Suryavinayak Temple

The Suryavinayak Temple is a Ganesha shrine on a forested hill south of Bhaktapur in Nepal's Kathmandu Valley, and one of the valley's four principal Ganesha temples. Its name, the temple of the rising sun, comes from the eastward-facing image.

Local tradition carries its origins back to the Licchavi period, around the 500s CE, when King Vishnu Dev Barma is said to have founded it. The present brick temple in the shikhara style is much younger: an inscription records that it was completed in 1833.

Inside the sanctum rests a stone Ganesha adorned with metalwork, fronted by a pillar carved with his mouse mount. Pilgrims gather here especially on Tuesdays and in the month of Magha, holding that worship of Suryavinayak brings good fortune and sound judgment.