The Three-Day Chariot Route

The procession is deliberately broken into three stages, each ending where the chariot stands overnight so that the neighbourhoods along the way have their turn to make offerings.

• Day one — the chariot is pulled from Jamal down past Durbar Marg and through Bhotahiti to Asan, the great six-way market junction, where it halts for the night.
• Day two — on through Indra Chowk to Kathmandu Durbar Square, the second stop.
• Day three — down through Maru and the old lanes of Chikan Mugal to Lagan, at the southern edge of the historic core, where the journey ends.

Read as a line on a map this is simply the spine of medieval Kathmandu, north to south: the route is the old city's main commercial artery, and pulling the chariot down it is a claim about whose city this is. Every square it stops in is a market square.

For a visitor it is also the best available excuse to walk that whole line on foot. The lanes are closed to traffic ahead of the chariot, which is the only time of year they are.