Wakupati Narayan Temple is a two-story pagoda-style temple located in Bhaktapur Durbar Square. The temple dedicated to a form of Changu Narayan was established by King Jagat Prakash Malla in 1667 A.D.
There is an interesting legend regarding the emergence of the Wakupati Narayan. There was once an ardent devotee of Lord Changu Narayan in Bhaktapur and he used to go to the temple in Changu Village on a daily basis. One day, due to some circumstances while harvesting paddy, he was unable to go to his aradhaya's temple for darshan. After going to his home depressed with a huge sack of paddy, to his amazement, he found a dazzling murti of Changu Narayan appears inside the paddy sack. The murti later was established and a temple was built.
In Nepalbhasa, “Wa” means Paddy, and “Ku” means “Storage”. Since it was found within the sack of paddy, it was named Wakupati Narayan. As a result, the practice of offering new paddy to this Narayana has not changed since then. Also, there is a belief among the locals that if people sit in the courtyard while visiting the temple, the back pain will be cured. So the people of Bhaktapur, still sit there at least once while visiting the temple, even if they are in a hurry.
A peculiarity about the temple is that there are five statues of Garudas supported on pillars on the backs of turtles. This is the only place where one would see five Garudas standing back to back in a row. There are also murtis of Ganesha, Dash Avatara and a temple of Chinnamastha in the temple premises.
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| Wakupati Narayan Temple |
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