Kathmandu's culture is a working one: bronze casters still pour lost-wax deities beside 14th-century temples, paubha painters grind mineral pigment, and Newar dance troupes perform masked Charya. Three days across Patan, Bhaktapur and the old city.
Malla-era palace courtyards in Lalitpur. The museum inside Keshav Narayan Chowk holds some 200 gilt-bronze and stone deities, each labelled by iconography rather than date. Open 10:30–17:30 daily.
A 14th-century terracotta shikhara faced with thousands of moulded clay tiles, each bearing a seated Buddha. The approach lane is lined with metal-casting workshops still turning out lost-wax bronzes for temples.
Three floors in a restored wing of the Kathmandu Guest House tracing paubha scroll painting from early thangka lineages through to contemporary Nepali canvases and mixed media. Open 11:00–18:00, closed Mondays.
Nepal's longest-running contemporary gallery, set in the converted Rana-era stables and brick courtyards of Baber Mahal Revisited. Shows new work by artists including Ashmina Ranjit and Sujan Chitrakar.
Three buildings above the Vishnumati: the Juddha Jayatiya gallery of stone and wood sculpture, a Buddhist hall of thangkas and mandalas, and a history wing of Rana weaponry. Open 10:30–16:30, closed Tuesdays.
Kaiser Shumsher's 1920 neo-classical garden behind Thamel, with six pavilions for the six Nepali seasons. Austrian conservators restored it in 2007; the sunken amphitheatre hosts evening recitals and readings.
The old royal palace on Kathmandu Durbar Square holds the Tribhuvan and Mahendra memorial museums and the nine-storey Basantapur tower. The Kumari Ghar courtyard alongside has the city's finest carved windows.
The Institute of Nepalese Performing Arts stages masked Charya dance and Newari classical music in Hotel Vajra's timber-framed theatre, with painted ceilings by Nepali artists in the adjoining hall.
The medieval core 13km east: the 55-Window Palace, the five-tiered Nyatapola, and the Pujari Math woodcarving school whose Peacock Window remains the benchmark for Newari joinery. Lanes are traffic-free.
Two open squares where Prajapati families throw black clay on hand-spun wheels, then dry rows of curd pots and oil lamps in the sun. Firing happens under straw-and-ash mounds in the middle of the square.
Two Newar farming settlements 10km south. Bungamati has the Rato Machhindranath compound and woodcarving workshops around its square; Khokana still presses mustard oil under a weighted wooden beam.
The stretch between Patan Dhoka and Jhamsikhel holds the current studio scene: Yala Mandala's craft rooms, Image Ark's photography shows, and Dhokaima Café's garden stage for acoustic sets and book launches.