Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/131

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THE DOOR OF GOLD
71

achieved this has not lived in vain, and the artificer of this wonderful doorway has proved in this great work that he was not only a past-master of his craft, but a high priest of his cult. There are many other beautiful and absorbing features on the various buildings in the durbar square of Bhatgaon, but this "Door of Gold"—molten, graven, hammered, and roll'd——forces these into comparative insignificance by its depth of meaning, richness of design, wealth of material, and the excellence of its workmanship. As a specimen of man's handicraft it creates a standard whereby may be measured the intellect, artistic and religious, of the old Newars.

Near the durbar hall, but in an adjacent square, is another very fine building, also the work of Raja Bhupatindra Mall. It is called the Nyatpola Deval, or the Temple of the Five Stages, and stands on five terraces penetrated by a fine flight of steps. Colossal figures, carved in stone, and picked out with brilliant colours, are on each side of this stairway, the lowest pair being statues of two historic giants—the Gog and Magog of