Budhanilkantha Templeਬੁੱਢਾਨੀਲਕੰਠ ਮੰਦਰ

At the northern edge of the Kathmandu Valley, below the green slopes of Shivapuri Hill, a god sleeps on water. Budhanilkantha Temple is an open air Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu, built around a single extraordinary object: a five metre statue of the god reclining on the coils of the cosmic serpent, lying in the middle of a recessed pond. There is no towering shrine room here and no roof over the deity. The statue itself is the temple, garlanded, canopied and attended in the open air, and it is considered the largest stone carving in Nepal. Pilgrims read this Kathmandu shrine alongside the valley's other great houses of worship on Jugti's Mandirs in Nepal hub, from Pashupatinath to Dakshinkali.

What is Budhanilkantha Temple?

Budhanilkantha Temple, also known as the Narayanthan Temple, is a Hindu open air temple in Budhanilkantha municipality, Kathmandu district, Nepal, about 9 kilometres from Thamel in the capital. Its name translates as Old Blue Throat. The temple is identified by its large reclining statue of Mahavishnu, the preserver god of the Hindu Trimurti alongside Brahma and Shiva. The shrine is sacred to Hindus and is also venerated by Buddhists, a sharing that local tradition presents as a sign of the religious harmony that has existed in the region since ancient times. The site is protected as an ancient monument under Nepal's Ancient Monuments Preservation Act of 1956.

The sleeping Vishnu in the pond

The main statue is carved from a single block of black basalt. It measures 5 metres, around 16.4 feet, and rests in the middle of a recessed pool of water 13 metres long. Vishnu reclines on the serpent Shesha, and in his four hands he holds the Sudarshana Chakra, a club, a conch shell and a gem. His crown is engraved with multiple Kirtimukha images and is often overlapped by a silver crown. The statue is believed to be more than 1,400 years old. For many years it was popularly suggested that the statue floats in the pool: a limited scientific check in 1957 could neither confirm nor refute the claim, but a small chip taken from the statue confirmed it is a silica based stone with a remarkably low density, similar to lava rock. Local legend also tells of a mirror like image of Shiva seen beside the statue in the water at the annual Shiva festival each August; the page records that as legend, as devotees tell it.

Why is a Vishnu temple named for Shiva's blue throat?

The puzzle sits in the name itself. Nilkantha, blue throat, is a title of Shiva, earned in the story of the churning of the ocean, Samudra manthan, when Shiva drank poison to save the world. Yet the god in the pond is Vishnu. The tradition told at the temple connects the two: the spring that feeds the pond at Budhanilkantha is said to be connected to Gosaikunda, the sacred lake tied to Shiva and to the Samudra manthan story told in the Bhagavata Purana, the Vishnu Purana and the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Because its water is linked to Shiva's lake, the temple carries Shiva's blue throat title even though its statue is dedicated to Vishnu. Another local legend explains how the statue came to light: farmers ploughing a field at the site struck stone with their plough, dug further, and uncovered the massive image of the reclining Vishnu buried in the ground, where it has been revered ever since as a divine revelation rather than a mere archaeological find.

The festival that wakes the god

Budhanilkantha's year turns on sleep and waking. Thousands of pilgrims visit for the Haribodhini Ekadashi Mela on the 11th day of the Hindu month of Kartika, in October to November, a special ritual to wake Vishnu from his long sleep. A big fair is also held at the temple on auspicious occasions such as the Ekadashis, while Harishayani and Haribodhini mark the four month sleeping period of Vishnu in the Hindu lunar calendar. Outside festival days the shrine keeps the calm of an open air village temple: the god lies under his canopy in the pond while attendants garland him and worshippers circle the water. It makes a natural pairing with Nepal's high Vishnu shrine, Muktinath in Mustang, where Vishnu is worshipped at 3,762 metres.

Why did Nepal's kings stay away from Budhanilkantha?

One of the temple's most repeated stories concerns the kings of Nepal, and it is told as legend. King Pratap Malla, who reigned from 1641 to 1674, is said to have had a prophetic vision in which it was claimed the king was cursed: if he visited Budhanilkantha Temple, he would die prematurely. The vision led him to believe that the kings of Nepal would die if they visited the temple, and royal family members, including the monarchs who followed Pratap Malla, never visited the temple for fear of the prophecy. A second, smaller image of the sleeping god at Balaju, known as Balaji Budhanilkantha, gave the court a place to honour the deity without breaking the rule the legend imposed. Whatever its origin, the story is part of how Kathmandu understands this shrine: a god so powerful that even kings kept their distance.

Visiting Budhanilkantha

Budhanilkantha sits below Shivapuri Hill at the northern end of the Kathmandu Valley, on Golfutar Main Road, about 10 kilometres from Tribhuvan International Airport and 9 kilometres from Thamel. Come early in the day for the quietest darshan, and time a visit for Kartika if you want to see the Haribodhini Ekadashi fair that wakes the god. The temple is an open air, working place of worship, so approach the pond as a guest: follow the attendants' directions, keep to the viewing areas around the water, and let worshippers with offerings pass first. From here, the other entries on the Mandirs in Nepal hub complete the valley circuit south and east.