Trekking From Phulchoki to Panauti

By Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Nepal is a paradise for trekkers. Visitors can trek for months in the remote areas of Nepal and enjoy the pristine natural beauty and meet friendly and always smiling Nepalis. One thing you need to sacrifice is the luxury of staying in a star hotel. An alternative to it is to trek around the Kathmandu Valley. In this case, you might stay n a five star hotel in Kathmandu at the same time enjoy the trekking in the hills and meet the people and have the flavor of the country side Nepal.

You might choose one of the several trekking routes around the Kathmandu Valley. You might choose shortest route of one hour to longest route of several hours. You might choose a steep climbing hill route if you want to make a hard laborious climb to test your physical stamina. If you do not like to be so adventurous then you drive to the top of a hill and then follow the route that takes you gently down to the civilization.

One of such trekking routes is the trekking from Phulchoki hill to Panauti: a typical well-planed ancient Nepalese town. Relatively few people fond of trekking know this route; so, it would not be a surprise if you do not meet any other trekkers while walking down from Phulchoki. Traditionally, Nepalese pilgrims trek up and down during the festival at the shrine to Goddess called Phulchoki Mai.

Phulchoki at 9,050 ft is the highest peak among the hills surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. You can watch the gorgeous scenery of the Northern Himalayan Range and the Kathmandu Valley from there. However, most of the people not used to living at high altitude might get an altitude sickness, a symptom of it is unexpected strong headache. The only remedy for it is to climb down immediately and relax.

The actual walking time you might take to trek down from Phulchoki to Panauti is about five hours if you walk comfortably and leisurely. So, you might allocate at least eight hours to complete the route considering the time required for taking a few minute rests, eating some snacks and drinking water and doing other necessary things. It is enjoyable to walk down on this route even in the summer when the sizzling sun is shining overhead, as it is all the way down through a preserved forest, rice field and along the Rosi Khola (River).

To trek on this route you need to drive up to the top of the Phulchoki hill. If you are in Kathmandu then you need to drive through the heavy chaotic traffic on the streets up to Lagankhel and then along the less busy road to Godavri at the foot of the Phulchoki hill. It might take you one to two hours depending upon how your driver manages to pull a car out of the over crowded and unruly traffic in Kathmandu. From Godavari to the Phulchoki top, you might take another half hour. A four-wheel drive car is advisable to take even though any car might reach the Phulchoki peak except in winter and monsoon period, as you might encounter slippery climb at some places on the road to Phulchoki peak.

You might be tempted to stop at several places while climbing to Phulchoki and watch the fabulous scenery of snow-covered mountains to the north and then the whole landscape of the Kathmandu Valley. So, you might drive leisurely enjoying the beauty of the nature. If you happen to be in the spring you find the whole Phulchoki hill at 7,000 ft and above red, as it is the time for blossoming red flowers called rhododendron. You also find several varieties of birds to watch if you are interested in birds.

You will find a small flat area on the top of the Phulchoki hill and might like to camp there for an overnight stay there and watch the sunrise scene next morning. In this case you need to take camp gear and provisions including water for the overnight stay on this beautiful and nice place. If you stay in this small flat area for a night then you would see the night lights in the faraway Nepal tarai areas particularly the Hetauda town. Next day early in the morning you could start your trekking to Panauti after watching the sunrise scene.

Phulchoki is the name of almighty goddess residing on the top of this hill; some scholars believed that this name has something to do with so many flowers flowering in spring. You would see the open shrine there and even might ask for blessing from the goddess if you believe in god. A steel trident, bronze bells and vermillion smeared on the stones are the main features of the shrine. The goddess is the incarnation of Parvati: the consort of one of the Hindu Trinity, Lord Shiva.

If you happen to trek on this route in March-April or in July and August you might have a chance to watch the month-long annual religious festival held at the shrine to Phulchoki Mai in March-April, and some other major festivals on the full moon days in July and August every year. At that time, Nepalis en masse from the surrounding areas, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and other towns and villages visit the Phulchoki. They used to walk up and down playing the frightening music on a large hand drum hung on a neck by a string and a pair of cymbals when the road to Phulchoki was not built. The frightening music was for scaring away the wild animals abundantly available in the dense forest of that time. Some of them carried with them goats or chicken and offered the sacrifices of those animals and birds to the goddess.

Phulchoki is one of the four major holy peaks on the hills surrounding the Kathmandu Valley. Another three peaks are Sipuco on the Sivapuri hill, located to the north of Kathmandu, Jamaco on the Nagarjun hill to the North-West of Kathmandu, and Dhyanaco at the hill top town Kiritipur, South-West of Kathmandu. All the three peaks and hills host different Hindu and Buddhist deities. Nepalis trek to these areas whenever religious festivals are held there.

You will find the Phulchoki hill is steep and stands firmly on the solid carbonate rocks. It also hosts a small iron ore deposit at the lower altitude and a lead ore deposit at the higher altitude. So, while you are climbing the hill you might find some iron rocks. However, you also see the marble factory at Godavari before climbing the Phulchoki hill on your right side. The marble found there is unique, as it has the fossils of ancient marine lives.

You will enjoy the pleasant climate on the top of the Phulchoki hill even in mid summer, as it is cool and enjoyable. During the rainy season called monsoon, you might encounter with heavy non-stop lightning followed by a crash of thunder because of its altitude. Heavy rains might follow the lightning and thunder. After the rains, millions of earthworms come out of the soil and die in the hot sun. So, you might find stinking smell while climbing the hill. During the wet season, you will find a large number of leaches that take every opportunity to stick to your exposed body and then suck the blood without your knowledge. However, if you carry a leach stick then any leach surrenders to it and even die vomiting blood. You make a leach stick wrapping some table salt in a piece of cloth and hanging it on the tip of a stick. Salt is a poison for leaches, so they drop off immediately if you touch them with it. In winter too, you might enjoy the climate if you are the fan of snow. The whole northern face of the hill is covered with snow throughout the winter. Snowfall is normal at the higher altitude during winter, sometimes even at the foothills if the temperature drops down. You might find a number of teenagers from Kathmandu playing with the snow there.

A trek guide will help you to trek on right route and in the right direction. If you venture to trek on your own then you might get in trouble of finding the right direction and might get lost on the way and might even land in a different place than you intended to. In such case, you might take more time than you planned for; you might get physical and mental stress. Although you might find a village where you might get a lodging for an overnight stay but it might not be pleasant, as the villagers might not have a shelter good enough for you.

Trekking from the Phulchoki peak to Panauti is pleasant in all seasons except for the rainy season when the rains make the red top clay slippery, and the Rosi Khola swells with the floodwater. So, you might find it almost impossible to walk down on the red clay trek with even with a little rain, and walking along the Rosi Khola becomes hard, too. The trek passes through the preserved forest, crosses a flat rice field, and then follows all along the Rosi Khola to the East. You might not find any humans along the trek in the forest area but beautiful birds and even wild animals on some occasions. They won’t pose you a danger on the down hill trek.

After several hours of trekking, you might be tired and thirsty but your physical discomfort might soon disappear at the sight of a small ancient town called Panauti. It is a Nevah town; and every feature of the Nevah community is still preserved there.

Panauti is an ancient town still preserving the features of a city-state developed and ruled by Malla Kings in the early centuries of the second millennium in the Gregorian calendar. The town is about 30 km South East of Kathmandu. The royal square where once a palace with nine courtyards stood is still preserved. Hindu Nepalis revere the ancestral goddess called Taleju of Malla Kings during the two-week long Dasain festival. The royal square hosts a complex of temples to various gods and goddesses. It has an ancient water-supply system with dug-down the ground stone spouts and 30 wells of 25 to 30 ft deep at various corners of the town for communal water supply.

Panauti is the holy town, as it is located at confluence of two rivers: Rosmati (Rosi Khola) River coming from the West meets with Punyamati River coming from the north at this place. Every twelve year a religious festival is held here believing a third river called Padmabati flows here making it the most holy place for Hindus.

A legend has it that Ahilya and her husband Gautam Rishi living austere lives have earned a lot of merits. One day, he might be qualified for earning the heavenly throne replacing Indra if they would continue to amass their merits with their meritorious deeds. So, heavenly king Indra needed to deviate them from doing any meritorious acts. Indra thought about a plan on seducing Ahilya.

Indra took the form of Gautam Rishi and went to seduce Ahilya. Finding Gautam coming back home early from his morning bathing rituals at a holy river, Ahilya was surprised but could not ask him the reason for coming so early on that day. To add to her surprise, he made advances to make love with her at the most unusual time. As women at that time considered husbands as the gods, even suspecting in the moves of the Indra disguised as Gautam, Ahilya did not resist and gave in to the amorous desire of her believed-to-be husband.

Gautam cast spells on both Ahilya and Indra. After completing his regular morning bathing rituals, Gautam came back home only to find his wife making love with somebody. Indra disguised as Gautam changed back to Indra but it was too late for him to flee from the scene. Ahilya could not believe in and was stunned by what had happened to her. Gautam took out a few drops of holy water from the holy water container he was carrying and sprinkled on them and cast spells saying, “Ahilya, you be turned into stone; Indra your body be covered with women sexual organs called yonis.” Ahilya immediately turned into stone and still lying there. Disfigured Indra went back to heaven achieving his goal but paying a high price for it.

Indra got rid of all impressions of the yonis except for one from his forehead. Finding the confluence of Rosmati and Punyamati Rivers was the most holy place for atoning for the sin he had committed, Indra and his spouse came down the earth and started doing penance for his sin. It took twelve years for them to please Lord Shiva and his consort Parvati before they also came down to free him from the yonis. Parvati was so moved with the dedication of Indrayani the spouse of Indra that Parvati changed into a river called Padmabati and quietly flowed under the temple to God Brahmayani to meet other two mundane rivers for making the confluence called Triveni of the three rivers making it the holiest confluence for the Hindus. When blemished Indra took a dip in the water of the confluence called Triveni, all impressions of the yonis disappeared leaving only one on his forehead.

Finally, holy ashes covered the last yoni on the forehead of Indra. Lord Shiva appeared before Indra and applied ashes made out of a holy fire on the forehead of Indra covering the last impression of yoni. Lord Shiva said to Indra, “ I turned the yoni into a third eye on your forehead; so, open it whenever you need it.” Nepalis believe in applying ‘bibhuti’ (holy ashes) on a forehead means opening a third eye in other words creating knowledge.

Since then ‘Triveni’ in Panauti became the holiest place for Hindus, and a holy festival called Makar Mela is held there in January-February every twelve year.  Hindus from all over Nepal make a pilgrimage to this place on one of the days of the religious festival and take a dip in the holy water of the ‘Triveni’ and wash off their sins knowingly or unknowingly committed.

As an appreciation of cleaning of the yonis from the body of Indra by Lord Shiva also known as Lord Mahadev, Indra built a temple to Lord Mahadev calling him Indresvar Mahadev. The three-tiered temple taller than similar temples elsewhere in Nepal stands magnificently in Panauti. Some people even believe that this temple is oldest in Nepal. Figures of goddesses and underneath them the amorous couples making love in various positions carved in the main part of wooden struts supporting the roof suggest that the temple might be one of the masterpieces of the Nepalese builders and craftsmen. The carvings in the wood struts indicate that Nepal then was at the stage of developing the carving of erotic couples later copied in the roof struts of temples in Bhaktapur, Patan and Kathmandu.

Panauti is a well-planned and developed town in miniature. An East-West path of about 1.5 km passing through the town forms the main road of it. From either side of this main road, ten feeder paths running parallel to each other reach Punyamati River to the north and Rosmati River to the South. At the end of each feeder path, you find a nicely done embankment called ‘ghat’ and a communal rest shelter called ‘phalca’ done there.

Devotees take morning face-wash at such ‘ghats’ every day and then stay at the shelter for singing hymns in the morning; in the evening, too they gather there to sing evening hymns. Members of the extended family go there and take a purification dip in the waters nearby a ‘ghat’ when pollution of their bodies is caused by a birth of a child or the death of someone in the extended family. Recent investigations suggested that Panauti was built over a period of several centuries without changing its original plan.

Three goddesses standing at one corner each of the three corners of the town protect the town from evils spirits. Goddess called Itabulu Bhagavati (Camunda) sitting at the eastern end of the town guards the eastern part, Kathann Kumari (Kaumarya) sitting at the Southern-western end, and Manesvari (Barahi) at the northwestern corner guard the respective areas of the town.

People of different castes belonging to the Nevah community live at each end of the town. People belonging to the dyola live nearby Itabulu Bhagavati, to the kusle nearby Manesvari and to the khadagi nearby Kathann Kumari.

Dyolas are responsible for keeping the temple area tidy hence they are called dyola; kusles are the Shiva in human forms and work as musicians at temples, and also work as a band of wedding musicians, too; khadagis work as butchers, they play a funeral music at the funeral processions and they also play a music and go around town making the state announcement. People of these three castes are the basic foundation of the religious Nepalese society.

A legend has it that formerly Panauti was called Panchaldesa; Namo-Buddha was the prince of this city-state before being a Buddha. One day, while riding on a horse, the prince happened to reach the current day Namo-Buddha shrine, and saw a tigress and her six cubs starving to death. As he was a man of great compassion, he tied the horse to a tree, took off his royal attire then his saber and cut one piece of flesh after another from his body and feed it to the cubs and the tigress. Thereafter, the prince achieved Nirvana and became a Buddha and became known as Namo-Buddha.

The tradition of bringing the prince to his parents is continued even today. Once a year devotees carry the Namo-Buddha from his shrine at the hill to Panauti one day before the pancandan day to meet with his parents: formerly the king and the queen currently known as Ajaju and Ajima literally grandfather and grandmother. Their human size idols are kept together for all people to revere them for that day.

The Namo-Buddha shrine is located on the beautiful hill. It is at the distance of two-hour trek from Panauti. A monastery is there for Nepalese and foreign monks to meditate. A Buddhist University is also there for Nepalese and students from neighboring countries to study theology.

When you finish a cultural tour of Panauti, it might be already for you to go to the car that had taken you to Phulchoki and then waiting for you at the bus terminal to take you back to Kathmandu. BY this time, you have seen the high mountains in the north, trekked on the low mountain in the Nepalese term a hill, walked along the cultivated land and along the Rosi River, and finally toured round the miniature town called Panauti. Thus, you have seen in brief all you wanted to see in Nepal.


Note: Nevah is the natives of the Kathmandu Valley.

April 17, 2009