Dolakha, Oct. 31: A 250 kg Ghanta (ritual bell) has been installed at the historic Bhimeshwar Temple located in Bhimeshwar Municipality-2 in Dolakha district.
Placed to the left of the temple entrance, the bell was crafted from pancha dhatu (five types of metals) at a cost of approximately Rs.1.5 million.
According to Suresh Shrestha, treasurer of the Bhimeshwar Guthi and Pooja Management Committee, a Basnet family from Makaibari Sakhine donated the ritual bell.
Originally, in 1968, Colonel Dal Bahadur Basnet of the Nepali Army donated a large ritual bell to the temple.
Now, after 113 years, the same Basnet family prepared a new bell to replace the old and dilapidated bell and offered it to the temple management committee.
Durga Singh Basnet, representing the family, offered the new bell by ringing it at the temple.
The Bhimeshwar Guthi and Pooja Management Committee plans to display the 113-year-old bell in a museum. The new bell has been installed in the same place, replacing the old one.
Currently, two large bells are placed on stone pillars in front of the temple: one offered by Colonel Faud Singh Khatri in 1943 B.S. on the right and the new bell by the Basnet family on the left.
Committee Secretary Rajendra Shrestha noted that the bell offered by Colonel Khatri in 1943 B.S. had become very old and his family and descendants offered a new bell in 2076 B.S. after 108 years.
With the new bell placed on both sides of Bhimeshwar, the temple now has a new set of bells, each weighing around 250 kg and costing about Rs. 1.2 million. -TRN
