article_snippet.sent: From the late 1960s onwards, Western hippy backpackers who traveled the legendary overland route to Kathmandu would climb the Shiva pagoda's wide, nine-step plinth, sit in the shade under the triple-layered roofs, smoke hashish and enjoy the lofty view.
article_snippet.sent: the Shiva pagoda may have been hundreds of years old, but before the Shiva pagoda destruction impoverished rickshaw drivers, coolies and others would publicly urinate into the gutter surrounding the Shiva pagoda while waiting for passengers or heavy loads to transport.
article_snippet.sent: The slightly shorter, triple-roofed Narayan pagoda allowed vegetable sellers to display The slightly shorter, triple-roofed Narayan pagoda foodstuff on the temple's broad, five-level base.
article_snippet.sent: the Kathmandu Valley's other pagodas, stupas and shrines -- also served as public platforms.
article_snippet.sent: Jostling crowds of Nepalis and foreigners used to gather there because the plinths' height above street level allowed excellent views of major Hindu processions and other events.
article_snippet.sent: the town of Patan offset some of that cost by charging tourists a fee to enter the town of Patan central area, which displayed refined temples, pagodas, shrines and even a restaurant built into a main pagoda, allowing diners to view the best sites while munching the best sites meals.
article_snippet.sent: the Boudhanath Stupa is prized by Tibetan Buddhist refugees who have fled their Chinese-occupied homeland on foot through the Himalaya mountains.
article_snippet.sent: their are often seen reverently walking in a circle around the Boudhanath Stupa's base while twirling "prayer wheels" and chanting.
article_snippet.sent: That imposing structure is popularly known as the "Monkey Temple" because That imposing structure often vicious wild monkeys are allowed to scamper among the trees on the "Monkey Temple's hill, terrifying visitors who have to hike up a lengthy stairway to reach the temples, shrines, shops and monks' residences..
article_snippet.sent: Pashupatinath's multiple pagodas and shrines flank Pashupatinath public funeral pyres which emit smoke whenever human corpses are routinely cremated before the ashes are dumped into a narrow river.