now chaos of a modern concrete metropolis. The book is a kaleidoscope to the evolution of the City encompassed in the narrative rhetoric of an author who often time voices the thought process of a Kathmandu-ite through his decade of encountered life in the City paying homage to stories of history and origin, intricate architecture and craftsmanship, historic town planning and chaotic contemporary city life encompassed with new age sentiments. Alongside, valiantly denouncing foreign aid whilst unraveling the engulfing political discord paradox that continues to devour the country.
KATHMANDU is a book that had long been overdue for those that call the city of Kathmandu their home and also for those; that live, love and are enchanted by the City.
A fantastic read that sketches the city from its historical documented and fabled ambiguities tracing through alleys, shrines, chowks and traversing through unnamed streets that are testament to culture, rituals and the unveiling of the social revolution of Kathmandu’s civilization and bygone architecture to its now chaos of a modern concrete metropolis. The book is a kaleidoscope to the evolution of the City encompassed in the narrative rhetoric of an author who often time voices the thought process of a Kathmandu-ite through his decade of encountered life in the City paying homage to stories of history and origin, intricate architecture and craftsmanship, historic town planning and chaotic contemporary city life encompassed with new age sentiments. Alongside, valiantly denouncing foreign aid whilst unraveling the engulfing political discord paradox that continues to devour the country.
KATHMANDU is a book that had long been overdue for those that call the city of Kathmandu their home and also for those; that live, love and are enchanted by the City.
November 21, 2021
I read Kathmandu at a snail's pace, not drudgingly, but instead with admiration towards the author's dedication towards this project. Kathmandu seeks to see Nepal's history not in mere isolation but in thematic continuity. And while historiography is a challenge in and of itself, Bell manages to seep in humorous anecdotes amidst the often terrifying, gory, or irksome narrative.
It is clear that Bell has dedicated years worth of effort in writing this book. The organization of the book, while somewhat chronological, takes us back and forth in time to explore a thematic phenomena.
The Kathmandu that I know of today, while partial, became even more fragmented after reading this book. I do not feel lost, rather I feel revived, for history humbles one down.
It is clear that Bell has dedicated years worth of effort in writing this book. The organization of the book, while somewhat chronological, takes us back and forth in time to explore a thematic phenomena.
The Kathmandu that I know of today, while partial, became even more fragmented after reading this book. I do not feel lost, rather I feel revived, for history humbles one down.
June 16, 2015
Recent book on Kathmandu written by the Britisher living in the country since 2002 is yet again one of the important source of information for anyone who interested in Katmandu and Nepal.
The book consist of 3 interwined narrative lines. The first one is following the history of Kathmandu from it's legendary roots to today building boom, the second follows the Maoist revolution and political transformation during last decade and in the last the book follows personal life of the author and his gradual accommodation with life in Nepal.
While I began with book, I was quickly disappointed as I did not find much of anything of interest. Information about the Kathmandu early history was known to me quite well and author's first travels to see Maoist were written in the way I did feel it was all pointless and I was wondering what kind of journalism he was doing there.
Advancing with the reading, finally I reached the chapters which were brilliant. Especially the chapter where the author writes about the difficult cohabitation of British resident Briean Hodgson and that time despot Bhimsen Thapa would be interesting enough for whole monography. Author's live description of advancing people's movement which toppled the king is of great interest too. And his venomous take on the NGOs and failed development policy of Nepal is must read for anyone who is interested in the topic.
In general this is important book about Nepal. I found some parts quite pointless but on the other hand, there are very important and very comprehensive chapters for which this book really pays. Maybe the book needed better editing although I have feeling that some degree pointlessness was by design just to illustrate the futility and frustration with which the journalist is faced in his work most of the time.
The book consist of 3 interwined narrative lines. The first one is following the history of Kathmandu from it's legendary roots to today building boom, the second follows the Maoist revolution and political transformation during last decade and in the last the book follows personal life of the author and his gradual accommodation with life in Nepal.
While I began with book, I was quickly disappointed as I did not find much of anything of interest. Information about the Kathmandu early history was known to me quite well and author's first travels to see Maoist were written in the way I did feel it was all pointless and I was wondering what kind of journalism he was doing there.
Advancing with the reading, finally I reached the chapters which were brilliant. Especially the chapter where the author writes about the difficult cohabitation of British resident Briean Hodgson and that time despot Bhimsen Thapa would be interesting enough for whole monography. Author's live description of advancing people's movement which toppled the king is of great interest too. And his venomous take on the NGOs and failed development policy of Nepal is must read for anyone who is interested in the topic.
In general this is important book about Nepal. I found some parts quite pointless but on the other hand, there are very important and very comprehensive chapters for which this book really pays. Maybe the book needed better editing although I have feeling that some degree pointlessness was by design just to illustrate the futility and frustration with which the journalist is faced in his work most of the time.
February 10, 2019
Meandering and messy writing full of disparate passages. Frustrating to read.
March 21, 2017
There’s a blurb from William Dalrymple on the back of the large, blue hardcover of Thomas Bell’s Kathmandu. It says that the book is ‘splendidly eccentric and enjoyable’, which it is. But as I read this book, having now forgotten the blurbs and the recommendations that led me to it, I constantly found in it connections to Dalrymple’s portrait of Delhi, City of Djinns. For one, the gaze is similar. Both Dalrymple, when he wrote the book, and Tom Bell, as he lives in Kathmandu, are young, wanderlust-filled Britons, trying to find a way to live and write in the east. With Dalrymple’s Delhi book, however, the connection to empire is the heart of his quest. In Kathmandu, though the empire features, the absence of it is the most important point.
But there is another fundamental difference between the two books: City of Djinns is a writer’s book, Kathmandu is a journalist’s. And as you read it, you will see why.
Kathmandu is exhaustive and extraordinary. One, because it more or less gives you an entire history of Nepal, dressing it in a way that is easy to read and simple to digest. Two, because there is an undercurrent of anger in the book, a disquiet. This is because of Thomas Bell’s constant questioning, of a government that has failed to provide even basic amenities for a people he has grown to love, of a dishonesty among those in power and in-the-know who keep the poor poor. This is the voice of the journalist fighting for the truth and trying to speak truth to power. In contrast, the underlying feeling in City of Djinns is wonder: Dalrymple is mesmerised by Delhi; Tom Bell is wrestling with Kathmandu.
Another important facet about Kathmandu that Bell stumbles upon and writes well about is the Hindu structure and caste-centred topography of the city. This is immensely difficult for a western mind to understand and assimilate, but Bell does both here, and explains it too. Like Diana L Eck’s remarkable portrait of Varanasi’s holy layout, Bell draws one of Kathmandu:
Bell also writes incredibly well about caste and its impact on both medieval and modern Nepal. At one point, he quotes Max Weber:
The last part of the book is a polemic, a high-pitched rant against a system that keeps this beautiful Himalayan country in poverty and dependence. Though it is the historical narrative in the first two parts of the book that engrossed me, I read the last part in sheer horror, of how a system so large, self-sustaining, and ultimately useless, keeps itself in operation.
Highly recommended.
But there is another fundamental difference between the two books: City of Djinns is a writer’s book, Kathmandu is a journalist’s. And as you read it, you will see why.
Kathmandu is exhaustive and extraordinary. One, because it more or less gives you an entire history of Nepal, dressing it in a way that is easy to read and simple to digest. Two, because there is an undercurrent of anger in the book, a disquiet. This is because of Thomas Bell’s constant questioning, of a government that has failed to provide even basic amenities for a people he has grown to love, of a dishonesty among those in power and in-the-know who keep the poor poor. This is the voice of the journalist fighting for the truth and trying to speak truth to power. In contrast, the underlying feeling in City of Djinns is wonder: Dalrymple is mesmerised by Delhi; Tom Bell is wrestling with Kathmandu.
Another important facet about Kathmandu that Bell stumbles upon and writes well about is the Hindu structure and caste-centred topography of the city. This is immensely difficult for a western mind to understand and assimilate, but Bell does both here, and explains it too. Like Diana L Eck’s remarkable portrait of Varanasi’s holy layout, Bell draws one of Kathmandu:
The mandala is more than a map of the city. It is a social and political ideology, a description of the order of the universe, which is repeated in a well-ordered city here on earth.
Bell also writes incredibly well about caste and its impact on both medieval and modern Nepal. At one point, he quotes Max Weber:
The assimilative power of the Hindu life order is due to is legitimisation of social rank, and not to be forgotten, possible related economic disadvantages.
The last part of the book is a polemic, a high-pitched rant against a system that keeps this beautiful Himalayan country in poverty and dependence. Though it is the historical narrative in the first two parts of the book that engrossed me, I read the last part in sheer horror, of how a system so large, self-sustaining, and ultimately useless, keeps itself in operation.
Highly recommended.
November 17, 2014
Thomas Bell did a very good job on capturing the history and present day reality of this city. The complexity and hard hitting reality well told.
December 25, 2018
It is a solid book as far as colonial-era history goes. But therein lies its problems. Nepal was never directly under British rule. It fought a war in the 1810s but Britain had far less influence on Nepal as it had on India. Thomas Bell pays too much attention to Western bits of history of Nepal and leaves very little room for contemporary history of Kathmandu and Nepal.
To add to this strange bias, he seems to read too much into the culture shocks and quirks that westerners experience when they come to Nepal. One wishes that he apportioned more of his book towards the people living now in Nepal than a few British expeditionists and hippies who inhabited the country briefly.
To add to this strange bias, he seems to read too much into the culture shocks and quirks that westerners experience when they come to Nepal. One wishes that he apportioned more of his book towards the people living now in Nepal than a few British expeditionists and hippies who inhabited the country briefly.
January 19, 2017
I hate to be "that guy" and say "like James Joyce's Dublin" but I will have to be "that guy". This was as amazing of a telling of a city as I have ever read. It is not fiction. It is history. It is autobiography. It is the tale of his quest to learn everything about his new home, and it is an attempt to do so as completely as is possible. It is a walk through a massive and quickly changing culture at a time when it has been changing the most. It is a moving picture. It is a love affair with a city. And it is frankly one of the best books I have ever read.
November 7, 2023
I started reading the book a few times and did not get past the first couple of chapters. It does indeed feel quite ‘messy’ or complex writing at times, but then - does it not reflect well the character of Nepal and Kathmandu? I have visited Nepal around 15 times during the past 11 years, but I feel like the book has opened a whole new way of seeing the country and its struggles. I also loved the layers of the book - the different threads of author’s personal experiences, the Maoist insurgency and the deeper layers of history are followed through the different chapters.
May 15, 2016
Very nice and captivating read. Beautifully interwoven concoction of history, culture, conflicts, politics. Takes you on a wonderful journey through the alleys,chowks during ancient Malla periods to the remote villages during Maoist conflicts. It tells legacy of the city and it's transformation to modernization. Always nice to read about things you are accustomed to, events you had been through and things you see on a regular basis.
August 21, 2015
Amazing work. Thomas has beautifully woven the intricate details of history till present time in a simple and interesting way. This can serve as a guidebook to anyone who is interested in Kathmandu (as well as Nepal in entirety) no matter from which background.
October 8, 2018
An amazing study of Kathmandu, blending strands of history, religion, travel writing and reporting during the Mao insurgency. Highly readable and recommended.
June 24, 2021
Not many authors could write a book like Thomas Bell's Kathmandu, for the simple reason that not many people can claim an intimate knowledge of the city and its chaotic systems with the authenticity that Bell can. As a young journalist who arrived in Kathmandu in the early 2000s and lives there today, Thomas Bell witnessed the country and city during a time of great transitions. For anyone with a keen interest in Nepal or its capital city Kathmandu, Bell's accounts of interviewing the Maoists and the effect their movement had on the political landscape are enlightening. Kathmandu the city is steeped in a unique history, but not a history that is easily digested or casually made sense of. Bell's chronology rings true to readers who have had a taste of the place, and while he does a fantastic job of highlighting key points in the city's evolution, he does not attempt to ignore or explain away the city's many incongruences and contradictions. His insight into the complex politics of the city alone merit reading this book for those who are intrigued with Nepal. Bell's insights into the development industry's fundamental flaws are perhaps not novel, but the cast of characters he references along the way make the read more intriguing than many writings on the topic do. Bell's first-hand knowledge of a variety of Kathmandu's most intriguing subjects make his book a better sampling of the city's chaos than most books about the city. I for one will eagerly keep an eye out for what will hopefully be several books about Kathmandu.
December 9, 2021
3.5 stars ** Kathmandu ** Read in Kathmandu, Nepal (Nov.-Dec. 2021)
August 13, 2015
If this book was well edited, given a couple of more revisions and restructured, this could easily be a 5 star book.
The author is well informed, perceptive, and a competent critical thinker so every chapter has something interesting that you can glean about KTM, if you don't trip over the organization. However, Bell keeps shifting his writing style and it can become disorienting. A chapter will break and start a new though absent context so you are jarred back into reality, aware that you are reading a book and that you've lost your place or the author's train of thought. For example, you are told the author saw the woman he will marry years later early on in the book. When she reappears in the book it is in the background, subverting any expectation you've developed about a more satisfying conclusion. I also recall a dialogue btw the author and a guy engaging in kite duels. Why did the author choose this format? I learned less b/c I was wasting mental energy re-orienting myself within paragraphs. maybe i would enjoy a well written story about the suspense of a kite duel, but in trying to provide this frame for the discussion of NGO's in nepal, neither topic was given the context they deserved, especially when the author has so many meaningful things to say.
This book blends three different stories about KTM. The history of the kingdoms, the modern history/maoist insurgency, the author's own experiences. There is a part of the book where Bell shifts back and forth btw the maoist insurgency and the conniving rajas of the past to great effect. Sadly, the other shifts in this book are not nearly as helpful.
All that being said, this is the book i would recommend to someone that wants to get oriented with Nepali history. I kinda wish i'd taken better notes to lead them to relevant sections.
EDIT: While the above airs my complaints I don't think I did a good job reviewing what is good about this job and makes it capable of being worth 5 stars. See below,
Unlike a lot of Nepali current event publications and history books this book does a good job of not overtly coloring the prose with nationalism.
Born in KTM and raised in the states I have been seeking a book written by someone with a similar background as myself so I could compare notes and better structure my own thoughts. Reading this book, I find Bell's voice and knowledge base to be authoritative and fair.
He, like me, was raised in the binary/abrahamic/platonic minded west and took that mindset to Nepal. Nepal, like other eastern countries, is populated with people that are not born into the binary good/bad right/wrong mindset of the west. In the east things go in cycles (re-incarnation) and you're kinda just sorta trying to figure out your role in the cosmic wheel that is spinning around instead of earning passage into the heaven's of the west. Consequently, people normatively justify and explain their behavior with a different language and heuristic than a western would consider familiar. Bell does an admirable job of keeping this distinction in mind while he parses the history and causality of contemporary conflicts. You'll have to dig through the poor organization, but his views are worth the read if you want to learn more about KTM.
The author is well informed, perceptive, and a competent critical thinker so every chapter has something interesting that you can glean about KTM, if you don't trip over the organization. However, Bell keeps shifting his writing style and it can become disorienting. A chapter will break and start a new though absent context so you are jarred back into reality, aware that you are reading a book and that you've lost your place or the author's train of thought. For example, you are told the author saw the woman he will marry years later early on in the book. When she reappears in the book it is in the background, subverting any expectation you've developed about a more satisfying conclusion. I also recall a dialogue btw the author and a guy engaging in kite duels. Why did the author choose this format? I learned less b/c I was wasting mental energy re-orienting myself within paragraphs. maybe i would enjoy a well written story about the suspense of a kite duel, but in trying to provide this frame for the discussion of NGO's in nepal, neither topic was given the context they deserved, especially when the author has so many meaningful things to say.
This book blends three different stories about KTM. The history of the kingdoms, the modern history/maoist insurgency, the author's own experiences. There is a part of the book where Bell shifts back and forth btw the maoist insurgency and the conniving rajas of the past to great effect. Sadly, the other shifts in this book are not nearly as helpful.
All that being said, this is the book i would recommend to someone that wants to get oriented with Nepali history. I kinda wish i'd taken better notes to lead them to relevant sections.
EDIT: While the above airs my complaints I don't think I did a good job reviewing what is good about this job and makes it capable of being worth 5 stars. See below,
Unlike a lot of Nepali current event publications and history books this book does a good job of not overtly coloring the prose with nationalism.
Born in KTM and raised in the states I have been seeking a book written by someone with a similar background as myself so I could compare notes and better structure my own thoughts. Reading this book, I find Bell's voice and knowledge base to be authoritative and fair.
He, like me, was raised in the binary/abrahamic/platonic minded west and took that mindset to Nepal. Nepal, like other eastern countries, is populated with people that are not born into the binary good/bad right/wrong mindset of the west. In the east things go in cycles (re-incarnation) and you're kinda just sorta trying to figure out your role in the cosmic wheel that is spinning around instead of earning passage into the heaven's of the west. Consequently, people normatively justify and explain their behavior with a different language and heuristic than a western would consider familiar. Bell does an admirable job of keeping this distinction in mind while he parses the history and causality of contemporary conflicts. You'll have to dig through the poor organization, but his views are worth the read if you want to learn more about KTM.
September 13, 2016
I'm not sure how this book would read to people unfamiliar with Kathmandu, but as an ex-pat's perspective on life in Kathmandu is very resonant for me from the opening preface onward. It brings a really great historical perspective on how history feeds into now, and adds a lot of nuance to the few key historical factoids that are widely "known" to the ex-pat community.
The importance of this book though for people like me is that for people trying to work here in Kathmandu for various NGO's, businesses, and governments really should read this to gain a healthy perspective of the history in relation to aid, NGO's, foundations, Western expertise-ism (my made-up word), and the cycle of change here. To ignore the historical realities is, in a sense, to say, "What I've learned in the West is always good for the East."
The book isn't perfect, the author's got a potty mouth that felt often times unprofessional, the non-linear chronology wasn't my favorite (it wasn't always easy to track what era I was in, particularly if I set the book down for a couple of days), and I suspect his opinions are stated as facts at times. Even from his opinions and the facts, I really do appreciate what I learned from it and recommend this to anyone here in Kathmandu, and very curious what those who have no connection to Kathmandu would say about it.
It's hard to read this and not be left with a heavy dose of cynicism, but having lived through blockades, election cycles, earthquakes, and failed aid in only four years it's not all that far off from how I felt much of the last year and helped paint a picture of why. I would hate, though, for this book to turn people away from healthy investment in places like this. But it should, I hope, cause them to think through their model a bit deeper beyond the simplicity of "it worked there, so it should work here."
Not from the book - just my own experience - so as to leave on a note of optimism toward Nepal and its people, in the moments after the earthquake, literally hundreds of people came together to pull people out from being buried near where I was in Patan Durbar Square. It was a bit of a leadership vacuum in one sense in that little space, and messy, but the people really came through without formal leadership intervention. Then a few days later, when we were taking rice and lentils to people who'd been displaced, we learned that a guy who had been helping us since the beginning - that he himself had lost his home and never told us. He helped and gave away even though he had nothing. I'd love a book like this to highlight the good with a little more balance, and to suggest some hope for positive paths forward.
The importance of this book though for people like me is that for people trying to work here in Kathmandu for various NGO's, businesses, and governments really should read this to gain a healthy perspective of the history in relation to aid, NGO's, foundations, Western expertise-ism (my made-up word), and the cycle of change here. To ignore the historical realities is, in a sense, to say, "What I've learned in the West is always good for the East."
The book isn't perfect, the author's got a potty mouth that felt often times unprofessional, the non-linear chronology wasn't my favorite (it wasn't always easy to track what era I was in, particularly if I set the book down for a couple of days), and I suspect his opinions are stated as facts at times. Even from his opinions and the facts, I really do appreciate what I learned from it and recommend this to anyone here in Kathmandu, and very curious what those who have no connection to Kathmandu would say about it.
It's hard to read this and not be left with a heavy dose of cynicism, but having lived through blockades, election cycles, earthquakes, and failed aid in only four years it's not all that far off from how I felt much of the last year and helped paint a picture of why. I would hate, though, for this book to turn people away from healthy investment in places like this. But it should, I hope, cause them to think through their model a bit deeper beyond the simplicity of "it worked there, so it should work here."
Not from the book - just my own experience - so as to leave on a note of optimism toward Nepal and its people, in the moments after the earthquake, literally hundreds of people came together to pull people out from being buried near where I was in Patan Durbar Square. It was a bit of a leadership vacuum in one sense in that little space, and messy, but the people really came through without formal leadership intervention. Then a few days later, when we were taking rice and lentils to people who'd been displaced, we learned that a guy who had been helping us since the beginning - that he himself had lost his home and never told us. He helped and gave away even though he had nothing. I'd love a book like this to highlight the good with a little more balance, and to suggest some hope for positive paths forward.
March 29, 2018
This book is not really a novel, but it is. It is not really a travel book, but it is. It is not really an autobiography, but it is –one that is dedicated to a relatively small but major part of the author’s life. And yes, a small but major part of the life of the country he writes about. Nepal.
Whatever it is, it was pleasurable reading for me, because it was all about Kathmandu and Nepal, and at least to my biased eyes, the author seems to share my love for that city and that country, Himalayan warts and all.
The book is about the author’s stay in Kathmandu. He came there as a press correspondent the year after the royal palace massacre of June 2001. I think he is still there as I write this review in March 2018.
He came at a time of an armed Maoist insurgency and overall political turmoil, turmoil that continues to this day.
He became besotted with Nepal, like I did. He lived with a traditional family in a traditional part of town. He married a Nepali lady and they have kids.
He developed deep friendships with Nepalese of all castes and social and economic statuses. He took great pains to research Nepal, mostly from the political history viewpoint, and he has gems in the book that I found enthralling. He dug up old manuscripts that talk about the Nepal of the days well before the country opened up to the world in the 1950s. He went deep into Maoist held territory at the height of the insurgency. He talked to Maoist rebels. He made friends in the army and police. He got insider stories of the war and the atrocities committed by both sides.
And he put it all into this book. That is what makes it a fascinating read for me..
Will it make a fascinating read for you? I hope so. I think you should try it out.
If you have already been to Nepal, you will find it engrossing. If you plan to go to Nepal some time, you will still find it engrossing.
Whatever it is, it was pleasurable reading for me, because it was all about Kathmandu and Nepal, and at least to my biased eyes, the author seems to share my love for that city and that country, Himalayan warts and all.
The book is about the author’s stay in Kathmandu. He came there as a press correspondent the year after the royal palace massacre of June 2001. I think he is still there as I write this review in March 2018.
He came at a time of an armed Maoist insurgency and overall political turmoil, turmoil that continues to this day.
He became besotted with Nepal, like I did. He lived with a traditional family in a traditional part of town. He married a Nepali lady and they have kids.
He developed deep friendships with Nepalese of all castes and social and economic statuses. He took great pains to research Nepal, mostly from the political history viewpoint, and he has gems in the book that I found enthralling. He dug up old manuscripts that talk about the Nepal of the days well before the country opened up to the world in the 1950s. He went deep into Maoist held territory at the height of the insurgency. He talked to Maoist rebels. He made friends in the army and police. He got insider stories of the war and the atrocities committed by both sides.
And he put it all into this book. That is what makes it a fascinating read for me..
Will it make a fascinating read for you? I hope so. I think you should try it out.
If you have already been to Nepal, you will find it engrossing. If you plan to go to Nepal some time, you will still find it engrossing.
May 17, 2023
Review
Kathmandu, Thomas Bell (Gurgaon: Penguin India, 2014, 2018).
Thomas Bell’s book Kathmandu comes from a deep attachment to Nepal—he tells us, for instance, how little he enjoyed a brief transfer to Southeast Asia. His heart just wasn’t anywhere else. I can relate to this; at certain stages in life place can become all-important. But Bell’s work overall is not meant to be uplifting. It becomes increasingly depressing as he guides us through discussions of the 1990s political uprising, international aid, and the Maoist civil war. The 1990 revolt was a People Power street movement centered in Kathmandu. With poverty rife in the countryside, Kathmandu was where people went to better themselves. With political parties suddenly legal from 1990, they began building party structures and platforms. What didn’t change was the culture of privilege and patronage that has always resisted change. This lack of progress led to the creation of the Maoist Party in 1995. In the words of the Maoist theorist Baburam Bhattaria, the Movement of 1990 simply confirmed “the law of materialist dialectics that the advancing revolution would give rise the the corresponding level of counter revolution….”
Throughout the various revolutions, especially in the 1950s and 1990s, the culture of privilege and patronage that defines Nepali society has been nothing if not resilient. The same goes for the culture of international aid, which has been a fixture since the 1950s. Foreign aid regularly amounts to something around one billion dollars a year (no official figures are published), a level comparable with the US annual payments to Egypt, but less than Israel’s
($1.43 billion and #3.2 billion, respectively, in 2020). Only a fraction of the aid to Nepal is actually received by the poor. Most goes to support the international aid industrial complex so prominent in Kathmandu. On the plus side, many members of Nepal’s middle class owe their economic status to these international agencies and the local NGOs and government agencies set up to work with them. The local NGOs now number in the thousands. Still the percent of people living in abject poverty continues to increase. Simply put, there are precious few results after decades of international aid. Nepal ranks 189th in global wealth; the average income is $700. Inequality is the worst in Asia. Nothing is produced there—food and motorcycles are imported from India, everything else comes in from China. No viable or noticeable infrastructure has been created, not roads, not schools, not hospitals. Most of the money simply goes to corruption—some estimate that 50% of all projects are siphoned off. Success in Nepalese society can be seen as a series of dance movements meant to put your pockets in place when the next spigot opens.
This system can be called a rentier state. Failed state is also appropriate. But unlike many other places, Thomas notes that the system has been remarkably stable. The other place that comes to my mind is the Philippines, where despite social change the same one hundred families manage to stay on top. What has worked for both Nepal and the Philippines is international remittances. With a third of the country’s population now working overseas, remittances make up a third of GDP. This is the economic reality—go abroad or suffer. And judging from Thomas’s work the entire country seems to be in denial about such fundamental economic facts.
The stability of the Nepalese system extends to politics. In the greatest irony the Maoists have integrated into a multiparty role that allows them to function as just another party. This despite being the object of a vicious military repression campaign during the early 2000s. Thomas gives enough depressing detail on Britain’s Operation Mustang, which helped create Nepal’s secret service, the NID. The NID tracked and recruited targets. They had an attractive sales pitch to the Maoists they captured: “come and work for us, or go and get tortured by 10 Brigade.” At times they simply passed information to the military, which had its own separate intelligence service, and which did not hesitate to use torture. Throughout much of the war they followed a policy of disappearing. What is most depressing about this whole episode is how little the world cared about the war in Nepal. So often things in Nepal simply aren’t worth the trouble. That attitude caries on. Only the people of Nepal will save Nepal.
Bell is both intoxicated by the place and repulsed. “You could go mad over the politics,” he says. “Simply living in this place is depressing and infuriating by turns….”
He begins with a quest to “map” the city, loosely defined. The city was never carefully mapped until Charles Crawford drew the first accurate map in 1802. But Thomas makes a compelling argument that it existed as a mental construct long before that. The steles still scattered around the city from Licchavi period (c. 400-750 CE) prove the religious significance of the place. On top of that the city was a natural hub of trade between Tibet and India.
Thomas’ efforts to uncover an underlying mandala pattern undergirding Kathmandu eventually end in failure. In theory the whole city could, perhaps, be considered a mandala. But he found no one willing to unpack Kathmandu as a sacred site. And it has nothing of the centralized empire-centric constructions of southeast Asia, as theorized by Paul Wheatley and others. Instead we discover that the city did not congeal into one unit until relatively late, in the 18th-19th centuries, during the Gurkha period (1736-2008). Before that there were two distinct parts, Tambu and Thahne, or Yambu and Yambal. When these neighborhoods later established protocols of competition, as well as religious ceremonies, the city can be said to have established an identity. Still, the city grew willy-nilly. The current suburbs of Patan, Bouddha and Swayambhu were distinct towns or cities that have now been simply engulfed in the urban sprawl of Kathmandu.
Overall this work does an admirable job of unpacking Nepal’s recent history, from 2000. Usefully for the general reader, he also described the preceding periods comprehensively. He does not go too deep into the religious cultures of Nepal, or the various ethnic groups. Certainly there is more to the nation and its capital than Newari or Gurkha culture, although both of these are important socially. Perhaps most importantly, it is through works like this that Nepal can be kept from relegation to the sidelines of international awareness.
Kathmandu, Thomas Bell (Gurgaon: Penguin India, 2014, 2018).
Thomas Bell’s book Kathmandu comes from a deep attachment to Nepal—he tells us, for instance, how little he enjoyed a brief transfer to Southeast Asia. His heart just wasn’t anywhere else. I can relate to this; at certain stages in life place can become all-important. But Bell’s work overall is not meant to be uplifting. It becomes increasingly depressing as he guides us through discussions of the 1990s political uprising, international aid, and the Maoist civil war. The 1990 revolt was a People Power street movement centered in Kathmandu. With poverty rife in the countryside, Kathmandu was where people went to better themselves. With political parties suddenly legal from 1990, they began building party structures and platforms. What didn’t change was the culture of privilege and patronage that has always resisted change. This lack of progress led to the creation of the Maoist Party in 1995. In the words of the Maoist theorist Baburam Bhattaria, the Movement of 1990 simply confirmed “the law of materialist dialectics that the advancing revolution would give rise the the corresponding level of counter revolution….”
Throughout the various revolutions, especially in the 1950s and 1990s, the culture of privilege and patronage that defines Nepali society has been nothing if not resilient. The same goes for the culture of international aid, which has been a fixture since the 1950s. Foreign aid regularly amounts to something around one billion dollars a year (no official figures are published), a level comparable with the US annual payments to Egypt, but less than Israel’s
($1.43 billion and #3.2 billion, respectively, in 2020). Only a fraction of the aid to Nepal is actually received by the poor. Most goes to support the international aid industrial complex so prominent in Kathmandu. On the plus side, many members of Nepal’s middle class owe their economic status to these international agencies and the local NGOs and government agencies set up to work with them. The local NGOs now number in the thousands. Still the percent of people living in abject poverty continues to increase. Simply put, there are precious few results after decades of international aid. Nepal ranks 189th in global wealth; the average income is $700. Inequality is the worst in Asia. Nothing is produced there—food and motorcycles are imported from India, everything else comes in from China. No viable or noticeable infrastructure has been created, not roads, not schools, not hospitals. Most of the money simply goes to corruption—some estimate that 50% of all projects are siphoned off. Success in Nepalese society can be seen as a series of dance movements meant to put your pockets in place when the next spigot opens.
This system can be called a rentier state. Failed state is also appropriate. But unlike many other places, Thomas notes that the system has been remarkably stable. The other place that comes to my mind is the Philippines, where despite social change the same one hundred families manage to stay on top. What has worked for both Nepal and the Philippines is international remittances. With a third of the country’s population now working overseas, remittances make up a third of GDP. This is the economic reality—go abroad or suffer. And judging from Thomas’s work the entire country seems to be in denial about such fundamental economic facts.
The stability of the Nepalese system extends to politics. In the greatest irony the Maoists have integrated into a multiparty role that allows them to function as just another party. This despite being the object of a vicious military repression campaign during the early 2000s. Thomas gives enough depressing detail on Britain’s Operation Mustang, which helped create Nepal’s secret service, the NID. The NID tracked and recruited targets. They had an attractive sales pitch to the Maoists they captured: “come and work for us, or go and get tortured by 10 Brigade.” At times they simply passed information to the military, which had its own separate intelligence service, and which did not hesitate to use torture. Throughout much of the war they followed a policy of disappearing. What is most depressing about this whole episode is how little the world cared about the war in Nepal. So often things in Nepal simply aren’t worth the trouble. That attitude caries on. Only the people of Nepal will save Nepal.
Bell is both intoxicated by the place and repulsed. “You could go mad over the politics,” he says. “Simply living in this place is depressing and infuriating by turns….”
He begins with a quest to “map” the city, loosely defined. The city was never carefully mapped until Charles Crawford drew the first accurate map in 1802. But Thomas makes a compelling argument that it existed as a mental construct long before that. The steles still scattered around the city from Licchavi period (c. 400-750 CE) prove the religious significance of the place. On top of that the city was a natural hub of trade between Tibet and India.
Thomas’ efforts to uncover an underlying mandala pattern undergirding Kathmandu eventually end in failure. In theory the whole city could, perhaps, be considered a mandala. But he found no one willing to unpack Kathmandu as a sacred site. And it has nothing of the centralized empire-centric constructions of southeast Asia, as theorized by Paul Wheatley and others. Instead we discover that the city did not congeal into one unit until relatively late, in the 18th-19th centuries, during the Gurkha period (1736-2008). Before that there were two distinct parts, Tambu and Thahne, or Yambu and Yambal. When these neighborhoods later established protocols of competition, as well as religious ceremonies, the city can be said to have established an identity. Still, the city grew willy-nilly. The current suburbs of Patan, Bouddha and Swayambhu were distinct towns or cities that have now been simply engulfed in the urban sprawl of Kathmandu.
Overall this work does an admirable job of unpacking Nepal’s recent history, from 2000. Usefully for the general reader, he also described the preceding periods comprehensively. He does not go too deep into the religious cultures of Nepal, or the various ethnic groups. Certainly there is more to the nation and its capital than Newari or Gurkha culture, although both of these are important socially. Perhaps most importantly, it is through works like this that Nepal can be kept from relegation to the sidelines of international awareness.
December 2, 2019
This book is many things --a survey history covering more than 1000 years, a polemic about the ills of international development and a story about CIA intrigue. It made me want to learn more about Nepal's recent history, especially the Panchayat and Maoist periods. Though the author is a journalist, some of his reporting (on international development, for example) seems weakly researched. I wasn't impressed by his writing either. However, if you want a meatier account Nepal's history than offered in the Lonely Planet, strongly recommend. Please share other #Nepal fiction and nonfiction recommendations.
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April 20, 2021Very interesting book! Kathmandu is a city full of magic, faith and present in the imagination of people from all continents. The capital of Nepal holds a precious cultural, historical and religious treasure. There are temples, sacred images, historic palaces, a very peculiar gastronomy and a diverse population in terms of customs, beliefs and physiognomies.
Kathmandu , the largest city in Nepal, is the country’s political and cultural capital, where Nepalese arrived from all corners of the country and were assimilated.
I would like to recommend this article, about this amazing city:
https://marcozero.blog.br/kathmandu-a...
Kathmandu , the largest city in Nepal, is the country’s political and cultural capital, where Nepalese arrived from all corners of the country and were assimilated.
I would like to recommend this article, about this amazing city:
https://marcozero.blog.br/kathmandu-a...
July 10, 2016
This was the best book on Kathmandu that I have ever read. I have, in the past, bought a three volume set of history books about Nepal, but I never read them. Mr. Bell has. And he integrates this research, a lot of leg work, and quite a bit of serendipity into this single volume. It also helps that I have spent about two years in Nepal, part of which overlapped some of Mr. Bell's timeline.
I tried to read this book as slowly as I could manage because I did not want it to end. I was very happy to learn from him that he is working on another.
I tried to read this book as slowly as I could manage because I did not want it to end. I was very happy to learn from him that he is working on another.
September 21, 2017
Very good but meandering collection of journal entries by a British longtime resident and journalist. The overall picture of Nepal's contradictions across culture, history, and modern events is helpful but seems quite random once the entire tome is taken in. I definitely felt echoes articulated in reading it while in Nepal though.
June 3, 2018
The narrative style is confusing and hard to follow. It looks like a random collection of memories. I am sure it could be a great book with some additional editing (condensation and organisation specifically).
September 26, 2020
Excellent book on history and culture of Nepal with a focus on Kathmandu.
April 29, 2025
As I shared with my friend who recommended this book to me - this is the kind of travel book I like. When one travels one ought to let one's own inspirations, thoughts, and amusements of a place merge with what others tell us, by spelling in our ears or by speaking to us through the written word. It is not enough to imaginative. One always ought also be erudite. And this book is a good mix of these temperaments. Bell has surely walked around - and lived in Kathmandu well. He documents in this book, the way the Civil War and the vicissitudes of politics have and were shaping the landscape of Nepal. But at the same time keeps building bridges into not just eccentric colonial (and even academic!) characters in Nepal but the strange and outlandish personalities of the Shah-Rana era -and all the way to the primordial Licchavi ruler Manadeva. Kathmandu, like a Kumari, or a blood-thirsty Bhairava, and best, as the benevolent Bungama Lokeshvara makes herself present before us.
November 3, 2021
As someone who has some familiarity with Nepal and Katmandu both from time spent there and reading, I was quite disappointed in this book. There's almost no acknowledgement of the country beyond Katmandu (and a few communities visited during the Maoist uprising.). Not a mention of the first summiting of Mt Everest which brought Nepal into the consciousness of the world; several friends tell us that their first vision of Westerners was seeing the climbers through the Kumbu on their way to the climb, or as school children going to the airport to see these mysterious Westerners off. Just so much left out and too much left in.
February 9, 2024
Thomas Bell’s Kathmandu isn’t a bad read, but it definitely is an underwhelming one, especially when you consider that the source material is one of the world’s great cities, and the writer himself is a well connected and experienced international journalist. The book definitely does a decent job of introducing us to the complex history, unique culture, and quirky residents of Kathmandu. However it does it all in a strange writing style that obliterates every moment of genuine insight and appreciation with an infuriatingly British obsession with writing cynically and sarcastically. You end up feeling that both the city and the writer could’ve given us better.
December 18, 2022
This book is a collection of thoughts and stories from the mind of a reporter who lived in Kathmandu for a number of years. The book contains many interesting nuggets and provides useful information to help understand the wild and beautiful history of the city, but it lacks organization. It is often very unclear if or how the various anecdotes relate to each other or the chronology of how the book fits together. In this way, perhaps it is reminiscent of the city itself, with its maze-like streets, smells of incense and troubled history.
June 8, 2023
The book I was really waiting for - for a history of Kathmandu and a history of the country of Nepal, whose government has always been in the Kathmandu Valley. It is a little scattershot in presentation at times, but it finds a nice rhythm soon enough. The author is journalist who has lived in Nepal for decades and was present for the various recent revolutions that are otherwise pretty hard to follow. There's also a lot of pictures.
March 31, 2024
Lu sur la durée (+1 an), avant et après avoir quitté le Népal...le bouquin est intéressant, plein d'histoires et d'anecdotes, du vécu de journaliste, saupoudré d'un peu de récits historiques, le tout est un peu mic mac donc pas facile à suivre, à lire, mais tout de même une référence sur les changements récents à Kathmandu et sa politique...
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