Jal Binayak Temple

Jal Binayak sits where the Bagmati cuts through the Chobhar gorge southwest of Kathmandu, and is widely held to be the oldest of the valley's Char Binayak Ganesh. Its name means 'water Ganesh': the stone image is said to have emerged from the river itself. Myth ties it to the gorge's own origin — when the bodhisattva Manjushri cleft the hills at Chobhar to drain the primordial lake and make the valley habitable, Ganesh is said to have been set here to guard the passage and keep the sacred, rain-bringing Nagas from escaping.

The temple is a three-tiered pagoda, and its carved struts are among its treasures — ranks of the eight Bhairavs and the eight Ashta Matrikas, with Ganesh himself worked into a lower strut among attendant female figures. Inscriptions date the temple to about 1603, built under the Malla king Shiva Singh Malla; its gilded pinnacle was added around 1669 by Srinivas Malla of Patan, and it was later rebuilt in pagoda form under Rajya Prakash Malla of Kathmandu.

The gorge setting gives Jal Binayak a character unlike the other Binayak — river, rock and the nearby Adinath Lokeshwar temple of Chobhar all within a short walk. Ganesh Chaturthi is the great day here; devotees otherwise come before journeys, family ceremonies, and new undertakings.