Bishworoop at Chalakhu sankhu

This is the picture of god Bishowroop. This god is just next to the place where yoshin dyo is erected. This is the only face of the god. The whole statue is really beautiful and really well made. This is also one of the oldest statue in sankhu. The statue is in the small temple at Chalakhu tole sankhu.

Fall of Yoshin dyo

Removing pataka(the symbol of snake couple)

History of Bisket Jatra in Sankhu

The bisket jatra is celebrated in Bhaktapur and there is intimate relation with sankhu where some part of bisket jatra is celebrated on the same way celebrated in the bhaktapur. In sankhu also a symbol of serpants a big tree pole is stand in the memory of the dead snake.

Below picture shows the festival in sankhu is more than 400 years old. Some people of sankhu are trying to find the truth. So soon I will update about that.

( written about festival )

Biska Jatra (festival) Sankhu

(Yoshin dhyo sankhu)

Bisket Jatra is Bhaktapur’s greatest festival and goes on for nine days. The festivity starts off with a raucous tug of war at the city centre between two neighbourhoods trying to drag the triple-roofed chariot of Bhairavnath to their own side. A ceremonial pole called yosin is erected on the city out skirts. The two strips of cloth unfurled from the top represent a pair of dead snakes in whose memory the festival has been installed. “Bi” in Newari means snake and “sika” stands for death, hence the Bisika or Biska or Bisket festival. It is a very colorful festival where three chariots dedicated to Lord Durga, Ganesha and Kumari circle Bhaktapur city. Masked dances are organized and many local feasts are held. People from Patan and Kathmandu also observe this festival at Bhaktapur.

According to the legends the snake who died was a tantric from sankhu who helped the king of Bhaktapur in his war against other neighbour countries in ancient time. In sankhu also we celebrate the part of festival which is similar to bhaktapur. This festival in celebrated by king on the memory of the tantric who helped him. The picture belows shows the pair of snake which is similar to bhaktapur.

Melamchi Kathmandu Fast-Track

Melamchi is a village in Sindhupalchok District in the Bagmati Zone of central Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 3836 and had 710 houses in the village.

Melamchi is ony 32 Km far from sankhu. So if road are good then it only takes 1 hour. So that is also we can say fast tract to Kathmandu- melamchi. In past the way to Melamchi goes from Banepa. If we have to go to Melamchi then it will take whole day. But now new road although it is not good but we can reach to melamchi within 2 hours.

Chauki Bhanjyang- Pauwa

Sankhu is beautiful. It is a truth. Sankhu is rich in culture and resources.  This ancient City was a trade rute for tibet. It has its own rules and regulation. It was a country with autonomas. It was developed and life standard of sankhu was not backward than Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur in Lichhavi Rhyme. But after that period the sankhu remained same. Nothing really changed. From Sankhu NagarKot is only 12 Km far. Nagarkot is famous for sunrise view and Himalayas. Every year there are lots of people come to Nagarkot. ChaukiBhanjyang is only 8 Km far from Sankhu. From this place also we can see Himalayas.

Nepal Sambat 1130 begins

Nepal Sambat (NS) 1130 has begun, Monday. Nepalis, particularly of the Newar community, are observing the beginning of the new year with various programmes.

A rally was organised from Basantapur at 7 am, this morning to mark the coming of the new year. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will address the the gathering to be organised after the rally.The participants of the rally also demanded NS be used for the national calendar. Last year, the erstwhile UCPN (Maoist) -led government had pledged it would announce the use of NS officially for national calendar.

However, no decision has been taken to this effect till date.

President Ram Baran Yadav, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, Rastriya Janashakti Party chairman Surya Bahadur Thapa and other leaders have issued New Year messages wishing all Nepalis a happy and prosperous year ahead.

NS was started by Shankhadhar Shakhwa 1130 years ago by freeing the poor peasants of Thimi from the credit they owed to landlords.

It was used for national calendar till NS 888 until the erstwhile government decided to use the Bikram era in 1960 BS.

People of Newar community worship their bodies on the first day of the new year, a rite known as 'Mha Puja

Stairway to Bajrayogini- Sankhu

Stairway to Bajrayogini Temple- Sankhu

This stairway is in Sankhu. Last stairway to Bajrayogini. As Bajrayogini is on hill everyone has to climb through stairway from sankhu. Among lots of stairway this one is the last one. Which contains 108 steps.

VALLEY DESTINATIONS- Sankhu- Shankharapur

Sankhu. Sankhu is a sleepy town beneath the Gum Bihar religious complex. Within the complex is the temple of Bajra Yogini built in the 17th century. The area has been an important religious site since the 4th century and has excellent woods and bird-life as well as charming monkeys and pigeons in the temple area. Visitors may wish to bike up to Nagarkot and come down biking to Sankhu.

Heritage Conservation Projects

Sankhu as an ancient town consists numerous historical monuments. In the past, wealthy individuals, religious groups or families used to build such monuments to obtain religious merits. However, as they lost the sources of income these monuments are now left without maintenance, so many of them are in dilapidated condition. Most recently, the NGOS working in sankhu and  INGO from different countries  are taking responsibility of conservation of heritage of the town. The NGOS and INGOS are a non-government organisation, the main aims of these INGOS and  NGOS are to enhance rural development through self-awareness among the people of the community and to activate them to put collective efforts into socio-economic development, environmental protection, human resource development and heritage conservation. It assists in improving situation of women by encouraging their participation in all its activities. The primary resources of NGOS are are donation from different countries and people who really want to help countris like Nepal.  The foreingner and Countries  believes that the development process will only be successful through participation of the community. Working areas of the INGOS are Sankhu and its surrounding villages.

In the past years, the Friends of Sankhu has completed five major heritage conservation works in Sankhu. The most interesting thing about heritage conservation in Sankhu is that every project carries with it a sequel again, and that the path taken now is turning this small town already into a concentration point of Dutch efforts at cultural preservation and its spin-offs. In its efforts in carrying out heritage conservation in Sankhu besides local people’s supports the Friends of Sankhu have received financial support from the Royal Netherlands Consulate (SNV-Nepal KAP, a short Embassy project), the Royal Netherlands Embassy Neda, the Government of the Netherlands, the VNN-Netherlands-Nepal Association (Vereniging Nederland-Nepal) CORDAID, Seva Foundation the Netherlands and Wilde Ganzen, the Netherlands. Local Government organisation Vajrajogini VDC supported it financially and in each instance FoS was able to mobilize community participation.

Heritage Conservation in Nepal: the case of Sankhu

The town of Sankhu

Sankhu is an old and historical trading town situated about 17 km northeast of Kathmandu on the ancient trade route to Tibet. The foundation of the kingdom of Sankhu is attributed to the goddess Vajrayogini, whose shrine is located in the forest above the town of Sankhu. The temple of Vajrayogini is an important pilgrimage site for Buddhists and Hindus alike. The yearly festival of the goddess is also the main event in Sankhu's ritual cycle. According to the legend Manisailamahavadana, Vajrayogini instructed the priest Jogdev and the first king Sankhadev to build the town of Sankhu in the shape of a conch shell. The oldest inscription found in Sankhu is dated 538 AD.

After the opening of alternative trade routes to Tibet the town lost in importance. Nowadays Sankhu is a mainly agricultural town, which offers a medieval sight in spite of its proximity to Kathmandu. Sankhu’s surrounding villages; Lapsephedi and Nanglebhare Village Development Committees are the most remote and backward areas of Kathmandu.

Salkha Mahadyo Ganesh

Dhunlla Mahadyo Ganesh - Sankhu

Chalakhu Ganesh - Sankhu

Dugahiti Ganesh- Sankhu

Dhunlla Ganesh - Sankhu

Inlla Ganesh -Sankhu

Devi Pyakhan Pictures- Sankhu

Devi Naach ( Dance)

Devi Pyakhan Videos

Devi Naach ( Dance)

Devi Pyakhan ( Dance) is an ancient dance of Hindu Goddess. It is an ancient dance celebrated in different part of old Newar towns of Nepal. This dance give entertaintment as well but it has more ritual values and religious aspect than anything else.

Every year this festival is celebrated on the Kage- Asthami. Tha Kage-Asthami is the Asthami before Yanya Punhi (Bhadra Sukla Purnima) Indra Jatra. The festival of Devi Pyakhan Starts at 10 pm of night and last whole night. The dance shows every tole (main place) of Sankhu. This dance is a traditional religious dance.

History of Dance

Once upon a time Goddess Bajrayogini came to sankhu by disguished 3 little babies. They came to Sindhu Chowk near the Chalakhu tole. When they were dancing a very powerful Tantric of Sankhu knew about this and he catched babies by the Tantrik power. The Tantrik got promise from Goddess Bajrayogini that every year she will come to sankhu and show dance in Sankhu. From that time the dance is continusely running once every year in Sankhu.

Devi Pyakhan ( Khya Pyakhan)

Bajrayogini jatra( Vajrayogini festival) of Sankhu

Every year the Bajrayogini’s jatra at sankhu, Kathmandu celebrated for 8 days. This is one of the major Jatra that we can see inside Kathmandu valley. During these 8days we can see differen kind of possessin of festival and the crowd as we see in jatra of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur or Lalitpur. May be since Sanku is a small village/city east north of Kathamndu and the population is very less in comparision to big citites like Kathmandu. Many people came to visit from Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Patan and near newar towns to observe this jatra.

You will get different type of excitement while watching this jatra. Since the Bajrayogini temple is at the top of the hill, brining the god’s statue down the steep hill on the heavy chariot is really exciting. I think locale from Shanku should invite people, friends, and relatives from different places to see this jatra so that people will know about it, see the excitement of this jatra and know more about this ancient city Shanku.
When you did a hiking from shanku to Nagarkot, This place is also popular for Sali Nadi (holy river which is mention in one of the holy book of hindu, Swasthani )

This place has many thing to offer for internal, Indian (for holy reason) and external tourism). I read somewhere about this place that around 15th or 16th century some Italian priest visited this place and compare it with their Italian city saying it’s beautiful .
Government will take some steps to make such jatra, Fairs to make the place popular and attract tourist so that the economy of the locale people will increase।