#Nepal (Kathmandu Valley)

[arinewman7]

The Bodhisattva Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future

11th century, Thakuri Period

Nepal (Kathmandu Valley)

Copper alloy with gilding and colour

[kojiarakiartworks]

June 2012 KTM Kathmandu  Nepal

© KOJI ARAKI Art Works

Daily life and every small thing is the gate to the universe ：）

[artifacts-archive]

Sarasvati, Goddess of Wisdom, Holding a Book and a Water Pot

Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, 10th century

[marveltreks1998]

The sound of a monk blowing an instrument in a monastery is a common and important part of Tibetan Buddhist culture. The instrument being blown is likely a Tibetan horn or trumpet, called a dungchen or rag-dung, which is made from a long copper tube that is often decorated with intricate designs.

[dislocatedchristians]

Did you know #Nepal is also famous for #trout #fish? Eating among the #troutponds in a #himalayan #valley is very special. I've finished #writing my #book about #Christianwomen in #Kathmandu, #Nepal. The book will be released next month to mark #InternationalWomensDay #IWD, but you can #preorder now, link in bio. Please follow me for updates on the book and to know more about what life is like in this #beautiful #Asian #country. #Christian #Faith #Womensrights #rapesurvivors #Amazingwomen #InspiringStories #leprosy #himalayas #humantrafficking #mentalhealth #trauma #Godsaves #migrantworkers #writinglife @AuthenticMedia (at Gandaki Rainbow Trout,pokhara) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoHBPgqqBw0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[thoughtimmolition]

8 auspicious symbols, Garden of dreams, Kathmandu.

[samaya-samachar]

काठमाडौँ उपत्याकासहित पश्चिममा भारी वर्षा, काठमाडौँमा दिउँसो ३ बजेपछि वर्षा रोकिने

काठमाडौँ उपत्यकासहित देशका विभिन्न भू–भागमा गए रातिदेखि नै वर्षा भइरहेको छ । देशको पश्चिमी भागमा भारी मात्रामा वर्षा भएको बताइएको छ । वर्षाका कारण आज विजया दशमीका दिन मानिसहरुलाई टीकाका लागि आवतजावत गर्न तथा आफन्त भेटघाट गर्न कठिनाइ भइरहेको छ । मौसम पूर्वानुमान महाशाखाले जनाएअनुसार हाल मनसुनको न्यून चापीय रेखा सरदर स्थानभन्दा उत्तरतिर अवस्थित रहेकाले आज दिनभर देशैभर हल्का तथा मध्यम वर्षा हुने…

[dailyoverview]

Kathmandu is the capital and most populous city in Nepal, with approximately 4 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area. Set in a valley of the Himalayas at an altitude of 4,600 feet (1,400 m), the city is often the first stop in Nepal for adventurers wishing to climb Mount Everest. It is also one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world and contains many ancient temples, pagodas and stupas.

27.710000°, 85.320000°

Source imagery: Maxar

[1five1two]

Esoteric Personification of the Vajra. Nepal, Kathmandu Valley. 15th century.

[kojiarakiartworks]

June 2012 KTM Kathmandu  Nepal

© KOJI ARAKI Art Works

Daily life and every small thing is the gate to the universe ：）

[mapsontheweb]

Cities by Impressiveness of Mountain Backdrop / Rut

by u/Gigitoe

After seeing the recent posts Cities with a better mountain backdrop than LA? ( u/odi3luck ) and This is a response to the LA mountain backdrop ( u/sam_woke ), I realized that I had the exact tools to answer a particularly niche but interesting question:

How do we quantify how impressive a city's mountain backdrop is?

To answer this question, we use rut, an indicator I developed back in the days to quantify how sharply or impressively the surroundings of a location rise above the location. (my research paper if you're interested)

Roughly speaking, rut works as follows:

The higher the mountains rise above a city, the more impressive they are, and the higher the rut.

The steeper the mountains rise above a city, the more impressive they are, and the higher the rut.

In the map shown, I measured the rut of every city with a population of over 100,000. Here's some cities in each tier and their corresponding rut values:

S tier - rut > 500 m (world-class, would visit for mountain views alone) -

Pokhara, Nepal (1358 m) | Chamonix, France (1336 m) [not on map; population too low] | Zermatt, Switzerland (904 m) [not on map] | Yosemite Valley, CA (617 m) [not on map] | Innsbruck, Austria (584 m)

A tier - rut between 200 to 500 m (impressive, but probably wouldn't visit just for mountain views)

Kathmandu, Nepal (482 m) | Almaty, Kazakhstan (478 m) | Santiago, Chile (469 m) | Provo, UT (429 m) | Tehran, Iran (349 m) | Lhasa, Tibet (325 m) | Monterrey, Mexico (268 m) | Tacoma, WA (245 m) | Kabul, Afghanistan (232 m)

B tier - rut between 100 and 200 m (mountains in close proximity, or big mountains further away)

Salt Lake City, UT (180 m) | Reno, NV (151 m) | Tucson, AZ (141 m) | Seattle, WA (137 m) | Vancouver, Canada (136 m) | Los Angeles, CA (117 m) | Milan, Italy (100 m)

C tier (glorified hills nearby, or distant mountains, or very distant big mountains) - rut between 25 and 100 m

Denver, CO (99 m; if only it had one more meter) | Tokyo, Japan (94 m) | Hong Kong (75 m) | Seoul, Korea (56 m) | Rome, Italy (48 m) | Knoxville, TN (39 m) | Beijing, China (37 m) | Sacramento, CA (30 m)

D tier (hills nearby, or glorified hills in the distance, or very distant mountains) - rut between 10 and 25 m

Istanbul, Turkey (24 m) | Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (23 m) | San Francisco, CA (22 m) | Quebec, Canada (17 m) | Mumbai, India (15 m) | Brisbane, Australia (12 m) | Pittsburgh, PA (10 m)

F tier (flat tier) - rut between 0 and 10 m

Syracuse, NY (7.4 m) | Birmingham, AL (5.2 m) | Dubai, UAE (5.0 m) | Columbus, OH (3.2 m) | Washington, DC (2.6 m) | Shanghai, China (2.4) | Paris, France (2.1 m) | London, UK (1.6 m) | New York City (0.7 m) | Chicago, IL (0.4 m)

So to answer the question, what cities have a better mountain backdrop than Los Angeles? Quite a lot... quite a lot.

Here's the data spreadsheet that was used to generate this map!

Edits: switched Vancouver to downtown measurement, added more cities, switched to steepness explanation instead of proximity explanation.

----------------

Note: rut measurements only consider rise above surroundings (relative height differences and steepness). They do not consider absolute elevation, nor the "aesthetics" of a mountain, nor visibility (or lack thereof) due to weather or smog.

This visualization was made possible with Google Earth Engine, MERIT DEM, and GeoNames.

If you like rut, you'll probably like its older brother jut even more. Jut is an indicator of  how impressive, spectacular, or badass a mountain is—considering both its height above surroundings and steepness. If you want to find the most impressive mountains near you or worldwide, you may find the link above to be useful.

Let us know if you have any questions or comments—I'm happy to address them!

[artifacts-archive]

The Bodhisattva Manjushri as a Ferocious Destroyer of Ignorance

Nepal, Kathmandu Valley, 10th century

Manjushri is rarely represented in his wrathful form. Here both his aggressive stance and his fearsome face—flared eyes, knotted eyebrows, and exposed teeth—speak to his angry nature. In addition to the sword, the triple-knot hairstyle and the tiger-claw necklace identify Manjushri.

[henk-heijmans]

Kathmandu Valley Harvest, Nepal, 1979 - by Steve McCurry (1950), American

[columbosunday]

Page from a Dispersed Bhagavata Purana Manuscript (Life of Krishna)

Nepal, Kathmandu Valley (ca. 1775)

[dislocatedchristians]

Not only are the #mountains high, but the #valleys are deep too in #Nepal. Looking down beyond the #Kathmandu #valleyrim.I've finished #writing my #book about #Christianwomen in #Kathmandu, #Nepal. The book will be released to mark #InternationalWomensDay in 2023 #IWD, but you can #preorder now, link in bio. Please follow me for updates on the book and to know more about what life is like in this #beautiful #Asian #country. #Christian #Faith #Womensrights #AuthenticMedia #Amazingwomen #InspiringStories #leprosy #himalayas #humantrafficking #mentalhealth #trauma #Godsaves #migrantworkers #writinglife @AuthenticMedia (at Kathmandu, Nepal) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClleIngKo6F/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=