Changu Narayan Temple

Changu Narayan, dedicated to Vishnu in his Narayan form, sits on a hilltop east of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu Valley and is generally regarded as the oldest surviving Hindu temple site in Nepal. Epigraphic evidence — a stone pillar inscription of the Lichhavi king Manadeva, dated within his reign of roughly 464-505 CE — places activity at the site among the oldest dated inscriptions found anywhere in Nepal, while temple tradition places an original founding even earlier, in the 4th century CE. The surviving structure has been rebuilt multiple times after fire and earthquake damage over the centuries, most recently following the major 2015 earthquake, with reconstruction supported by Chinese assistance completed within about five years.

Built in the tiered Nepali pagoda style, the two-roofed shrine is noted for its stone, wood, and metal artwork, including sculpted panels depicting the ten avatars of Vishnu and other Puranic scenes, among the finest surviving examples of Lichhavi-era stone carving. Uniquely, the site is venerated jointly by Hindus, who worship the main image as Garuda Narayan (Vishnu mounted on Garuda), and by Newar Buddhists, who identify the same image with the bodhisattva Hariharihari Vahan Lokeshwara — a living example of the Kathmandu Valley’s long tradition of shared Hindu-Buddhist sacred space. It was inscribed, along with six other monument zones of the Kathmandu Valley, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, and remains an active site of daily worship.