Kirtipur Bagh Bhairab temple is located at Kirtipur in
Nepal. The shrine is dedicated to the rare tiger form of Bhairava form of
Mahadev Shiva. A small clay murti of tiger is worshipped in the shrine without
a tongue. The murti is remade once in 15 years – when the old turns fragile due
to abhishekam, rituals and pujas.
The origin of the temple is traced back to the 3rd century
CE. The three-storied shrine has numerous small shrines in the ground floor.
Several gods and goddess are worshipped in these small shrines. The shrine
faces east.
A small hole in the east wall of the temple, known as
a dyo pvah, allows a single ray of sunlight to glance upon the face
of the deity each day.
Kirtipur Bagh Bhairab Temple Story
It is said that a group of shepherd girls who were grazing
their sheep made a sculpture of tiger using clay. They did not have a red color
leaf for the tongue of the tiger. So they went in search for a red color poinsettia
leaf.
When the shepherd girls returned they found their sheep
missing. They noticed the mouth of the tiger was filled with blood. They
realized that Bhairav had taken refuge in the tiger and eaten their sheep. The
tiger sculpture was moved to the present day spot of the temple.
As punishment for eating the sheep, the shepherd girls
refused to affix the tongue to the image, and to this day, the murti is
depicted with a wide open mouth without a tongue.
The deity is worshipped by the people of the region
especially by farmers for protection of their crops and lives.
Weapons like knives, swords and arrows are nailed to the
south wall of the temple. It is said that the weapons belonged to attackers who
were defeated by the people of the region with the help of Bhairav.
The three-tiered pagoda style temple has standing murtis of
Hanuman on the sides of the altar. All the deities worshipped in the temple are
found on the group floor. The middle and the upper floor have sculptures and
carvings. The temple has numerous beautiful sculptures of various characters
from Hindu scriptures. There are some interesting features like through a hole
another hole is visible and within the hole one eye of the image of the murti
is visible.
The upa devata shrines in the temple include that of Ganesha,
five murtis of Mother Goddess, standing image of Shiva and a murti of Shiva and
Goddess Parvati.