Colour and decoration

Namaste.
When I first arrived in Nepal I was struck by the bright colours and decorations on so many things and wrote an early blog about it. I still love the way that Nepalis use colour and find myself taking many photographs showing this.  These do not fit into any particular topic, so this post is a selection of the photos that I like, each with a short explanation of its context.

The dish contains flowers and a rice mixture. We were given a rice tikka on the forehead, a flower in our hair and a glass of rackshi at a special Gurund evening of singing and dancing at which we were guests.

Colour is such an important part of the Hindu religion. The coloured powders, for sale in the centre of the main street in Besisahar before Tihir, are for people to create mandalas outside their homes, to attract the Goddess Laxmi to enter. Some mandalas are intricate and very beautiful.

The marigold garlands are given for welcome and at many important times. These were being sold for honouring animals and people at the festival of Tihir. The purple ones are made of everlasting flowers and are given by girls to their brothers to signify their love for them.

This statue/picture of a Hindu God looks very fierce to me.  He can be found on the wall at Kathmandu Durbar Square.

These wonderful face masks depicting the Hindu Gods are used at Dashain in an ancient village play at Kholcana near Kathmandu.  The play tells the story of one of the Hindu epics, and the masks and parts in the play are passed from one generation of men to the next.








This highly decorated door hides a huge prayer wheel, just visible, at Bouddha, the enormous stupa and Buddhist complex.

  For special occasions Nepali women wear beautifully decorated saris and kurtas. These photos are close-ups of the intricate embroidery in silver and gold thread on two. 

Recently dyed wool hung to dry beside one of the ponds at Bhaktapur, in the Kathmandu Valley.

Colourful rickshaws parked, waiting for passengers in Thamel, Kathmandu.

The kingfisher, who perches on a tree behind my flat, looking for food in the little stream which tumbles down the rice terraces.

And finally, VSO volunteers painting a mural on the wall of the office garden, as part of the official 50th Anniversary celebrations in April 2014.