Kathmandu to Shivaratri

On March 8th, my friend Samuel landed here in Nepal and we began our journey through the country together.

On the same day, one of the most important holidays in Hinduism took place: Shivaratri - the night of Shiva. For this reason, the capital city of Kathmandu was particularly busy. A large number of Indian pilgrims also came to Kathmandu to celebrate Shivaratri, worship Shiva and make sacrifices to him in Pashupatinath, one of the most important temples in Hinduism, where the deity Shiva is particularly revered.

Pashupatinath was very crowded that day. So we first looked at Kathmandu. As we walked through the city, the significance of Shivaratri was clearly shown to us. The Shiva temples were decorated with flowers, many people stood in lines in front of them and could buy flowers and fruit for their sacrifices at the side of the road. In addition, some fires were lit, as the country is supposed to get warmer again starting with Shivaratri.

Incidentally, Shiva's symbol is the trident. His mount is also the bull. From these two characteristics, you can easily tell - unless it is Shivaratri and the Shiva temples are particularly decorated - whether the temple you are standing in front of is a Shiva temple or whether it is dedicated to another deity.

We made our way past the crowds to Durbar Square. Each of the three royal cities of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan has a square like this, which is home to a particularly large number of temples.

We also saw the Kumari, the Living Goddess, on this day. This is a girl who is worshipped as the incarnation of the goddess Taleju. She is chosen to perform this role as a toddler and does so until she has her first period. As a Kumari, she lives in a temple on Durbar Square and looks out of a window at a certain time every day. Her feet are not allowed to touch the impure ground. She is also only allowed to leave the house on certain religious festivals and is then carried by an adult. Since you are not allowed to take photos of the moment at the window, I have attached a picture from the Internet to illustrate it.