Nepali Hindutva

On 18 March, the Supreme Court of Nepal removed a ban on the burial of non-Hindus in the Shlesmantak forest. A patch of woods located just across the revered Pashupatinath temple, the Shlesmantak holds a curious place in Hindu mythology. Shiva's manifestation as Pashupati, the Lord of the Animals, is said to have frequented this area, while his consort, Parvati, undertook penance among these trees to win Shiva's affections.

Shlesmantak has been used for Hindu burials when the traditional cremation is not favoured or allowed, such as for just-born infants or yogis and mendicants. Yet for all its connections with Hindu mythology, Shlesmantak has long been used as burial grounds by disparate groups. While Nepal's ethnic Kirant community does not practise Hinduism, it does believe in the sacredness of Pashupatinath, and has buried its dead in the forest since antiquity. In recent times, however, the number of Christian converts within the Kirant community has increased; in turn, their dead have continued to be buried within the Shlesmantak forest but in accordance with Christian ritual – establishing permanent gravestones, for instance, unlike the Kirant tradition.