By Binu Shrestha

Kathmandu, Feb. 21:  Different sorts of saints, sages and sadhus used to be the main attraction of the Mahashivaratri in Pashupatinath in previous years. But this year, the splendid flower decoration has made the holy site more attractive.
The entire area of the Pashupatinath has been decorated with flowers. Any devotee heading to the main temple gets astonished seeing flowers all around them, above their heads, gates built with flowers, idols of oxen buried under flowers and the colourful marigold garlands hanging by the walls of all the buildings standing near the temple.
The day of Shivaratri is special for all Hindu devotees; for the first time the devotees will be having awesome look of the Pashupati due to extensive decoration made using several kinds of flowers.
All the routes leading to main temple are fully covered with the garlands of marigold and other flowers. All the entrance gates of Pashupati premises are decorated using the flowers.
Visitors on Thursday were seen busy taking photographs sitting in front of these beautiful floral designs. They looked happy with such unexpected decoration.
The main entrance of Pashupatinath is decorated with the Ganesh and elephant built by using lily, orchid, marigold and other kinds of flowers.
As the entire lot of temples across the Bagmati River are totally decorated with the garlands of marigold, the area looks like a bridal home.
On the eve of Shivaratri, many workers were busy decorating the areas with flowers. Some were giving final touch to the shapes of flower peacocks, elephants, Ganesh, Trishul, and Swastika while others were hanging the flowers on the wall and by the steel support erected above the routes leading to the main temple.
Raju Kumar Khatri, coordinator of the Festival Market and Decoration Sub-Committee, informed that more than 200 workers were mobilised for six days for the decoration.
Flower decoration on Pashupati premises was possible after two Indian devotees showed their interest to donate flowers worth Rs. 16 million on the occasion of Shivaratri.
Graze Trading Indian Private Limited has taken all responsibility to import flower and manage workers for this task. There is no investment of Pashupati Area Development Trust to import the flowers, he informed.
“The PADT has only provided locations to put flowers and areas for decoration. Such kinds of decoration can be seen in Siddhi Binayak temple and other big temples in India,” he said.
For the first time, big amounts of flowers were used to decorate Pashupati area on the occasion of Mahashivaratri, Khatri said.
Likewise, the PADT has used fog light for the first time at Mrigasthali, Kailash hill, and parking area. If it becomes a success and gets positive response, other light poles will be removed from these sites.
The Pashupati premises is also well-decorated with electric light, all surrounding areas and temples and walls have been painted.
The roads around the temple have already been filled with different types of people like holy men, beggars, Indian pilgrims, children and gawking tourists.