Chandeswori Temple

The Chandeswori Temple stands on the eastern edge of the historic town of Banepa in Kavrepalanchok. Dedicated to the goddess Chandeswori — a form of the Mother Goddess who, according to legend, slew the demon Chanda — it is one of the most important shrines of the Banepa valley and the focus of a major annual chariot festival. This temple is the reference monument for HamroSampada's 3D Gaussian Splatting pipeline: explore it in the interactive viewer.

Banepa was an important medieval trading town on the route to Tibet and the seat of a local kingdom. The Chandeswori shrine has been venerated for centuries and rebuilt and repaired over generations; the temple precinct contains older votive shrines, rest-houses (pati/sattal) and water spouts characteristic of a Newar settlement. The goddess Chandeswori is the tutelary deity of Banepa.

Chandeswori is the principal goddess of Banepa and the centre of the town's ritual calendar, including the Chandeswori Jatra held around the Nepali new year, when the deity is taken in procession. The temple is a living centre of worship for the local Newar community.

The temple is a three-tiered pagoda on a stepped plinth, with gilded roof finials, carved wooden struts and a richly decorated metal torana over the sanctum. Its most celebrated feature is the enormous painted fresco of Bhairava (a fierce form of Shiva) covering the western exterior wall — among the largest such wall paintings in the valley.

Current condition: Active temple and pilgrimage site

Maintained by the local guthi and community of Banepa. HamroSampada has produced a photogrammetric / Gaussian-splat 3D record as a digital-preservation reference; further metric documentation is planned.