Patan’s Krishna Temple, Religion, Tourist Attractions
Patan City is situated near to the capital city of Nepal located in the Kathmandu valley. Patan city has been made famous for the large variety of art pieces that are found in its vicinity delighting the hordes of people that come to view the sacred temples. One of the popular temples that is visited by many Hindu worshipers is the Krishna Temple.
The Shikhara-style Krishna Mandir temple was constructed under the orders of King Siddhi Narasimha Malla. It took six and a half years to complete the temple, which was finished in 1637. Today you can find this beautiful building situated on the Durbar Square where many of the other fascinating temples and buildings are. One of the features that really adds to the beauty of the Krishna Temple in Patan is the complex and intricate detail carved out of stone, metal and wood. The carvings cover a variety of scenes related to tales about the Ramayana and Mahabharata, which can be found on the first and second floor of the temple.
There are three floors that make up the temple with each dedicated solely to one god – the first being Krishna, second Shiva and the third belonging to Lokeshwor. The ground floor of the temple has a covered walkway that goes right around the building. The walkway is covered in carvings of a variety of flowers giving the viewer a taste of India and its Islamic architecture. On top of the main part of the building are smaller sub-divisions of the building that narrow the higher they get with the end result being a narrow central tower. There is still a priest living in the temple, in charge of looking after the temple and the twenty-one statues and shrines to the gods.
It is said that before the temple Krishna was to be blessed the King ruling at the time had a dream giving him instructions to not replace the older statue with a new one. However, the next day when the King viewed the old statue of the god he noticed that a toe from the left foot was missing. His initial intention was to replace it with a new statue but after a second dream with the same instructions he continued with the proceedings incorporating the blemished statue.
