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‘Night of the Shiva’, falls on the 14th day of the dark fortnight of the Month of Magh as per the Hindu lunar calendar and draws in hundreds of thousands of devotees who come to offer their prayers and seek blessings.

Pashupatinath temple near Kathmandu, where the festival takes place, is a masterpiece of ancient Nepalese architecture. Built in 400AD  on a site where according to scripture Lord Shiva lost his antler while in the guise of a deer, the temple is the most significant of its kind in the world dedicated to Shiva the God of creation and destruction. 

Only devote Hindus are allowed to enter the compound of the main temple, but you can catch tantalising glimpses of what's going on inside from various vantage points beyond the river bank sat alongside other pilgrims and local wildlife.

Hindus believe that those who die in the holy sanctum gain salvation and are reborn as a human, regardless of any prior karma altering indiscretion. Pashupatinath is therefore frequented by followers who stay for the final weeks of their life until death so they can burn on funeral pyres where their ashes will mix with the sacred water of Bagmati River which later meets the holy river Ganges.