Photos of Pashupatinath, the holiest site in Nepal, Nepal

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Pashupatinath, the holiest site in Nepal

The sacred Hindu Pashupatinath Temple and cremation site on the banks of the Bagmati River, east of the city, dates back to 400 BCE. The temple was built in the 5th Century by Prachanda Deva, a king of Licchavi, a kingdom in the Kathmandu Valley from approximately 400 to 750 CE. Many more temples were erected around this two-storied temple over the centuries.

Guheshwori Seto Sattal
 
Guheshwori Seto Sattal
 
Macaque monkey, Pashupatinath
 
Gorakhnath Temple
 
Gorakhnath Temple
 
Gorakhnath Temple
 
Mata Manokana Nath Bhairav Aasram
 
Mata Manokana Nath Bhairav Aasram
 
Macaque monkeys, Pashupatinath
 
Monkeys, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Sadhu smoking a cigarette
 
Beggars, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Selling Hindu religious posters
 
Selling flower garlands
 
Young man with tilak
 
Stupas at Pashupatinath Temple
 
Stupas and pagoda, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Washing place, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Pashupatinath Temple
 
Pashupatinath Temple
 
Pashupatinath Temple
 
Stupas and pagoda, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Cremation place, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Sadhu, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Sadhu, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Sadhu, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Washing place, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Washing place, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Washing place, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Cremation site, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Cremation, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Hindu devotee, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Hindu devotees, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Devotee, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Hindu devotees, Pashupatinath Temple
 
Temple entrance, Pashupatinath
 

Pashupatinath Temple is the oldest Hindu temple in Kathmandu. Its exact construction date is unknown, but its current form dates from 1692. The temple is a pagoda-style structure with two-level copper roofs covered in gold. Only Hindus are admitted to this temple, where daily rituals are performed.

Visitors are free to visit the rest of the temple complex, with its collection of temples, ashrams, images and inscriptions and the “ghats” along the Basmati river where daily cremations take place in the open. family members wash the bodies, covered in a shroud, on the banks of the river and carry them to the place where after some rituals, the cremation takes place attended to by a Hindu priest and male family members.

Sadhus, religious ascetics, holy persons in Hinduism who have renounced the worldly life, live in isolation and meditate around the temples and shrines of Pashupatinath. They are mostly Shaiva Sadhus, Shiva’s followers. Some paint their bodies with ash from firewood; others wear long robes. Most are happy to be photographed for a fee. Around 600 Macaque monkeys roaming over the site live off fruit and food given by visitors (or stolen from them). However, because of pollution in the Basmati River, they are often short of drinking water during the dry season.