Muktinath Temple

According to Hindu tradition, Vishnu deceived Vrinda, also called Tulsi, the wife of the demon Jalandhar. He was cursed for it and became associated with the Shaligram stone, and Vishnu then attains liberation at Muktinath. Both sources that record this story cite it to the Gandaki Mahatmya of the Vishnu Purana. In a version recorded by the anthropologist Holly Walters, Tulsi, angry at the deception, becomes the Kali Gandaki river and turns Vishnu into a river stone, the Shaligram, so that Vishnu is continuously “born” from her.

Vaishnavas hold the Shaligram, a fossil ammonite, to be the non-anthropomorphic form of Vishnu, meaning a form of the god without a human figure. In Vaishnava belief the colour of a Shaligram identifies the deity: white stones are Vasudeva, black are Vishnu, green are Narayana, blue are Krishna, and yellow are Vamana or Narasimha. The shapes of the stones are read as echoes of Vishnu’s Panchajanya conch and Sudarshana discus.

Sri Vaishnavas, the Vaishnava tradition that reveres the Tamil hymns of the Alvars, honour Muktinath through the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, the collection of those hymns composed between the 7th and 9th centuries. The poet Periyalvar sang of Vishnu at Muktinath as “Salagramamudaiya Nambi”. Thirumangai Alvar is reported to have sung ten pasurams (verses) about the shrine from a place nearby, because he could not reach it. The same Wikipedia article separately attributes one hymn to Kulasekhara Alvar, so the list of Alvars who sang of Muktinath differs within a single source.

In Sri Vaishnava reading the 108 spouts at Muktinath represent the sacred tank waters of all 108 Divya Desams, and the two ponds represent the goddesses Bhudevi and Niladevi.

Shakta tradition counts Muktinath among the 51 Shakta Pithas, the seats of the goddess Shakti. In the Shakta account the part of the goddess Sati associated with Muktinath is her head or face, the goddess here is called Gandaki Chandi, and Bhairava is worshipped as Chakrapani. Shakta devotees identify the Jwala Mai flame with Jwala Devi, a form of Shakti, the divine feminine power.

The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism counts Muktinath among its 24 Tantric places, sites of special power in tantric Buddhism. Nyingma tradition holds that Guru Rinpoche, also called Padmasambhava, meditated at Muktinath in the 8th century on his way to Tibet, and left a self-image statue now kept in the Mharme Lhakhang, also called the Narsing Gompa. The same tradition holds that the nuns who tend the temple are dakinis, female spiritual beings, descended from women Padmasambhava taught, and that the area is an abode of the 21 Taras.

Buddhist and Hindu readings meet in the Narsing Gompa, where a lion-headed deity called Guru Dragpo-seng-dong is worshipped by Hindus as Narasimha, the man-lion form of Vishnu.

BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, a Swaminarayan organisation, records that the teenage yogi Nilkanth Varni, later known as Bhagwan Swaminarayan, performed tapasya, a religious austerity, at Muktinath during his journey of 1792 to 1799. BAPS describes Nilkanth Varni standing on one leg with his arms raised, and gives the length of the austerity as four months. Other Swaminarayan sources give 21 days. A 49-foot bronze image of Nilkanth Varni at the Swaminarayan Akshardham in Gujarat shows him in this pose.

Hindu belief holds that Muktinath contains all five elements of Hindu cosmology, the pañca bhūta. Earth is in the Shaligram, water in the 108 spouts and the ponds, and fire in the Jwala Mai flame. The sources also name air and sky but do not tie either to a particular feature. In the same reading, the water, fire and stone of Muktinath each stand for a mode of purification.

Muktinath appears in five separate lists of sacred sites, each with its own textual or traditional basis.

The Divya Desam number differs with how the 108 shrines are counted. The other seven Svayam Vyakta Kshetras are Srirangam, Srimushnam, Tirupati, Naimisharanya, Thotadri, Pushkar and Badrinath.

The Shaligram stones of Muktinath are fossil ammonites from the Tethys, an ancient sea, raised when the Indian plate collided with Eurasia about 45 million years ago. A fossil bed near the village of Chongkhor, at about 4,500 m (14,764 ft), erodes into the Dzong Chu, which joins the Kali Gandaki at Kagbeni. Popular sources give the fossils ages of up to about 380 million years.

Holly Walters documents Shaligram veneration across Hinduism, Buddhism and Bon for more than 2,000 years. Muktinath was sacred before its present building went up: the Sri Vaishnava hymns of the 7th to 9th centuries and the 8th-century association with Padmasambhava both come before the pagoda of about 1815. Some sources date the image in the sanctum to the 16th century, which would also make the image older than the present temple.

Queen Subarna Prabha, also spelled Sabarna Prabha, built the present pagoda temple at Muktinath about 1815. The temple was renovated in 1929 and again in 2012.

The Narsing Gompa at Muktinath, reported to be 1,250 years old, was renovated at a cost of NPR 28.5 million in a project that ran from about 2012 to 2018. Nepal’s Department of Archaeology funded the work together with local committees, according to Hira Bahadur Thakuri (Wangwell Lama), president of the Muktinath Area Development Committee, as reported by The Himalayan Times on 24 October 2018. The Narsing Gompa renovation repaired a leaking roof and unstable walls, and was separate from any earthquake reconstruction.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi prayed at Muktinath, assisted by both a Buddhist nun and a Bahun priest. Mongabay reported in August 2025 that “since then, Indian pilgrims, many in large groups, have begun arriving year-round”.

The Annapurna Conservation Area Project office at Jomsom recorded 96,050 Indian tourists among 121,352 foreign visitors to Mustang in the Nepali fiscal year 2023/24 (BS 2080/081), as The Rising Nepal reported in March 2025. ACAP Jomsom figures reported by The Himalayan Times put foreign tourists to Mustang at 161,122 in calendar year 2025, 18.71% more than the 135,719 of 2024. About 82% of the 2025 visitors came from SAARC countries, and more than 90% of the SAARC visitors came from India. In June 2026 alone, 80,253 foreign tourists entered Mustang, against 20,868 in June 2025. These figures cover the whole of Mustang, and the section “Facts and figures” sets out why no count exists for Muktinath alone.

The 108 spouts at Muktinath, called the Muktidhara or the 108 Dhara, are stone water outlets shaped as bull or cow faces, set along the rear wall of the temple and pouring freezing glacial water. Pilgrims bathe under the spouts in sequence before dipping in the two ponds, as described under “Religious practice”. In Sri Vaishnava belief the 108 spouts represent the tank waters of all 108 Divya Desams.

Two ponds, or kunda, lie in front of the Muktinath temple, and their names differ from one tradition to another. One source calls them Laxmi Kunda and Saraswati Kunda and also records the names “dharma kunda” and “pap kunda”. A Sri Vaishnava compilation reads the two ponds as the goddesses Bhudevi and Niladevi.

Three Buddhist monasteries lie within the Muktinath complex, and Buddhistdoor Global records a Hindu reading for two of them.

The third monastery, Sangdo Gompa, stands to the left of the entrance gate, near a Shiva temple.

Pilgrims to Muktinath treat several places along the Kali Gandaki as parts of one pilgrimage. Kagbeni is where ancestral rites are traditionally performed on the way up: shraddha, tarpan and pinda, offerings of water and rice for the dead. Those rites come before darshan at Muktinath, darshan being the act of seeing and being seen by the deity. Jharkot, Khingar and Jomsom lie on the same route. Damodar Kunda is a higher pilgrimage to the source area of the Shaligrams, and the Kali Gandaki riverbed is where Shaligrams are collected.

A Hindu Bahun priest and Buddhist nuns, called ani or jhuma, keep Muktinath, and Buddhist tradition regards the nuns as dakinis. Each day the priest opens the temple and performs the morning aarti, hands the shrine to a nun who tends it all day, and returns for the evening aarti and the closing.

As of 23 September 2026 the opening hours of the Muktinath temple are published in two forms, both recorded by the tour source Muktinathtournepal.com. The first gives about 5:00 am to 8:30 pm daily. The second gives 5:00 am to 7:00 pm in summer with a midday break, and 6:00 am to 5:00 pm in winter, so the temple keeps hours through the winter.

Pilgrims bathe under the 108 spouts one after another and then dip in the two ponds, usually at first light. They offer flowers, incense, camphor and sweets, which are sold in Ranipauwa, the village near the temple where the ACAP permit is checked. After worship, pilgrims walk pradakshina, a clockwise circuit of the complex. The rules on what may be worn at the spouts are under “Rules and etiquette”.

Yartung is a horse festival held in August and timed by the Tibetan lunar calendar around the full moon of Janai Purnima. In 2026 its core days in Lo Manthang, in Upper Mustang, were 17 to 19 August, and Yartung events in Ranipauwa and Muktinath ran over four to five days around the same period. The procession goes from Khinga to Muktinath to Ranipauwa, with horse races, the Syabro dance and songs called Fendun Chhoki Rila, and roads near Muktinath close briefly for the horse parade.

Devotees revere the Jwala Mai flame at Muktinath as an eternal sacred fire and as the fire element of the site. Hindus worship it as Jwala Devi, and Buddhists at the Mebar Lhakhang. In scientific terms the flame is a natural-gas seep that burns above spring water.

Climate change is making Shaligrams rarer in the Kali Gandaki, according to the anthropologist Holly Walters, writing in The Conversation in 2023. Walters attributes the decline to glacial melt shrinking the river and to gravel mining shifting its course. Rising rainfall in this normally arid zone is driving floods and landslides.

On 13 August 2023 a landslide dam on the Kag or Tiri rivulet burst above Kagbeni, on the route to Muktinath. A study presented at the EGU General Assembly 2024 described “a severe and complex, polygenetic flood event” that caused damage worth about USD 7.4 million at Kagbeni. The EGU study records that the Kagbeni flood destroyed about 29 houses, one motorable bridge, one steel truss bridge and three temporary bridges, and killed more than 25 cows and other livestock. No one died, because the village was evacuated in time. The Baragung Muktichhetra Rural Municipality’s disaster committee separately estimated losses near NPR 1 billion.

Three crashes on flights between Pokhara and Jomsom, the main air route to Muktinath, killed 60 people between May 2012 and May 2022. The Kathmandu Post describes the Pokhara to Jomsom sector, which passes through the Kali Gandaki gorge between Annapurna and Dhaulagiri, as one of the most challenging air routes in the world.

The official investigation into the 2022 Tara Air crash cited a malfunction of the terrain-awareness warning system, negligence and bad weather, as The Kathmandu Post reported on 23 February 2023.

Investment Board Nepal (IBN) approved investment in the Muktinath cable car on 5 June 2025 at its 64th meeting, chaired by Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli. New Business Age reported that the line would run 81.041 km with seven stations, from Seraphant (Birethanti or Naya Pul) in Parbat district to Muktinath. New Business Age put the cost at an estimated NPR 57.64 billion, with the line built under a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer model by Muktinath Darshan Pvt. Ltd..

The reports of the June 2025 approval bill the project as the longest cable car in the world, with a capacity of at least 10,000 people a day, and name IBN’s chief executive, Sushil Gyawali, as head of its negotiation committee. Figures for the Muktinath cable car vary across sources, with costs from NPR 35 billion to NPR 55 billion and between six and 20 stations. NPR 57.64 billion is the figure IBN approved in June 2025.

Most routes to Muktinath start in Pokhara: a flight of about 20 minutes to Jomsom and then a jeep for about 21 km, a drive via Beni and Jomsom, a helicopter flight of about 35 minutes, or the Annapurna Circuit trek over the Thorong La.

Muktinath lies about 197 km by road from Pokhara and about 377 km from Kathmandu. The Beni to Jomsom to Korala road was 84% complete in August 2025 and 85% complete in September 2025, according to Khabarhub and New Business Age. Some sections are still gravel or under construction, and landslides or floods can close the road. The jeep road reaches close to the temple, which leaves an uphill walk of about 20 to 30 minutes, or a ride by horse or with a porter, and many elderly pilgrims manage it.

Travel from India is covered in the questions at the end of the article.

As of 23 September 2026, entry to the Muktinath temple is free, and permit guides state that an Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) permit is required and is checked at Ranipauwa. No Restricted Area Permit is needed for Muktinath, which lies in Lower Mustang. Indian citizens pay the SAARC rate.

• Visitors to Muktinath are expected to dress modestly.
• Shoes come off at the shrines.
• Photography inside the inner sanctum is usually restricted, according to Muktinathtournepal.com.
• In November 2024 the Muktinath Development Committee banned umbrellas, plastic, raincoats and swimming attire while bathing at the 108 spouts and the ponds, after videos of bathers circulated widely online.
• Shaligrams and antiquities from the Muktinath region are subject to export restrictions, according to Holly Walters and the Wikipedia Shaligram articles. Pilgrims do collect loose stones from the Kali Gandaki riverbed, so check the rules before any stone leaves Nepal.

The best months to visit Muktinath are March to June and September to November. The Kagbeni corridor below Muktinath carries a risk of floods and landslides each June to August. In 2026 Yartung fell on 17 to 19 August in Lo Manthang, and roads near Muktinath close briefly for its horse parade. At 3,710 m (12,172 ft), Muktinath is high enough for altitude sickness to be a risk.

The sources fix two parts of the order. Ancestral rites at Kagbeni come before darshan at Muktinath, and at the temple the 108 spouts come before the two ponds. They give no traditional order for the other stops, which are listed below by position.

1. Kagbeni, for ancestral rites before reaching Muktinath, as described under “The wider sacred corridor”.
2. Ranipauwa, for the ACAP permit check and for flowers, incense, camphor and sweets to offer.
3. The 108 spouts, bathing under each in sequence, best at first light.
4. The two ponds, dipping after the spouts.
5. The main temple, for darshan of the Sri Murti.
6. The gompas: Jwala Mai to the east, where visitors must kneel to see the small blue flame, the Narsing Gompa to the north with the clay self-image of Padmasambhava, and Sangdo Gompa by the gate.
7. Pradakshina, a clockwise circuit of the complex.

• Vijayalakshmy R. (2001), An Introduction to Religion and Philosophy: Tévarám and Tivviyappirapantam, International Institute of Tamil Studies, pp. 489 to 490, discusses the Alvar hymns on the Muktinath shrine.
• Holly Walters, in Shaligram Pilgrimage in the Nepal Himalayas and related ethnographic writing, finds that Shaligram pilgrimage is a living practice shared across traditions and threatened by climate change.
• Buddhistdoor Global’s article “Muktinath: An Exemplar of Religious Symbiosis” documents the layout of the gompas and the shared Hindu and Buddhist worship.
• A paper at the EGU General Assembly (2024), “Retrospect of the polygenetic Kagbeni flood event (August 13, 2023) in Mustang, Nepal”, quantifies the 2023 flood damage.

Muktinath is sacred because Hindus hold that it grants moksha, liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Hindus worship Vishnu at Muktinath, and Tibetan Buddhists worship the same image as Avalokiteśvara. Shakta tradition also counts Muktinath as a Shakta Pitha, and Nyingma Buddhist tradition counts it as one of the 24 Tantric places.

The sources used here record that Hindus and Tibetan Buddhists both worship at Muktinath, and that photography inside the inner sanctum is usually restricted. They do not state an entry rule for non-Hindus or foreigners.

Most routes to Muktinath start in Pokhara: a flight of about 20 minutes to Jomsom and a jeep of 1 to 1.5 hours, a drive via Beni and Jomsom, a helicopter flight of about 35 minutes, or the Annapurna Circuit trek over the Thorong La.

Indian citizens pay the SAARC rate of NPR 1,000 for the ACAP permit, as of September 2026.

Yes, Muktinath requires an ACAP permit, which as of September 2026 costs NPR 3,000 for foreign visitors, NPR 1,000 for SAARC nationals and NPR 100 for Nepalis. Entry to the temple itself is free, and no Restricted Area Permit is needed, because Muktinath is in Lower Mustang.

The 108 spouts at Muktinath, the Muktidhara or 108 Dhara, are bull or cow-faced stone outlets along the rear wall of the temple, pouring freezing glacial water. Pilgrims bathe under each spout in turn and then dip in the two ponds. In Sri Vaishnava belief the 108 spouts stand for the waters of all 108 Divya Desams.

Since November 2024 the Muktinath Development Committee has banned swimming attire, umbrellas, plastic and raincoats at the 108 spouts and ponds. Visitors are expected to dress modestly and to remove their shoes at the shrines.

The Jwala Mai flame at Muktinath is a natural-gas flame burning over a spring, inside the Dhola Mebar Gompa east of the temple. Hindus worship the flame as Jwala Devi, and Buddhists at the Mebar Lhakhang. Visitors must kneel to see the small blue flame.

Yes, according to Shakta tradition Muktinath is one of the 51 Shakta Pithas. The goddess there is Gandaki Chandi, associated with Sati’s head or face, and Bhairava is worshipped as Chakrapani.

Yes, Muktinath is the only one of the 108 Divya Desams outside India. Sources count it as the 105th or the 106th, depending on how the list is numbered.

A Hindu Bahun priest and Buddhist nuns keep Muktinath. The priest performs the morning and evening aarti, and a nun tends the shrine through the day.

As of September 2026, one published schedule gives about 5:00 am to 8:30 pm daily. A second gives 5:00 am to 7:00 pm in summer with a midday break and 6:00 am to 5:00 pm in winter, so the temple keeps winter hours. Neither schedule has been found confirmed by the Muktinath Development Committee.

The best months to visit Muktinath are March to June and September to November. June to August brings a risk of floods and landslides to the Kagbeni corridor below the temple.

Yes, many elderly pilgrims visit Muktinath, because the jeep road reaches close to the temple. An uphill walk of about 20 to 30 minutes remains, which can also be made by horse or with a porter. At 3,710 m (12,172 ft), Muktinath is high enough for altitude sickness to be a risk.

Not without checking the rules first. The export of fossils and antiquities from Nepal is restricted, according to Holly Walters and the Wikipedia Shaligram articles, although pilgrims do collect loose Shaligram stones from the Kali Gandaki riverbed.