- Saturday, 23 August 2025
Binu Shrestha
Vatsaleshwori Jatra of Pashupati underway
Vatsaleshwori Jatra, one of the longest jatra celebrated in the Pashupati area started on Friday. The Jatra is being held in the Pashupatinath area wishing for peace in the country. The Jatra is performed in Vatsaleshwori Temple four days after Dudu Chya Chya (invitation journey) by Amalkot Kachahari.
Sujan Bagh piercing tongue for second time
Sujan Bagh Shrestha is going to pierce his tongue on April 14 for the second time during the famous tongue-piercing festival of Bode in Madhyapur Thimi, Bhaktapur district. Sujan, a 28-year-old resident
Intersex persons face ordeals in getting jobs
A few newborn babies do not fit the typical definition of a male or female. Though such a case is rare, such children face problems as they grow up. Esan Regmi of Bajura was born as a female. “When I was born, my parents raised me as a daughter,” Regmi, an intersex activist, recalled.
Previous police office in capital’s heart standing as eyesore
It has been almost nine years since the devastating earthquake rocked Nepal on April 25, 2015. Over the years, many of the damaged houses and monuments have stood erect and restored to their former glory while several others are undergoing reconstruction.
KMC building Phalchas at bus stops
Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is going to construct traditional resting places indigenously known as ‘Phalchas’ at the bus stops of the metropolis. For now, 10 Phalchas will be built by the metropolis in the main crowded areas.
Kids supposed to play compelled to toil away
Nita, a resident of Melamchi (name changed), was forced to take up work at a small tea shop in Jorpati, Kathmandu before she was even a teenager. When Nita was only 12 years old, her father left
Dwarf Association seeks land to build village for them
Inspired from the Amar Village of Assam, India, and similar settlements in other nations, short-statured people in Nepal are demanding a separate village for themselves to live with love and dignity.
Preservation of Sundhara sees no progress
The magnificent golden spout Sundhara used to be an unparalleled work of water engineering in the Kathmandu Valley. But it dried up in 2005, in course of the construction of the present-day Kathmandu Mall building.
Ownership dispute delays university liaison office reconstruction
The four-and-a-half-storey liaison office of the Nepal Sanskrit University (NSU) at Basantapur still stands in support of multiple logs, more than eight years after it was violently shaken by the devastating Gorkha earthquake.
Launching of satellites delayed in absence of VC at NAST
The Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) has developed two more satellites after the success of its first nanosatellite project.
Vatsaleshwori Jatra of Pashupati gets underway
Among various jatras and festivals, which are celebrated in the Pashupati area since ancient times, Vatsaleshwori Jatra is one. It is the longest jatra of the Pashupatinath area, and the process to mark this annual festival began on Tuesday by performing Dudu Chya Chya (invitation journey).
As Maghe Sankranti nears, Tokha ramps up Chaku production
Kids love it, adults like it too; the mouth-watering delicacy Chaku is a favourite of all. And with the unofficial Chaku day – Maghe Sankranti – just two days away, factories in Tokha, Kathmandu, are now running at full capacity to supply the chocolate-coloured sweet stuff to the markets of Kathmandu Valley and beyond. Tokha, located in the northern edge of the valley, is the C
Swasthani fasting begins
Lord Kumar dictates: Oh, sage Agastya …This phrase shall once again be heard in houses of the faithful across the Kathmandu Valley and beyond as the Swasthani fast has begun.
Building heritages back traditionally
Rapid and haphazard urbanisation had already been claiming the natural and cultural heritage of Kathmandu Valley and the adjoining cities for decades when the 2015 earthquake struck and further destroyed the centuries-old temples, shrines and public shelters in the region.
How repatriation of an idol can help restore a conduit
Kathmandu, Dec. 6: For decades now, haphazard urbanisation, government neglect and public apathy have been causing many of Kathmandu Valley’s ancient water spouts, or Hitis as they are known in the native Nepal Bhasa, to dry up or get destroyed, covered or buried. One such buried spout is Bungamati’s Bahili Hiti in Kotatole, Lalitpur Metropolitan City–22.What happened to the Hiti is peculiar and it’s a story that must begin with a look at the Vishnu statue that is presently on its way back to Nepal from nearly three decades of coerced stay in the United States.The holy statue has been in the States since at least 1995, when it supposedly reached the Metropolitan Museum of Arts. It was stolen from Kotatole in the 1980s and presumably smuggled out of the country.The process of bringing the idol back started after the Facebook page Lost Arts of Nepal tracked it to the Museum last year. Following this discovery, the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign, an organisation which supports the government in bringing back lost and stolen heritage, moved the Department of Archaeology (DoA) to claim and repatriate the sculpture.Subhadra Bhattarai, chief archaeological officer at the DoA, said that the idol would be back in its home country soon.The 11th-century statue of Shreedhar Vishnu – Vishnu flanked by his divine energy (Shakti) Goddess Laxmi and his mount Garuda – was fixed to the base of a Lichhavi-era stupa at Kotatole before being stolen in the 1980s. A photograph by the late archaeologist Shukra Sagar Shrestha proves this.Now, we get to the Bahili Hiti. The Hiti, the stupa and the statue were all underground before 1960. Talking about the water conduit, local heritage lover Anil Tuladhar told The Rising Nepal that before the 60s, the only sign of the Hiti was in stories told by senior citizens.“Elders used to tell of a Hiti that existed near the Ganesh Temple here but no one had seen any of its structures physically,” Tuladhar said.But the stories were enough to prompt the youths of the tole to decide to excavate. Helped by the then village development committee, they dug up the ground and found the ‘Stone Tap’, dried up but structurally intact, 10 metres below the surface. The Lichhavi stupa was also on its subterranean premises, as were the ancient statues of the Shreedhar Vishnu, Uma Maheshwor, Kuber and Buddha.“But with the unearthing of the Hiti also came disputes,” Tuladhar lamented. “People were unsure about how to maintain it. Some wanted to keep it open while some wanted it covered as it had dried and was considered useless.”In the immediate term, the “keep it open” side won and Bahili Hiti was left uncovered for half a decade – but without conservation and the restoration of water supply. But as the years passed, the sentiment changed and ultimately, people did deem the sunken water source that was without water a lost cause and buried it. However, they removed the sculptures and stupa and consecrated them at the location.However, this allowed thieves to kidnap Vishnu and Kuber. Vishnu, however, is coming back. And its homecoming has reignited the debate around the Hiti.“We are trying to get Bahili Hiti restored and establish Shreedhar Vishnu in its complex where it originally stood,” Tuladhar shared, adding that DoA teams had visited the site twice this fiscal year for it. “However, some houses around the Hiti have expressed reservations.”The ground below which the water spouts lie is used to dry rice, park vehicles and other communal activities and a number of families worry that the locality would lose an important open space if they restored the spouts.“We are trying to convince them and bring them on board too,” Tuladhar told this daily. “We want to move with consensus because pushing forward without agreement will create resentment and prevent the development of a sense of collective ownership.”
