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For reasons that have been lost in time, the wooden roof struts of some Nepalese temples are decorated with scandalous little scenes. These sculptures are never the central iconography of the struts, rather just little sex scenes that appear at the bottom of each beam. They vary in level of detail, posture and yes, species – which begs the question, what on earth are they doing there? The building is, after all, a temple.
Pictured above is the Jagannath Temple in Kathmandu’s Durbar Square. The temple is thought to have been built around 1563. The struts I refer to are the beams that run from the roof to the first floor. Six beams flank each side, making 24 different little sex book illustrations for the world to marvel at.
This image, which has been family-friendly-ized for this post, gives you an idea of their subject matter. Rumor has it they were used as a way to ward off the very shy virginal goddess of lightning. Whatever their original use, it warms my heart that while counter-reformation Europe was suffering a major nudity loss in the arts, somewhere in the world these little scenes were being carved.
Work it, 446 year old Nepal temple builders!
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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 8:51 am and is filed under Nepal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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You know the saying, “to fly by the seat of your pants?” Well, that's been our philosophy for most of our adult lives – before and after meeting, falling in love and marrying. We're now taking that idea on an extended round-the-world trip. Follow us as we share the good, the bad and the downright nasty of life on the road.
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