Who Is a Hindu at Nepal’s Pashupatinath Temple?

Source

KATHMANDU, NEPAL, November, 2000: (Note: This is a dated article which someone recently found. As we had not reported it when it first appeared, we are including a summary now, as we are unaware of any subsequent changes to the temple policies.) Pashupati is one of Hinduism’s holiest shrines, and houses Nepal’s patron deity. A sign at the gate, enforced by a policeman bearing a stick, bars all non-Hindus. But what defines a Hindu, and who decides? Any brown-skinned Caucasoid, even a Muslim, or Syrian Christian from Kerala, can get in without problems. Tall, fair Nepalis with goatees have sometimes been stopped. It seems the only criteria that the gatekeepers have is skin color and the length of the nose. Groups of Hindu pilgrims from Bali, a predominantly Hindu island, were recently denied entry, as gate guards declared that the “Hindu” status on their travel documents did not prove their faith. The pilgrims had had no problems entering temples in India. Bishwesh Shrestha, their Nepali tour operator is livid. The groups were denied entrance by the office of the Mul Bhatta (the south Indian chief priest at Pashupati), which stated that one has to be born either in Nepal or India to enter (HPI adds: He hasn’t even included Sri Lanka!). This directly contradicted the recommendation of the World Hindu Federation (WHF). The Pashupati Development Trust (PDT) assured Shrestha that Indonesians and other Hindus from abroad would have no problem entering the temple in future, but declined to provide it in writing. The police stated that they have no authority to determine eligibility for entrance, and that the Mul Bhatta had strictly ordered that Indonesians should be denied entrance. The Mul Bhatta’s office refused comment. However, the Rangoon-based Indonesian embassy accredited to Nepal blamed the tour operator for not having informed the embassy. There are one billion Hindus in the world, and Indonesia is an advisor to the executive body of the WHF, which has a membership of 57 countries. Hinduism predates both Buddhism and Islam in Indonesia, having been taken to the archipelago by settlers from India 2,000 years ago.