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North of Tachapal, the Nawa Durga Dyochhen looks like a haunted house, Nepali-style. A tantric temple only open to initiates, it honours the nine manifestations of Durga, who are especially feared and respected in Bhaktapur. According to legend, the Nawa Durga used to eat solitary travellers, turning the area east of Bhaktapur into a Bermuda triangle until a priest managed to cast a tantric spell on them. The Nawa Durga occupy a special place in Bhaktapur's spiritual landscape: the city is said to be delimited by symbolic Nawa Durga stones ( pith), and most tol (neighbourhoods) have adopted one of the nine as their protector goddess. Most famous of all are the Nawa Durga dancers , a troupe whose members are drawn from the caste of flower sellers. Each wears a painted clay mask which, empowered by tantric incantations, enables the wearer to become the very embodiment of the deity. Every September a new set of masks is moulded and painted, each with its own iconography - there are actually thirteen in all, the Nawa Durga plus four attendant deities. On Bijaya Dasami, the "victorious tenth day" of Dasain, the dancers and accompanying musicians gather at Brahmayani Pith, about 1km east of town, and dance all the way to the Golden Gate, where they re-enact the legend of Durga's victory over a buffalo demon. The troupe continues to perform at designated places on days determined by the lunar calendar throughout the winter and spring wedding and festival seasons. In the month of Bhadra (Aug-Sept) their masks are formally retired and burned, and the ashes saved to be added to clay to form the next year's masks. West of the Nawa Durga Dyochhen, the Prashannashil Mahabihar , distinguished by its pagoda-style cupola, is another of Bhaktapur's few Buddhist institutions. East along the main road from Tachapal, the Wakupati Narayan Mandir , where local Jyapus worship Vishnu as a harvest god, displays no fewer than five Garuds mounted on pillars in a line.
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