Panauti

Panauti (पनौती) is a municipality in Kavrepalanchok District in Bagmati Province of Nepal located 32 km Southeast of the capital Kathmandu. The town is currently listed as a UNESCO tentative site since 1996. Panauti is a historical city in Nepal, originally it was a small state given by King Bhupatindra Malla as a dowry to his sister. This town has a population of under 15,000 people and a few prominent icons, such as the Indreswor temple and Panauti (Layaku) Durbar square found in the town center. At the end of the 13th century, Panauti was finally integrated into the unified kingdom of Nepal, along with Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur, which are all former capital cities of the Kathmandu valley. Panauti was a trading hub along the ancient Salt Trade route between Tibet and India. Actually, the recorded history of Panauti goes back to the first century AD. However, with the end of the Salt trade in the 1950s and the construction of the Arniko Highway in the 1960s bypassing this old town, Panauti has gone into an economic rut. Panauti, consists of a variety of Buddhist and Hindu religious monuments, and is considered to be one of the area's most important medieval sites. Panauti is also steeped in culture and tradition. Visitors will often find colorful stones, petals and other items that are laid out on the pavement to welcome everyone with great hospitality. Panauti, situated at the confluence of the two rivers Rosi and Punyamati, has been regarded as an important religious site since very early times. In Nepali society, such rivers are considered to be sacred. A visit or just an ablution to such places enables the visitor to be freed from many sins and anxieties, as it is believed to be sacred. Moreover, it is also believed that at Panauti, in addition to aforesaid two rivers, a third river Lilawati also converges making it again a tri-junction called Triveni. However, the last one is said to be visible only to the sheers and the intellectuals. The presence of this at Panauti has added and remarkably enhanced its religious sanctity and popularity as well.