The low-ceilinged door of the surrounding rest house takes us to the temple courtyard where visitors, instead of directly heading to the main temple, get drawn to the huge collection of kitchen utensils hung on the inner walls of the surrounding resting houses.[break]
“Families of the deceased come to nail the utensils on the walls with the belief that they will need these items on the journey to their afterlife,” says Indra Man Shakya, the priest of the temple.
The walls bear all kinds of utensils, like kitchen wares, puja materials, toiletries, farming tools, traditional weaving materials, musical instruments, and weapons.
“But people nowadays have started nailing utensils in their own names as well as offerings to pray for something from the god. Some people also nail them themselves if they don’t have anyone to perform the ritual after their death.”
Asha Kaji Shakya, an elderly local, shares his experience of nailing utensils in his younger days.
“When people brought objects, we climbed to the roof of the temple and nailed the utensils there,” he says, pointing to the tools nailed on the upper walls of the temple. “But now that the number of people who want to nail the utensils for their deceased family member has increased, the walls of the temple aren’t enough. So they started nailing them to other walls of the rest house,” he adds.
According to the temple priest, some ten families on the average come to nail the utensils in the name of their deceased every month.
Shakya believes that people started nailing the utensils as Anandadi Lokeshwor is the one god who looks after us when we are alive and continues to do so even after our death.
“So people want to please him for the welfare of their loved ones. And the number of people coming to nail utensils are increasing every year,” he says.
He adds that in earlier years, people used to nail all the tools the deceased owned during his lifetime, pointing to such items as hammers, cloth weavers, sickles, spades and scissors.
Culture expert Indra Mali believes that the hanging of the utensils started as many people in the old days were facing untimely demise due to different epidemics. People started nailing the utensils as offerings to god for better health and life.
“In those times, people believed that Anandadi Lokeshwor could cure leprosy and other pandemic diseases. So they made the offerings to save themselves from such outbreaks, and many still follow the tradition,” says Mali.
On the other hand, Yamuna Maharjan has mentioned in her article published in the research journal ‘Kirti’ that during epidemics, many young widows immolated themselves along with their husbands’ bodies on the funeral pyre, under the tradition of Sati.
Then the things that the couple owned would be of no use. So the family of the deceased offered the utensils to the temple, including the dowry brought home by the daughter-in-law.
Though the tradition of Sati is no longer practiced, nor is there a fear of epidemics, people still continue to visit the temple to nail the utensils. Old ones are removed from the walls to create space for new ones.
“The storerooms behind the temple are now full of these utensils. As there’s a belief that the offerings can’t be destroyed or used for other purposes, we’ve started storing them in the rooms above the surrounding resting houses as well,” says Shakya, the temple priest.
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