|
The valley's largest stone sculpture, the five-metre-long Sleeping Vishnu ( Jalasayana Narayan ), reclines in a recessed water tank like an oversized astronaut in suspended animation. Carved from a type of basalt found miles away in the southern hills, it was apparently dragged here by forced labour during the reign of the seventh-century Lichhavi king Vishnugupta. Many locals maintain that it was self-created, believing no human being could have fashioned such a masterpiece. According to legend the image was lost and buried for centuries, only to be rediscovered by a farmer tilling his fields - priests show worshippers the spot where the spade struck. Its pristine condition seems to confirm a long period of protection from the elements. Hindus may enter the sanctum area to do puja before the Sleeping Vishnu; others may only view it from between concrete railings. Priests and novices continually tend, bathe and anoint the image and chant the thousand names of Vishnu. Budhanilkantha's name has been a source of endless confusion. It has nothing to do with the Buddha ( budha - or burha - means "old"), though that doesn't stop Buddhist Newars from worshipping the image as Lokeshwar, the bodhisattva of compassion. The real puzzler is why Budhanilkantha (literally, "Old Blue-Throat"), a title which unquestionably refers to Shiva, has been attached here to Vishnu. The myth of Shiva's blue throat , a favourite in Nepal, relates how the gods churned the ocean of existence and inadvertently unleashed a poison that threatened to destroy the world. They begged Shiva to save them from their blunder and he obliged by drinking the poison. His throat burning, the great god flew up to the range north of Kathmandu, struck the mountainside with his trident to create a lake, Gosainkund, and quenched his thirst - suffering no lasting ill effect except for a blue patch on his throat. Shaivas claim a reclining image of Shiva can be seen under the waters of Gosainkund during the annual Shiva festival there in August, which perhaps explains the association with the waterborne figure of Budhanilkantha. The water in this tank is popularly believed to originate in Gosainkund. Nonetheless, the Budhanilkantha sculpture bears all the hallmarks of Vishnu or, as he's often called in Nepal, Narayan (pronounced Nuh- rai -uhn). It depicts Vishnu at his most cosmic, floating in the ocean of existence upon the snake Sesh (or Ananta, which in Sanskrit means "never-ending"); from his navel will grow Brahma and the rest of creation. Each year the god is said to "awaken" from his summer slumber during the Haribondhini Ekadashi festival in late October or early November, an event that draws thousands of worshippers. One person who never puts in an appearance here, as a matter of policy, is the king of Nepal. Some say the boycott goes back to the seventeenth-century king Pratap Malla, who was visited by Vishnu in a dream and warned that he and his successors would die if they ever visited Budhanilkantha. Others say it's because the king, who is half-heartedly held to be a reincarnation of Vishnu, must never gaze upon his own image
Your Tip for Sleeping Vishnu (Jalasayana Narayan)
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Sleeping Vishnu (Jalasayana Narayan) - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Sleeping Vishnu (Jalasayana Narayan) - visit the main Sleeping Vishnu (Jalasayana Narayan) forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Sleeping Vishnu (Jalasayana Narayan) webguide section below! Thanks.
| 
