Budhanilkantha Temple

Budhanilkantha Temple, located in Budhanilkantha, Nepal, (Nepali: बुढानिलकण्ठ मन्दिर; translation: Old Blue Throat) is a Hindu open air temple dedicated to Lord Mahavishnu. Budhanilkantha Temple is also known as the Narayanthan Temple, and can be identified by a large reclining statue of Lord Mahavishnu.

Some people associate Budhanilkanth’s name with Gautama Buddha since it pronunciation being closely similar but this is not a correct fact. Though the temple is named Budhanilkantha, its name does not come from the Buddha; Budhanilkantha instead has a Sanskrit origin that means ‘Old Blue Throat’, a title of Lord Shiva that was given by gods after the Lord drank poison to save the world. The statue symbolizes Lord Vishnu, who is regarded as one of the ‘Trimurtis’, along with Brahma and Shiva.A statue of Vishnu, sitting on Garuda, at the temple premise

The Hindu scriptures Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu Purana and the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata refer to Samudra manthan, which is directly related to the origin of Gosaikunda. According to legend the spring that feeds the pond in the Budanilkantha temple is connected to Gosaikunda which makes it to have a direct connection to the water source from Lord Shiva. This is the reason why its name is dedicated to Lord Shiva even though the statue is dedicated to Lord Vishnu since the water pond on which the statue lies, has its source to Gosaikunda dedicated to Lord Shiva which was the result of him drinking the poison and storing it in his throat resulting in him having blue throat.

This temple is regarded as a sacred place for Hindus but is equally well venerated by Buddhists (who consider the murti to be Buddha). It is considered as a sign of religious harmony that has existed in the region since ancient times .