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The most interesting part of south Kathmandu begins with Pachali Bhairab , an open-air shrine marooned among the city's maintenance facilities south of Tripureswar Marg. To find it, follow the back road to Patan, Kathmandu's sister city just south of the Bagmati River, and bear left at a fork marked by a small park. After the awfulness of what you've just walked through, you won't believe how peaceful it is here. The tiny gilded idol of Bhairab stands in a sunken sanctuary, dwarfed by a huge pipal tree and a life-sized human figure laid out like a pharaoh's casket. The repousse figure is a betal , Bhairab's vehicle and a likeness of death which, in Nepali Hinduism, is believed to protect against death (the old principle of fighting fire with fire). Betal normally take the form of miniature skulls or skeletons at temple entrances, so this one is unusual for being so large and fleshed out. Historically, all treaties were signed with Pachali Bhairab as witness, in the belief that the god would strike dead anyone who broke the agreement. An esoteric parade involving Bhairab and other gods converges here on the fifth day of Dasain before moving on to Durbar Square
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