Places to visit in Bagmati, Nepal
39 places to visit in Bagmati, Nepal, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Boudhanath Stupa, Changu Narayan Temple and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Bagmati volume.
9 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 3 Heritage sites · 3 Famous places to visit · 24 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Bagmati (9)
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Bhaktapur Durbar Square
The royal square of the kings of Bhaktapur, who ruled from here until the kingdom fell in 1769. Its palace of fifty-five windows and golden gate face rows of temples, and the whole square is part of the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Site.
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Boudhanath Stupa
One of the largest spherical stupas in the world, a vast white dome laid out as a mandala in the northeast of Kathmandu. Prayer flags stream from its gilded tower, and pilgrims walk clockwise around it past a ring of monasteries and shops.
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Changu Narayan Temple
One of the oldest Hindu temples in Nepal, founded in the 4th century on a ridge above Bhaktapur and dedicated to Vishnu. Its courtyard is full of stone sculpture from the Licchavi period, and it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1979.
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Chitwan National Park
Nepal's first national park, founded in 1973 in the jungle and grassland of the inner Terai and a World Heritage Site since 1984. Its 952 square kilometres are home to one-horned rhinoceros and Bengal tigers, watched from jeeps, canoes and on foot.
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Hanuman Dhoka Palace
The royal palace of the Malla kings and later the Shah dynasty, in the middle of Kathmandu Durbar Square. It takes its name from the stone Hanuman, draped in red cloth, that guards the main gate: dhoka means door in Nepali.
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Kathmandu Durbar Square
The old royal heart of Kathmandu, a crowd of pagoda temples, courtyards and palace wings in front of Hanuman Dhoka. It is one of the valley's three Durbar Squares on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and the house of the Kumari, the living goddess, stands at its edge.
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Pashupatinath Temple
Nepal's holiest Hindu temple, dedicated to Shiva as Pashupati, lord of all creatures, on the banks of the Bagmati. Around the gilded pagoda spread hundreds of smaller shrines, ashrams and cremation ghats, a precinct on the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1979.
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Patan Durbar Square
The centre of old Patan, a square of stone and brick temples facing the palace where the Malla kings of Lalitpur lived. It is one of the Kathmandu Valley's three Durbar Squares on the UNESCO list, and the richest in Newar woodcarving and metalwork.
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Swayambhunath
An ancient stupa on a wooded hill west of Kathmandu, its golden spire painted with the Buddha's watching eyes. The name means self-arisen, and the hill has long been honoured as the home of the primordial Buddha. Monkeys roam its steps, hence its other name, the Monkey Temple.
Heritage sites in Bagmati (3)
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Bajrayogini Temple
A complex of Tantric Buddhist temples in the forest above Sankhu, on the eastern edge of the Kathmandu Valley. Its main temple, built by King Pratap Malla, honours Vajrayogini, and the shrine is sacred to Hindus as well as Buddhists.
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Gosaikunda
A sacred alpine lake at 4,380 metres in Langtang National Park, the largest of a cluster of high lakes named a Ramsar site in 2007. Hindus believe Shiva created it with his trident, and thousands of pilgrims climb here to bathe at Janai Purnima.
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Nuwakot Palace
An 18th century palace built by Prithvi Narayan Shah, the first king of unified Nepal, on a ridge above the Trishuli valley. Its tall seven-storey tower and brick courtyards were his base during the campaign for the Kathmandu Valley.
Famous places to visit in Bagmati (3)
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Budhanilkantha Temple
An open-air temple at the foot of the Shivapuri hills, north of Kathmandu, where a great stone Vishnu lies asleep on a bed of coiled serpents in a pool of water. Hindus also call it Narayanthan.
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Dakshinkali Temple
A shrine to the goddess Kali in a wooded gorge near Pharping, at the southern edge of the Kathmandu Valley. Devotees rank it alongside Pashupatinath and Manakamana, and it is thronged during Dashain and on Saturdays.
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Dharahara
A white tower rising over Sundhara in central Kathmandu, first built in 1832 by Bhimsen Thapa at the command of Queen Lalit Tripurasundari. It has fallen and been rebuilt several times, and still serves as a lookout over the city.
Hidden gems in Bagmati (24)
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Bagh Bhairab Temple
A 16th century temple in Kirtipur to Bagh Bhairab, Shiva in the form of a tiger, believed by townspeople to be their protector. Swords used by Prithvi Narayan Shah's army in the Battle of Kirtipur hang on its walls.
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Chandragiri Hill
A 2,551 metre hill on the southwest rim of the Kathmandu Valley, reached by cable car, with the temple of Bhaleshwor Mahadev on top. The Himalaya line the northern horizon, and it was here that Prithvi Narayan Shah resolved to take the cities of the valley.
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Garden of Dreams
A neoclassical walled garden laid out in 1920 for Kaiser Sumsher Rana, with pavilions, ponds, pergolas and urns, a quiet step away from Thamel. It fell into neglect after his death and was restored with the help of the Austrian government.
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Gaurishankar Conservation Area
A protected stretch of the Himalaya between Langtang and Sagarmatha national parks, set up in 2010 and covering 2,179 square kilometres up to the border with Tibet. It takes its name from Gauri Shankar, the twin-summited mountain sacred to Shiva and Parvati.
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Gokarneshwor Mahadev Temple
A Shiva temple by the Bagmati near Gokarna, a few kilometres northeast of Boudhanath. A sacred lingam sits in its sanctum, but the place is famous for the crowd of carved stone gods and figures gathered around it.
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Golden Temple, Patan
A historic Buddhist monastery in Patan whose name means gold-coloured great monastery, for its gilded roofs and facade. Tucked inside a courtyard off a quiet lane, it is still an active place of worship for the Newar Buddhist community.
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Guhyeshwari Temple
A Shakti Peetha on the south bank of the Bagmati, about a kilometre east of Pashupatinath, held especially sacred by Tantric worshippers. King Pratap Malla renovated it in the 17th century.
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Ichangu Narayan Temple
A Vishnu temple on the western edge of Kathmandu, said to have been founded in the 5th century by the Licchavi king Haridutta. It is one of the four great Narayan temples of the valley, with Changu, Bisankhu and Sesh Narayan.
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Kailashnath Mahadev Statue
A standing figure of Shiva, about 143 feet or 44 metres tall, on a hill at Sanga, some 20 km east of Kathmandu. It looms over the road to Dhulikhel and has become both a place of worship and a landmark of the valley's eastern edge.
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Kasthamandap
A wooden temple and public shelter in Kathmandu Durbar Square, with parts once dated to the 7th century. Kathmandu is said to take its name from it, the wooden pavilion, and it has been rebuilt after it fell in 2015.
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Kopan Monastery
A Tibetan Buddhist monastery on a hilltop north of Boudhanath, looking out over the Kathmandu Valley. It belongs to the FPMT, a worldwide Gelug network it once led, and is known for courses in meditation and Buddhism for visitors.
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Kumbheshwar Temple
The oldest temple in Patan, built in the 14th century by King Jayasthiti Malla, 200 metres north of Durbar Square. Its five roofs make it one of only two free-standing five-tier temples in the valley, and a large Nandi faces its door.
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Langtang National Park
Nepal's first Himalayan national park, set up in 1976 north of Kathmandu and covering 1,710 square kilometres up to the border of Tibet. It takes in the Langtang valley and 26 villages, with the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers marking its eastern and western sides.
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Nagarkot
A hill station on the eastern rim of the Kathmandu Valley, about 32 km from the city, where people come to watch the sun rise over the Himalaya. On a clear morning the panorama stretches as far as Everest.
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Namo Buddha
A hilltop stupa 52 km southeast of Kathmandu, marking where an earlier life of the Buddha is said to have given his body to feed a starving tigress and her cubs. It holds relics believed to be his bones and is one of the three great stupas of the valley.
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Narayanhiti Palace Museum
The palace of Nepal's kings, where they lived, worked and held state occasions, beside Thamel in central Kathmandu. Since 2008 it has been a public museum, its halls kept much as the royal family left them.
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Nyatapola Temple
The tallest temple in Nepal, five roofs high, raised in just six months between 1701 and 1702 by King Bhupatindra Malla. Pairs of stone guardians, from wrestlers to lions and goddesses, line its steep stairway, and it has stood through four major earthquakes.
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Patan Museum
A museum of Nepal's sacred art in Keshav Narayan Chowk, an old residential court of the Malla palace in Patan Durbar Square. Opened in 1997 after restoration by the Austrian architect Götz Hagmüller, it is often counted among the finest museums in South Asia.
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Rani Pokhari
A square 17th century tank, 180 by 140 metres, in the middle of Kathmandu, with a small white temple on an island reached by a causeway. King Pratap Malla built it for his queen, and it once marked the eastern edge of the city.
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Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park
The forested hills on the northern edge of the Kathmandu Valley, made a national park in 2002 and named after the 2,732 metre Shivapuri Peak. Its 159 square kilometres supply much of the city's water and are crossed by trails to hilltop shrines and viewpoints.
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Taleju Temple
The tallest temple in Kathmandu Durbar Square, built in 1564 by Mahendra Malla for Taleju Bhawani, the royal goddess of the Malla kings. Its tiered roofs rise over the palace, and its inner shrine opens only once a year, during Dashain.
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Taudaha Lake
A small lake on the southern outskirts of Kathmandu, on the road to Dakshinkali. Legend has it this is the water left behind when Manjushri cut the gorge that drained the valley's ancient lake.
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Thamel
Kathmandu's tangle of narrow lanes packed with guesthouses, trekking shops, cafés and craft stalls, the centre of travel in the city since the hippie days. The name comes from Tha Bahi, a Newar monastery that still stands in the neighbourhood.
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Tsho Rolpa
One of the largest glacial lakes in Nepal, lying at 4,580 metres at the head of the remote Rolwaling Valley in Dolakha. Fed by melting ice, it has grown considerably over the last fifty years.
Collecting in Bagmati
What are the best places to visit in Bagmati?
LOQAH lists 39 places in Bagmati. The best known include Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Boudhanath Stupa, Changu Narayan Temple, Chitwan National Park and Hanuman Dhoka Palace. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Bagmati?
39, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Bagmati?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Bagmati before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Bagmati and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
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