Pashupatinath Temple – Nepal

Pashupatinath Temple is a UNESCO declared world heritage site that is situated at the Kathmandu valley. This is a Hindu temple and worships the lord Pashupatinath (means the lord of animals), a form (or incarnation) of Lord Shiva, a great Hindu god. This place is very near from the airport. This temple is very much sacred to the Hindu believers. The whole temple premise has more than 500 temples and monuments [1].

Pashupatinath temple is a vast premise where temples are scattered around. Most of those are small temples, and few are larger and having their own names. One of such temple is the Rajrajeswari temple which comprises with four temples at four corners and one at the center of those four (in total five).

The main Pashupatinath temple is the golden colored and only the Hindu people can enter inside. That temple is beside the famous river named Bagmati. It is a shallow river but with having immense current. The bank of the river is the place for doing the cremation (a part of Hindu funeral). People bring the dead body there to perform that ritual task. Also the bank of the river has small houses where the extremely ill people wait to die.

The width of the river is only several feet. At the other side of the river has an array of small Shiva temples. Those are the most beautiful part from the whole compound in my opinion. The premise has lot of such temples randomly scattered. They appeared to me as if they were made from stone. But I can be confused as I am not the expert on this matter.

There is a wide stair available that goes to the upward of the hill beside the river. At the top it has plenty more temples, a cafeteria, and a zoo like place where the deers are moving around. Initially I started observing the temples one by one, but later I gave up! By the way, most of those small temples are having a similar architecture.

It was Monday. After finishing my work (after lunch) I started walking for the place and it took around an hour to reach there from Thamel (a landmark for Nepal tourists). After reaching near the temple premise I started walking aimlessly. Most of the places were packed with local people. Because it was afternoon time and the old people were sitting on the benches or at the basement of the temples. Also there were lot of couples who were dating there. People are also visiting the place with the friends as a group. Very few activities were found from the foreign travelers except two or three groups.

I was sitting on the top of the hill, at the bank of the river. There were lot of benches which were occupied by the crowd. I have shared one such bench with a group of Nepalese. I wanted to stay there for more. But the Kathmandu uses to get closed after 8:00pm of the night. So before the darkness I wanted to catch a taxi. I bought a bottle of Mirinda and hired a taxi from the road side (outside the temple premise). I have paid him 350 Nepali rupees as he agreed to drop me near my apartment.

How to Go:

Pashupatinath Temple is a very famous temple from Nepal. Anywhere from the Kathmandu city you can hire a taxi for this place. It will be around 300 Nepali rupees if you hire near from Thamel. It will hardly take 20 minutes to drop you near the temple. The GPS coordinate of the temple is (27°42’36.77″N, 85°20’55.43″E). For your information, this place is very near from the airport.

Entrance fee:

The ticket price is a bit high and crazy compare to the currency of Nepal. It is 1100 Nepali rupees for the foreign nationals. For the Chinese national it is 500 rupees. For the SAARC and the Nepali people the entry fee is free. As our country is under the SAARC, that’s why I didn’t have to pay anything. But the fee is too much for the foreigners in comparison with local (free).

Where to stay:

Tourism is one of the main incomes of Nepal in recent days. That’s why there are plenty of hotels and resorts all over the country. Here is a list of hotels near Kathmandu for you. It is always better to reserve your room before traveling anywhere.

Pashupatinath Temple,
Pashupati Nath road,
District: Kathmandu,
Country: Nepal,
GPS coordinate: (27°42’36.77″N, 85°20’55.43″E)
List of hotels near Kathmandu

This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icwow.blogspot.com/

Monday, 26 August 2013