By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Mar : 4 It has been nearly five years since the Vishwaroopa temple of Pashupati premises collapsed in the massive April 2015 earthquake but its reconstruction has not begun yet.
The Vishwaroopa temple is one of the uniquely-shaped biggest temples of Nepal. Built in a rectanglular structure, its top has a distinctive Mughal dome shape.
Most of the structures surrounding the temple were badly damaged in the quake. Many of the artistic stone idols and wooden structures have been getting damaged in lack of their proper protection. All the structures are now lying everywhere on the open ground.
When the term of the National Reconstruction Authority constituted for the reconstruction work after the quake is expiring this year, the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) is still moving in snail’s pace in terms of reconstructing the Vishwaroopa temple, citing that reconstruction of any big project takes time.
Prem Hari Dhungana, spokesperson of thePADT, said that no structural work had begun at the temple, but they were working on the technical parts to begin the reconstruction of the temple.
“It takes time to begin works because it is a big project, and the temple is uniquely shaped. A technical team of PADT is now busy preparing the design of the temple,” he said.
Reconstruction of temple will begin after completing the tender bid process. The difficult structural shape of the temple is also responsible for the delay, he said.
The wooden and stone crafts which are now lying in the open sky are getting damaged due to light and rain.
The rare Vishwaroopa massive idols of Shiva and Parvati are made up of bronze.
In February last year, the PADT had dug 12 pits and filled it with concrete on the premises of the Vishwaroopa temple to preserve the remains of the temple by covering them under a roof, which was against the norms of the World Heritage Site.
Following a widespread criticism from the campaigners and locals, the PADT had stopped the work of filling the pits with concerte
After that, the PADT has taken no step to preserve the fallen objects of the temple.
Dr. Govinda Tandon, former member-secretary of PADT, informed that the temple was built in 1920 BS by Jung Bahadur Rana and thee idol of Vishwaroopa is one of the biggest bronze made idols.
During the Rana rule, a big puja used to be organised at Vishwaroopa temple annually. At that time, it had 500 ropanis of land under the Raj Guthi and the ceremony was organised from the income of the land.
“Now, the land has been encroached by various stakeholders in several names. Guthi Sansthan allocates only a small amount of budget to perform the annual puja,” he said.
Both Buddhists and Hindus visit the temple calling it with different names. Buddhists call it Heruka and Hindus Vishwaroopa.
Even before the earthquake, the temple premise was in a poor condition. The earthquake damaged the small structures and the dome shape of the temple, he informed.
There were two massive 12-feet tall statues of Shiva and Parvati, each having 1,000 heads inside the temple before it was destroyed by the quake.
The main statues were, however, kept in a safe place before the earthquake of 2015 damaged the temple, he said.
According to Tandon, the idols of Vishwaroopa were taken to the Pashupati premises from Nasal Chowk by Junga Bahadur Rana.
In Kathmandu district, altogether 215 temples were damaged in the earthquake. Of them, 29 were destroyed in Hanumandshoka Durbar Square, 18 at Swoyambhunath and 66 at the Pashupati area.