Hiranya Varna Mahavihar

The Hiranya Varna Mahavihar, widely known as the Golden Temple, is a Buddhist monastery courtyard in Patan whose facade gleams with gilded copper repoussé work. Founded in the twelfth century, it remains an active monastic community centred on a shrine to Shakyamuni Buddha, tended by rotating young caretakers. The compact court is crowded with statues, prayer wheels and finely worked metal panels. Visitors remove their shoes to enter, moving quietly among devotees and butter lamps in one of the valley's most atmospheric religious interiors.