Chandra Binayak Temple

Chandra Binayak, at Chabahil in the old northern reach of Kathmandu, is one of the Ganesh shrines counted in the valley's Char Binayak circuit. Its name joins chandra (moon) to Vinayak; it is also known as Rakta Binayak — rakta meaning blood — and it is above all a healing shrine. Devotees come to be cured of disease, of wounds and sores, and of ailments of the blood, a role that sets it apart from the other Ganesh of the circuit.

The deity is a small metal image sheltered beneath a low brass roof, ringed by an unusually crowded court of subsidiary gods — Saraswati, Bhairav, Vishnu, Hanuman and the Buddha among them. The temple's wooden struts carry the eight Bhairavs and the eight Ashta Matrikas, and old stone inscriptions stand about the yard; one records a renovation by King Mahendra Singh Dev around 1720. The shrine was damaged in the 2015 earthquake and has since been restored.

Chabahil grew up around the ancient Charumati Stupa, and Chandra Binayak sits inside that dense devotional quarter between Pashupatinath and Boudha. Tuesdays draw the largest crowds; the setting is a working urban shrine of bells, offerings and tight lanes rather than a monument precinct.