Teku Thapatali Monument Zone

Kathmandu, Nepal
18th--19th century
Hindu and Buddhist temples, shrines, sattals (resthouses), pathis (small resthouses), and ghats (stone steps leading to a river) line the banks of the Bagmati and Vishnumati rivers in the Kathmandu Valley. For centuries, the Teku Thapatali monuments and the Bagmati river waters were used for funeral and cremation rites, as holy healing places, and for other sacred and secular practices. The Tekudoban ghat, at the confluence of the rivers, is one of the twelve sacred pilgrimage sites in Nepal. During the last 30 years, though, Kathmandu has experienced vast, even chaotic, change. Agricultural fields once adjacent to Teku are now a tangle of hotels and commercial and residential buildings. Many temples are inhabited by squatters. Encroaching development and severe misuse of the river as a virtual open sewer has stripped the area of its religious significance. Removal of sand from the Bagmati River as building material, along with the digging of irrigation channels, has changed its course and flow. A formal plan needs to be devised to attend to emergency repairs and protect the site from uncontrolled development and dumping.

Listed in 1996