Pumdikot

Pumdikot is a hilltop shrine complex on Pumdikot Danda, the ridge rising south-west of Phewa Lake in Pokhara's ward 22. Its centrepiece is a 108-foot statue of Lord Shiva — a 51-foot seated figure on a 57-foot white stupa-shaped plinth — completed and opened to the public in 2021. It is the second-tallest Shiva statue in Nepal, after Kailashnath Mahadev at Sanga.

The statue is encircled by 108 stone shiva lingams set in a ring around the base, each with its own small pedestal, and a Hindu temple stands beside them on the summit platform. The site was developed by local ward and community committees as a religious-tourism project, and the wider park around it — memorial grounds, a landscaped approach, a model of Mount Sumeru — is still being built out in stages.

What brings most non-pilgrims up is the panorama. The platform faces north over the whole of Phewa Lake and the Pokhara valley to the Annapurna wall, with the World Peace Pagoda visible along the same ridge to the east; the two are commonly combined into one circuit. Sunrise and sunset are both good, and the site is floodlit after dark.

A sealed road runs to the top, so a taxi from Lakeside takes around 40 minutes; walkers usually come up from Chhorepatan or continue along the ridge from the Peace Pagoda.