Rato Machhindranath Mandir

The Rato Machhendranath Temple is located in South of Durbar Sq, on the western side of the road, Rato Machhendranath, the god of rain and plenty. To Buddhists he is the Tantric edition of Avalokiteshvara, while to Hindus he is a version of Shiva.
The image in the Rato Machhendranath Temple may just look like a crudely carved piece of red-painted wood, but each year during the Rato Machhendranath Festival celebrations it's paraded around the town on a temple chariot during the valley's most spectacular festival. Machhendranath is considered to have great powers over rain and, since the monsoon is approaching at this time, this festival is an essential plea for good rain.
As in Kathmandu, the Rato Machhendranath festival consists of a day-by-day chariot procession through the streets of the old town, but here it takes a full month to move the chariot from the Phulchowki area - where the image is installed in the chariot - to Jawlakhel, where the chariot is dismantled.
The main chariot is accompanied for most of its journey by a smaller chariot, which contains the image of Rato Machhendranath's companion, which normally resides in the nearby Minanath Temple.
The highlight of the festival is the Bhoto Jatra, or showing of the sacred vest. Machhendranath was entrusted with the jewelled vest after there was a dispute over its ownership. The vest is displayed three times in order to give the owner the chance to claim it - although this does not actually happen. The king of Nepal attends this ceremony, which is also a national holiday.
From Jawlakhel, Rato Machhendranath does not return to his Patan temple, but rather is conveyed on a khat (palanquin)to his second home in the village of Bungamati where he spends the next six months of the year. The main chariot is so large and the route is so long that the Nepali army is often called in to help transport it.