Kathmandu is a place best known for various sightseeing attractions, including beautiful, artistic and traditional temples. One of the temples that is famous its world class architecture is Pashupatinath temple situated on the shore of river Bagmati in east Kathmandu.
It is a holy temple of Hindu lord Shiva who is also known as Pashupati. ‘Pashu’ means living beings and ‘pati’ means master meaning “lord Pashupati is the master of the whole universe.†The most important festival celebrated in this temple is Shivaratri or the nights of lord Shiva. The priests who carry out the services at this temple belong to the southern part of India.
The temple is designed as per the pagoda architecture, and the two level roofs are basically copper mixed with gold covering. The temple has four main doors all covered with silver sheets. The door on the western side of the temple has a big bull statue painted with gold. People here call the priests as Bhattas and the main priest is known as Mool Bhatt who is answerable only to the king of Nepal.
Pashupatinath temple’s wide grounds also have many other historic temples, statues and shrines. In the south of the temple you can see Chadeshvar (an inscribed Licchavi liga) and in northern side there is a 9th century old temple of Lord Brahma. Coming towards northeast side of the temple there is a small pagoda temple of Vasuki (king of Nagas).
River Bagmati that flows next to Pashupatinath temple is also a holy river with many sacred properties. Thus there are many Ghats around the river for pilgrims who visit the place. One of the Ghats is Arya Ghat that has a significance importance in the history of Pashupatinath temple as it is the only place from where you can get lustral water of temple. In this Ghat the members of the royal families are cremated.
