Bhaktapur, October 12:

Changu Museum, the only privately-owned museum in Changunarayan VDC in the district, is on the verge of closure because of the lack of visitors.

Talking to this daily, Baishnav Raj Shrestha, founder and manager of the museum, said that only a few domestic visitors were visiting the museum these days.

“Most of the visitors in other government-owned museums in the Kathmandu Valley are the international ones. But the case is different here,” Shrestha said.

He further added that the museum was getting low number of international visitors because the tourist guides do not inform the foreign visitors about the museum.

The museum charges Rs 140 as entrance fee for foreign visitors and Rs 15 for domestic visitors.

The museum has a wide collection of coins, utensils and religious books dating back to the Mandev period. It also houses handlooms and other artifacts including rubber coins that were in use in the second century.

“I have a great collection of ancient coins in the museum. I bought them from different places by paying more than Rs 2000 and kept them on display at the museum,” Shrestha shared.

He also said that he established the museum upon hearing complaints from foreign visitors that the VDC had nothing worth visiting apart from the temple of Changunarayan.