Muktinath

Muktinath lies at 3,800 metres in the Mustang valley beneath the Thorong La pass, and its sanctity is shared by Hindus and Buddhists. Hindus know it as Mukti Kshetra, the place of liberation, one of Nepal's Himalayan dhams and a self-manifested Vishnu shrine; in Shaktism it is counted among the fifty-one Shakta Pithas, where the head of Sati is said to have fallen.

Tibetan Buddhists call the place Chumig Gyatsa, the Hundred Waters, rank it among the twenty-four tantric abodes of the dakinis and venerate the Vishnu icon as Avalokiteshvara. The copper image dates to the late 1500s.

The Newari-style pagoda with its three-tiered roof was raised in 1814 or 1815 under Queen Subarna Prabha Devi of Nepal, replacing an older clay temple of the Jumla kings; its courtyard is ringed by the hundred and eight bull-headed Mukti Dhara spouts and two sacred ponds.