Dakshinkali

The first few days in Nepal, my family and I were visiting family and friends non stop! Even after seven years, everything felt so familiar to me. The language, the places, the people, the culture. I didn’t realize how good it would feel to be with my relatives after so long.

One night while going to my uncle’s house for dinner, my younger brother, Suraj, asked when were going to see Nepal. My family and I were baffled–what was he expecting? We were sure he was already enjoying the visit. After we got to my uncle’s house, he heard what my brother had said and decided to take us on a ride. This ride turned out to be our unexpected visit to Dakshinkali.

We began by riding a few miles up Chobhar Danda (hill). The scenery on the ride up the hill was absolutely amazing. For miles we saw field workers in these beautiful fields. Before we knew it, we were at the top of the hill. The scenery felt so overwhelmingly breathtaking that we had to stop a few times just to take it all in! While my mom and I were taking pictures like mad women, we could see locals gathering in groups and whispering. They were amused that we found their town that they grew up in to be so special.

Finally we arrived at Dakshinkali Temple. Dakshinkali is dedicated to Kali, the Goddess of time and change. Tuesdays and Saturdays are the most popular days to go to this Temple, as these are the days sacrifices are made to Goddess Kali. The most common sacrifices are the blood from a goat or chicken they have raised.

On the way back home, we took one last stop at Chobhar Gorge. Legend has it that Kathmandu Valley use to be a huge lake filled with snakes and home to the King of Snakes. Thousands of years ago, it is believed that one man, Manjushree, cut a hill along the lake with a sword to drain out the water. He saw that the valley would be a good place for the Nepalese people to live and grow fields because that is not possible in the majority of the country; it is all hills and mountains. Now the all the snakes are said to belong at Lake Nagdha (“nag” translates to “snakes” and “dha” translates to lake).