Lalitpur is a religious, cultural and geographically diverse district. There are various monasteries and shrines here. Kaleshwar Mahadev is a temple with its own historical significance among various pilgrimage sites. According to the administrative and political division, Konjyosom Rural Municipality is located in the central part of Lalitpur, Mahankal Rural Municipality is in the southeastern part and Bagmati Rural Municipality is in the southwestern part. Ward No. of Mahankal Rural Municipality. 2 Kaleshwar Mahadev is located on the top of the high hill of Gotikhel. Kaleshwar Mahadev is a major tourist destination in Lalitpur district, an important pilgrimage site, where legend has it that Kal also performed penance.
As mentioned in Swasthani Bratakatha, after the death of Sati Devi, when Mahadev carried her dead body around the world, the gorge that came to present-day Kaleshwar collapsed. In ancient times, Kal Purusha installed a rock for the darshan of Mahadev and performed severe austerities at that place. He used to take the water of Vaitarani river at the confluence of Gotikhel and Masankhola river and sandalwood from the supernatural Chandhunga in Siswan and offer it to the top of this mountain. It is said that Mahadev appeared at midnight of Paush Shukla Navami after several years of penance and was impressed by the penance of Kalpurusha and gave a boon that the Shivling established by you will be famous in your name and because it was established in his name, it is called Kaleshwar Mahadev.
Kaleshwar Mahadev is worshiped by the Pangaon residents of Lalitpur as their deity. At a height of about 2900 meters above sea level, a fair is held in this temple every Chaitra Purnima day, on which day thousands of devotees from Pangaon, Lalitpur, Kavre and Makwanpur districts attend for darshan.
Puja is held twice on the day of Aunsi and Chaturthi of every month at Angachche (shrine) in Pyanggaon, which is the Angachche of Kaleshwar Mahadev. It has been brought and replaced as a portrait of Kaleshwar Mahadev. But no one can enter here, there are certain rules. Only the original priests, Guthiyars and Naikes are allowed to go inside the Ang:chhe.
The Newars of Pangaon used to live in Lalitpur’s Shankhu (now Konjyosom rural municipality 2). In mythological times, Pangaon was called Shangu. An inscription of Arimalla’s time can be found in Pati (Falcha) in Pangaon.
The Newars call those who have settled in villages as villages. Pangaon residents were also called Gamon or Gamal by Chapagaon Bazar, Thecho, Patan etc. Later, from the year 2021, they were called Japu or Maharjan instead of villages. According to mythological history, the children of Mallaraja, who lived in Bhaktapur, went to Shankhu in Lalitpur for trade or hunting, and while living in Lalitpur, he fell in love with a girl there and had physical relations and children were born. As the king’s concubine was a child of Patti, after she was not accepted in the palace, she stayed in this place and made pang (bamboo) pathi, which is not found anywhere else in the world, and sold it to eat and sell it with a red seal.
While staying in Shankhu, one day while walking around and reaching the Deutakhola in Gimdi, one Gamal saw a milky white substance oozing hot from the lahar. There is also a historical story of finding Kaleshwar Mahadev’s Shiva linga while going up to the top. The river flowing from the top of Kaleshwar is called Deutakhola. It is said that since this time, Mahadev, who is present at this place, has been worshiped as Shakti.
Kaleshwar’s Shiva linga was open till much later. No one, including the government agencies, could think about the possibility of providing development infrastructure and developing it as a religious tourist area in this place, which is at a very high altitude and there is no settlement.’ Char Sunder Maharjan, Chairman of Kaleshwar Mahadev Temple Protection Committee says. ‘After finding that their idol was open and unprotected, around 2052, a couple of people from Pangaon went and put stones around the idol so that it would be in the middle. 2 doors and windows placed. He carried sand and water from the Bagmati, which is 5-6 hours away, and climbed up the slope. In the year 2071 ,
the temple building was destroyed. When Pangaon residents came to see, they saw a strange situation. At that time, Gotikhel was a village, and even the village was worshiping the deity of Pangaon residents. Chairman Maharjan complains that even now the local people’s representatives, including the residents of Gotikhel, are claiming that it belongs to Pangaon residents. If the development infrastructure is provided, the local level can benefit through the tourism business, but even the local government is not aware of the tourism potential here. At present, the road has reached above Siswan to Deurali Bhanjyang, but the attention of the relevant authorities has not been reached to provide more tourist infrastructure.
As no one was interested in the protection of their deities and the reconstruction of the temple, a meeting of related Guthiyars and stakeholders was held in Pangaon. From the meeting, an estimate of at least 8-9 lakhs came out according to the advice to build the temple, even if it was done in a simple way. From every household. It was decided to collect 1 ÷ 1 thousand. It was decided to take turns to carry the materials to the temple. It was also decided to keep the names of those who contributed more than 5,000 from the village and more than 10,000 from outside the village in the inscription. While collecting funds, support and donations, a sufficient amount of money was raised, some people even helped by calling.
On the left side of Kaleshwar there is a high hill called Burja Danda. It gets cold and chilly even in summer. It is said that Mahadev built this hill for Parvati so that it would be higher than the Kaleshwar hill where he lived, after he always complained that he was sitting higher than him. From there you can see the view of the Himalayas as well as many green spits. At Siswan Bhir on the way to Kaleshwar, a big rock can be seen stuck on a small rock. It has been a religious belief that Kalpurush used to grind sandalwood on this rock and offer it to Kaleshwar Mahadev. The local Tamang community worships the same limestone as Chundevi. Everyone is curious as to how the stone of Bademan, which is surprising to see, remained standing even after the devastating earthquake of 2072.
The car reaches Deurali at the foot of Kaleshwar temple. It takes about 20 minutes uphill to get down from the car and reach the temple on top of the hill. You can stay at Siswan ‘homestay’ on the way to Kaleshwar temple from Gotikhel and go to the temple early in the morning for puja.
Gotikhel is about 50 km from Lagankhel. Buses leave from Lagankhel to Gotikhel via Lalitpur’s Pyangaon bus park via Lele, Nallu, Bhardeu, Simbhanjyang (Chowghare), Katwan. As an alternative route, one can go to Chandanpur, Gotikhel from Banepa Panauti via Khopasi Dhunkhark from the foothills of Kaleshwar. Public vehicles do not run from Gotikhel to Kaleshwar. To reach Kaleshwar, you have to climb steeply for about four hours from Gotikhel, and it takes about two hours to come down.
From the top of Kaleshwar, one can view most of the areas of Kavre, Makwanpur, Terai and Ganesh and Langtang mountains. In recent times, this area is also in the stage of development as a religious and historical area.
Kaleshwar, which has historical religious significance, is becoming known as an excellent and promising tourist area in recent times. If you bring in a wide publicity about the importance of this place and an attractive package, you can easily go within twelve months. Kaleshwar Temple and Vaitaranidham can be made a major destination for one-day religious tourism. It seems that if the attention of all concerned can be drawn in time for this, it can help a lot in the promotion of internal tourism.
Kaleshwar in Lalitpur: Excellent and potential tourist
