Chandeshwari Temple

The following is mostly from Wikipedia:

The Chandeshwari temple complex (also called Chandeshwori) lies just outside Banepa in the east of the Kathmandu Valley. The myth of the Chandeshwari temple is that this is the place where the mother goddess (Sati/Parvati and in Banepa known as Chandeshwari) defeated the demon Chanda. The demon was a plague to the world since Shiva gave him a boon that made him unbeatable except by women. The desperate gods asked Brahma for advice and he sent them to the forest around Banepa where the mother gods lived in those days. In the mean time Narada went to Chanda and provoked him to come to Banepa to fight the gods. When Chanda arrived with a big army of demons, all the gods took the forms of different birds and flew. The mother goddess quickly disappeared in a tree but Chanda saw that and cut down the tree with his sword. Now the goddess appeared on a big lion and a terrible fight between her and Chanda started. But Chanda had no chance and was killed by the mother goddess. Out of the belly of Chanda who was a big devotee of Shiva a lingam grew. This lingam can be seen in the small temple just in front of the big temple in the Chandeshwari temple complex. It is said that down at the big rocks around the river you can still see the marks of the big fight between the goddess and the demon. There are still animal sacrifices performed at this temple.

All pictures are © Dr. Günther Eichhorn, unless otherwise noted.