Asan Tol

Asan Tol is the main market square of Kathmandu's old Newar city, a hub of five streets where the medieval spice trade still continues. The square is busy all day with vegetable sellers, spice merchants, and the kind of ordinary commercial life that gives Kathmandu's old city its character. A small Annapurna shrine at one end of the square is one of the busiest in the city — vendors, rickshaw drivers, and shoppers all stop to make offerings.

The lanes radiating from Asan lead into the heart of the old city. Indra Chowk, a few minutes' walk south, has the Akash Bhairav shrine (where a gruesome metal head of Bhairav is displayed during the Indra Jatra festival) and stalls selling metalwork and Tibetan goods. Walking the old city between Asan and Durbar Square is one of Kathmandu's best experiences — keep looking up at the carved wooden windows and courtyards that open off the main streets.

things to do market sight
A story
Asan has been a market for at least a thousand years — it sits at the convergence of the old trade routes through the valley, and the particular corner of the square still functions as a wholesale spice and grain market much as it did in medieval times. The goddess Annapurna, whose shrine is in the square, is the deity of food and abundance. Merchants still make offerings to her before opening their stalls.

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