108 Streams, Salvation at Muktinath

028/366 Muktinath, Nepal

This place is highly revered for Hindu Vaishnavas(devotees of Lord Vishnu). As name of this place suggests, it is believed that one attains Salvation if this holy abode is visited.
It is said that, famous Indian philosopher, saint Sri Ramanujacharya(1017AD - 1137 AD), who spread the devotion to Lord Vishnu, installed main deity here.
Main deity is made of Saligrama Shila. There is beautiful statue of Ramanujacharya in this temple.

Temple is surrounded with 108 water springs & water falls through Cow shaped structures(seen in pic). There are two ponds in front of temple.

Muktinath is also called as 'Chumig Gyatsa', which means 'hundred waters' in Tibetean language. This place is considered to be sacred even for Buddhists and is one of 24 Buddhist Tantric Places.


This temple is situated at an elevation of around 12200ft & gets covered with snow during winters.

More info: http://www.muktinath.org/

Shesha Shayana Maha Vishnu, Budhanilkantha

023/366 Ok! This was one of my "dream come true" moments...
I first saw this beautiful Shesha Shayana Maha Vishnu's lovely statue in a travel show 'musafir hoon yaron' in Star Plus hosted by Deepti Bhatnagar many years back. Ever since I saw this huge 18 feet statue of Lord Vishnu on TV, I wanted to visit this place...

And what I saw in reality was more mesmerizing than what I saw in TV...
Beautiful calm face of Vishnu is seriously infectious!

Lord Vishnu is known as "Budhanilkantha" is also located in place called Budhanilkantha, which is situated 10km north of Kathmandu.
Though exact date of this statue is unknown, it is believed to be at least 1300 year old as inscription dated 641 AD by Vishnu Gupta is found in this area.
This beautiful statue is set in the middle of pond and Lord Vishnu appears to float on water.

Since main deity is in horizontal position & is surrounded by water, preist has to walk over the statue to decorate, which probably is unique in the world!

Legend
Legend has that King Suryaketu had it constructed during his reign but it lay buried for many centuries after an earthquake. Later, King Dharmagat saw the image and the location of the Budhanikantha in a dream and he excavated the ground. The people believe that the excavation caused the unparalleled image small damage on its nose. Others believe it was an old farmer(buddha in hindi) who discovered the image while working on his field.

For beautiful pics & more info:
http://sacredsites.com/asia/nepal/budhanilkantha_statue.html
http://www.trailblazertrekking.com/budhanilkantha.htm

Swayambhunath Stupa, Kathmandu

This beautiful Stupa(Place of worship for Buddhist) was built in the beginning of 5th Century AD by King Maana Deva(464-505AD).

Lord Buddha's eyes(known as Wisdom eyes) are painted in all four directions on a cubical structure placed above the dome, symbolizes omniscience(all-seeing), below which Nepali number "1" is painted representing Unity.

According to Swayambhu Purana, the entire valley was once filled with an enormous lake, out of which grew a lotus. The valley came to be known as Swayambhu, meaning "Self-Created." The name comes from an eternal self-existent flame (swayambhu) over which a sūpa was later built.

Legend says that this lovely place was also visited by Emperor Ashoka in 3rd Century BC and built a temple in same place, which was later destroyed.
Although the site is considered Buddhist, the place is revered by both Buddhists and Hindus. Numerous king Hindu followers are known to have paid their homage to the temple, including Pratap Malla, the powerful king of Kathmandu.

Another photo from this place is here, which speaks about "Mani Wheels" of Buddhism...this is another favorite photo of mine..

For more info

Cable car view of River Trishula, Nepal

Scenic view from Ropeway enroute to Manakamana Mandir, Nepal

I have been fortunate to go in many ropeways, but this one ranks amongst specials along with Gondola Ride in Lake Tahoe.
Starting at Kurintar at around 850 ft goes up to 3900 ft in just 10-15min covering 2.4km length ...
Trishula(Trishuli) River can be seen in pic.
ManaKamana Mandir is very popular temple in Nepal.

This place is around 95km from Kathmandu on the way to Pokhara.

More info on Manakamana Mandir