Gokarneshwor Mahadev temple

About

Set on the banks of the Bagmati a few kilometres northeast of Bodhnath in the Kathmandu Valley, the temple is one of Nepal's important pilgrimage places for devotees of Shiva. The deity is honoured here as Gokarneshwor, the Lord of Gokarna, with a lingam enshrined in the inner sanctum.

While the lingam is the focus of daily worship, the temple is also celebrated for the remarkable assembly of stone images and carvings that crowd its walls and surrounding courtyard. These figures depict deities, sages, and scenes from Hindu cosmology, and reward the careful eye of pilgrim and student alike.

Gokarneshwor is especially associated with the Nepali rite of Kuse Aunsi, when devotees who have lost their fathers come to perform memorial offerings for them along the river, making the temple a vital site of pitri tarpan, the ancestral observances of Hindu tradition.

Significance

For Nepali Hindus, Gokarneshwor is among the foremost places to honour departed fathers through the Kuse Aunsi observances, when offerings of water and ritual remembrance are made along the Bagmati. The temple thus weaves Shiva's grace together with the duty of filial devotion to one's pitris.