Pashupatinath Temple, Kathmandu

One published window from 4 AM to 9 PM every day, with puja in the morning and two aartis in the evening.

Pashupatinath is the oldest Hindu temple in Kathmandu, and its beginnings are older than any record. Wikipedia notes that tradition treats it as pre-Vedic, and that the temple's existence is recorded as early as 400 CE. Chronicles disagree about who built it. The Gopal Raj Vamshavali credits Prachanda Deva, a Licchavi king. Another account says a linga-shaped shrine stood here before the Licchavi king Supushpa Deva built a five-storey temple, and the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), which runs the site, also names Supushpa Deva as its builder.

The temple has been rebuilt many times. Wikipedia records a reconstruction under King Shivadeva (1099 to 1126) and a renovation by Ananta Malla, who added a roof. Other temples grew up around it over the centuries, including a Vaishnava complex with a 14th-century Rama temple and the Guhyeshwari temple, which is mentioned in an 11th-century manuscript. The present temple dates from the late 17th century, after termites and earthquakes damaged the earlier building. Wikipedia gives the year as 1692; PADT says it was built in 1697 by King Bhupalendra Malla of Kantipur.

The main temple is in the Newar pagoda style, with a two-tiered copper roof covered in gold, a gold pinnacle and four main doors covered in silver sheets. PADT describes its gilded roofs and doors and the carved wooden and metal struts as its most striking features. The inner sanctum holds a stone mukhalinga about one metre high, with faces in the four directions.

In 1979 the temple precinct was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the seven monument groups of the Kathmandu Valley. In 1987 King Birendra set up PADT to conserve and manage the temple and its surroundings. PADT describes the Pashupati Area as covering 264 hectares, full of temples, shrines, Buddhist viharas, stupas, ashrams and inscriptions, and calls it an open museum. Wikipedia gives the area as 246 hectares.

First recorded

As early as 400 CE

Present temple

1692 (Wikipedia) or 1697 (PADT)

Architecture

Pagoda style, gold-covered copper roofs

UNESCO

World Heritage Site since 1979

Pashupati Area

264 hectares, according to PADT

Managed by

Pashupati Area Development Trust, 1987

Why Pashupatinath matters to Hindus

Pashupati, lord of all creatures, is a name of Shiva that PADT says has been known since the Vedic period. PADT explains it as a compound of pashu, animal, and pati, lord. In Hindu thought a person without wisdom is like a pashu, bound by ignorance, and by surrendering to Pashupatinath the devotee seeks liberation. PADT describes Pashupatinath as having five faces, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Sadyojata, Vamadeva and Ishana, and says every Hindu hopes to make the pilgrimage here at least once in a lifetime.

Legend links the temple with the Kedarnath story. In the Shiva Purana, as Wikipedia summarises it, Shiva hid from the Pandavas underground in the form of a bull and reappeared in pieces: his head at Pashupatinath, his hump at Kedarnath, and other parts at Rudranath, Tungnath and Madhyamaheshwar. PADT puts it the same way, calling Pashupatinath the head of Kedareshwor. The Nepal Tourism Board also records a legend of Shiva taking the form of a deer, which is why deer are kept in the Sleshmantak forest around the temple.

The site is sacred beyond Hinduism too. Wikipedia notes that Buddhists link the complex with mahasiddhas such as Matsyendranath, Gorakhnath and Padmasambhava. It is also a place of last rites. Cremations are held every day on the ghats along the Bagmati, and PADT, which runs Arya Ghat and Bhasmeshwar Ghat, publishes daily figures for them on its website.

More facts about Pashupatinath

Deity

Shiva, as Pashupati

Where

On the banks of the Bagmati river, Kathmandu, Nepal

UNESCO

Inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1979, one of seven monument groups in the Kathmandu Valley designation

Size

The complex occupies 246 hectares

Shrines

518 mini-temples alongside the principal pagoda-style temple

Main festival

Maha Shivaratri

Also known as

Pashupatinath, Pashupati Temple, Pashupatinath Mandir

The access rule at Pashupatinath is the reason most visits go differently than expected, and it is not something a ticket resolves.

Pashupatinath is open every day of the year. PADT gives the temple hours as 4:00 AM to 9:00 PM and publishes its daily schedule on its website: morning puja from 4:00 AM, the Mahabhishek from 7:00 AM to noon, and evening and night aarti after 5:00 PM. Early morning and the evening aarti are the times to come for the rituals.

For a quieter visit, avoid the big festival days. PADT calls Maha Shivaratri, in the month of Falgun (February to March), the most sacred festival here, when hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and sadhus from Nepal and India worship through the night. Teej, in Bhadra (August to September), fills the temple with women in red saris. The Nepal Tourism Board adds that the temple is just as crowded every Ekadashi, the eleventh day of each lunar fortnight, and above all on Harishayani Ekadashi in Ashadh (June to July) and Haribodhini Ekadashi in Kartik (October to November).

If you want to see the temple at its most intense, those same festivals are the days to come. Dashain, in Ashwin or Kartik (September to October), brings special Mahabhishek pujas, according to PADT. Expect huge crowds and special darshan routes, which PADT announced in notices before Teej and the Mondays of Shrawan in 2026.

Tips before you go

• Non-Hindus cannot enter the main temple. They can watch from the terraces across the Bagmati to the east, and PADT says the ghats are open to all.
• Leave leather items, including shoes and belts, outside the temple complex.
• Do not take photographs inside the main sanctum. PADT says the outer areas and ghats may be photographed respectfully.
• Cremations take place on the ghats every day, so be discreet around them.
• Before a festival, check the notices on pashupati.gov.np, where PADT posts darshan routes and special arrangements.
• PADT publishes puja rates on its website. A Panchamrit puja at Pashupatinath is listed at NRs 2,100.