Top Cultural Sites in Nepal

Top Cultural Sites in Nepal

Regarded as a trekker’s paradise in the popular imagination, Nepal has an equally diverse cultural and ethnic landscape. While Hinduism is the country’s majority religion, Tibetan Buddhism and various forms of nature worship are also widely followed. Fascinating age-old festivals and traditions still hold sway here, like Bisket Jatra, marking the Nepalese New Year, and the harvest festival of Udhauli. Besides big-ticket cultural landmarks like the UNESCO heritage sites of Patan and Bhaktapur, Nepal has lesser-known gems such as Panauti (an ancient town lost in time) and Gorakhnath Cave, a mystic site for Hindu pilgrims.
Featured below are top-rated attractions and a few underrated destinations you can discover during your trip to Nepal.  

​1. Kathmandu Durbar Square

​Teeming with people, temples and other remarkable monuments, Kathmandu’s Durbar Square is the cultural hub of the old city and the starting point for most tourists’ discovery of the national capital. Built mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries by the Malla rulers (but some of it dates much earlier), this UNESCO World Heritage Site is dominated by the old royal palace (durbar) running along its eastern edge. Kathmandu’s kings were once crowned here. The fascinating mix of Hinduism, Buddhism and folk religions can be seen in the architecture. The outer complex comprises pagoda-style temples with intricately carved facades. Jagannath Temple, Mahendreshwar Temple and the splendid Taleju Temple are some of the important religious monuments around the Durbar Square. Kumari Chowk, the home of Kathmandu’s living goddess, Kumari, is also a major draw.

Kathmandu Durbar Square

2. Patan Durbar Square

One of three royal palace squares of the Kathmandu Valley, the UNESCO-listed Patan Durbar Square is located at the heart of Lalitpur’s old town. Constructed between the 14th and 18th centuries by the Malla rulers, the square’s stunning temple pagodas, intricately carved shrines and interconnected courtyards are a high point of Newari architecture. The most significant contribution to the temple-building effort was by the 17th-century king, Siddhinarasimha Malla. Among the square’s 20 major temples is the beautiful octagonal gray stone Krishna Temple. Construction of the Patan Royal Palace Complex was started by Siddhi Narasimha Malla and continued by his son Srinivasa. Officially, Patan is separate from Kathmandu, but its center is barely three miles away and makes for an excellent half-day trip from the national capital.

Patan Durbar Square

Photo by Volker Meyer from Pexels

3. Bhaktapur Durbar Square

Bhaktapur was the capital of an independent city-state until the 18th century. The plaza fronting the old royal palace is called the Bhaktapur Durbar Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Less overrun by tourists compared to its larger and noisier Kathmandu counterpart, Bhaktapur Durbar Square and the area around it are known for nearly three dozen temples and eye-catching architecture, including the 18th century 55-Window Palace, with its sensuously carved doors and windows. Other outstanding monuments include the Golden Gate, which has magnificent repoussé metalwork, the four Char Dham temples, and the 18th-century five-story Nyatapola Temple, Nepal’s tallest temple. The nearby Pottery Square is a delightful space for ceramic lovers.

​4. Swayambhunath Stupa

Located on a hill in Kathmandu Valley, Swayambhunath Stupa is an important pilgrimage site for Buddhists. It may have been founded as early as the 5th century AD by King Vrsadeva. Over the centuries, many lavishly decorated temples and shrines were built here, including the stunning domed stupa. Popularly known among tourists as the “Monkey Temple”as a nod to the hundreds of monkeys who have made the temple complex their home, Swayambhunath offers panoramic views of the Kathmandu valley. Its four Buddhas look across the valley in all symbolic directions. The 13-tiered structure at the top represents the 13 stages of nirvana. Fluttering over the stupa are countless prayer flags.

5. Boudhanath Stupa

Looking with its all-seeing giant eyes towards each cardinal direction, Boudhanath Stupa dates to the 14th century. But the original stupa at this site in Kathmandu was much older, perhaps built around the 6th century AD when a local ruler adopted the Buddhist faith. The beautifully proportioned monument has a big whitewashed dome, on which sits a pyramid tower. The entire structure rests on large mandala-shaped steps. Around the base of the stupa are images of the Dhyani Buddha Amitabha and groups of prayer wheels. The site was part of a major trade route, resulting in many converts to Buddhism over the centuries. Locals often call it ‘Chorten Chenpo’ (Great Tower). After the 1950s, as Tibetan refugees poured into India and Nepal, Boudhanath became an important symbol of Tibetan Buddhist culture and heritage.

Boudhanath Stupa

Photo by Volker Meyer

6. Lumbini

Some 2,500 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama — who would later be known to the world as the Buddha —was born in the gardens of Lumbini in Nepal. This town, close to the Indian border, is now one of the world’s holiest pilgrimage centers for Buddhists. The great Indian emperor Ashoka erected a commemorative pillar here in the 3rd century BC. The site was rediscovered in the 19th century by a local official and British archaeologists. The complex, now modernized, is part of a three-mile-long UNESCO World Heritage Site and includes monasteries built by many countries in their national styles. The important sites to look out for include the Bodhi tree; an old bathing pond; the Maya Devi Temple, marking the spot where Queen Maya Devi is believed to have given birth to Gautam Buddha; and the Japanese World Peace Pagoda. Though the Lumbini complex has become a tourist attraction, it is still fundamentally a place for meditation and deep spiritual contemplation for the hundreds of devotees who come here every day.

Lumbini

Image by Arjun Jaisawal from Pixabay

7. Pashupatinath Temple

Located on the eastern edges of Kathmandu, Pashupatinath Temple is one of the holiest Hindu sites in Nepal. The temple’s deity, Shiva, assumes the form of Pashupati or the protector of animals. The oldest recorded structure at the site dates to the early 5th century AD but the current temple may have been built between the 15th and 17th centuries. The highlight of the temple is the central twin-story pagoda. Inside the shrine is an idol of the four-headed Pashupati. Beside the temple’s western door is a bronze statue of Nandi the bull, the vehicle of Shiva. The gilded rooftop offers good views of the surrounding areas. Surrounding the main temple are hundreds of smaller shrines and cremation sites. But access to much of the sacred cremation area is through riverside steps. The temple is particularly busy during the Hindu spring festival of Maha Shivaratri.    

8. Ram Janaki Temple

According to ancient Hindu lore, Janakpur’s Ram Janaki Mandir (Temple) is the birthplace of Lord Rama’s wife, Sita. Rama is one of the most important gods in the Hindu religion, making the temple a significant pilgrimage spot for the community. Though much of the present structure can be traced to the early 20th century, fragments from the 11th and 12th centuries have been recovered from the site. The temple’s architectural style with its domes and marble arches is an unusual blend of classical and neo-classical elements. The temple is lit up at night and tends to get crowded during Hindu festivals. A line of female devotees can be seen entering the inner sanctum to worship the Sita statue inside.

​9. Muktinath Temple

Perched at a height of 3,710 meters at the base of Mustang’s Thorong La mountain pass, Muktinath is a sacred site for both Hindus and Buddhists. Built in the pagoda style, the main temple shrine has a tiered roof with ornate wooden carvings and houses an image of the Hindu god Vishnu. The temple also has idols of other Hindu deities, including goddesses Bhoodevi (Lakshmi), Saraswati and Janaki (Sita). The temple is part of the Vaishnava religious tradition and one of the eight sacred pilgrim centers for Vishnu followers in the Indian subcontinent. The temple has 108 brass water sprouts known as Mukti Dhara, indicating the path to liberation (mukti). According to Buddhist tradition, Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), one of the founders of Tibetan Buddhism, meditated in this area in the 8thcentury while journeying to Tibet. Though the Muktinath Temple has an ancient history, the current structure was erected in the early 19th century.

10. Gorakhnath Cave

Gorkha and its royal palace are slowly finding their place on the tourist map of Nepal. But even tourists who come to this historically important town are unlikely to visit the Gorakhnath Cave, situated some 10 meters beneath the southern side of the palace. Steeped in mysticism and ancient legends, the solid rock cave is the abode of the revered Gorakhnath Baba, a sage who predicted that the Gurkha king, Prithvi Narayan Shah would unify Nepal. The austere setting and absence of ornate decorations are part of the cave’s charm. Its interior has natural crevices and pillars, with sacred symbols and spiritual instructions carved into the walls. Devotees, almost exclusively Nepalis, come here to seek solace and get blessed by the presence of Gorakhnath Baba.

11. Panauti

Situated at the confluence of two rivers, Panauti is just 20 miles southeast of Kathmandu, but it seems to be caught in a delightful time warp. Hindu devotees from Nepal and even India come to this quaint town to visit the 13th-century Indreshwar Mahadev Temple and other religious shrines. The recorded history of Panauti dates back to the Lichchhavi rulers (2nd to 8th century AD), making it one of the oldest towns in Nepal. Once it was a key stop on the trade route from India to Tibet. But today it has a back-of-the-beyond aura and is not part of most tourist circuits. The Newars are the dominant community here, and this reflects in the town’s architecture. Panuati has a Durbar Square, much simpler and smaller than the three famous durbar squares of the Kathmandu Valley. The ruins of the old palace, the Panauti Museum, the Triveni Ghat, and the town’s ancient stone carvings are also worth checking out.

12. Changunarayan Temple

One of the oldest temples of Kathmandu Valley, the hilltop Changu Narayan Temple in Bhaktapur district is dedicated to Narayan, an avatar (incarnation) of the Hindu god Vishnu. A pillar is inscribed with Sanskrit text from the reign of a 5th-century king. The hill, Changu, on which the temple stands offers excellent views of the Manohara River floodplains and the Kathmandu valley. From the latter half of the 14th century, the temple underwent several phases of repairs and reconstructions. The pagoda-style design that we see today dates from the early 18th century. The Garuda figure, however, is believed to be from the 5th century. Scattered around the courtyard are stunning carvings showing the many avatars of Vishnu. Shrines to Hindu deities such as Shiva, Chhinnamasta and Krishna can also be found within the larger temple complex.  

The top cultural sites in Nepal are a celebration of its architectural wonders and a dip into this amazing land’s ancient spiritual traditions. Feast your eyes on exquisite temple architecture, stroll around old towns lost in the mists of time, and admire the gorgeous palaces of the country’s erstwhile rules. Looking for more things to do in Nepal? Bookmundi has got you covered. Our travel experts will help you plan a customized trip to Nepal that ticks all the items on your bucket list.
​