Offerings no longer Pashupati priests' spoils

KATHMANDU, Nov 2: Priests of the Pashupatinath temple will soon be denied their exclusive rights of acquiring all cash and precious metals offered by devotees to the deity as their personal properties.



In a landmark decision on Wednesday, Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT), which oversees the overall management of the holy shrine, broke with the long tradition of Bhattas and Bhandaris, priests and assistant priests, who took home all the offerings. [break]



Instead, a board meeting of the PADT, presided over by PADT Chairman and Culture Minister Gopal Kiranti, decided to make “an appropriate arrangement” for Bhattas and Bhandaris in exchange of their service to the shrine. A PADT board member told Republica that “an appropriate arrangement” implies monthly salaries to all the priests.



Currently, Bhattas and Bhandaris do not take salaries or allowances. Instead, they take all cash, gold, silver and other precious metals offered by devotees. It is said that devotees offer up to Rs 200,000 in cash, gold and other precious metals to the deity every single day.



The PADT has kept several donation-boxes inside the temple area. The money donated by devotees into these boxes belongs to PADT. However, devotees generally prefer to offer cash and gold to the shrine instead of putting them into donation boxes.



Bhattas and Bhandaris share the earnings of the Pashupati temple among themselves every day. This has sparked off several rounds of protests in the past.



To make “an appropriate arrangement” for priests, the PADT board has also formed a seven-member team headed by its member-secretary Sushil Nahata. The team also includes PADT treasurer Narottam Baidya and an official from the Ministry of Culture. Other four members will be inducted into the team later. The team has been categorically instructed to come up with an appropriate arrangement in a month.



The decision taken by the PADT board comes in tune with a report prepared by a committee headed by former justice Kedar Nath Acharya as per a Supreme Court (SC) directive.



The Acharya-led committee had suggested to the PADT for paying Bhattas and Bhandaris of the Pashupatinath temple instead of allowing them to take home all the offerings. 

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