Yangon, October 18

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, who is presently on a five-day state visit to Myanmar, today visited the temple of Goddess Durga at Pyin U Lwin city and performed puja.

The temple of the Hindu goddess has been operated by a Nepali community in the town since 1961 AD.

Temple priests Jagannath Gautam and Khadananda Khanal, who are of Nepali origin, welcomed the president and facilitated her to perform the puja.

On the occasion, the president also paid homage to Panchamukhi Shiva, whose idol has been installed in the temple.

The idol of Panchamukhi Shiva was presented by the then King Mahendra and the replica of Pashupatinath was gifted by the then King Birendra during their respective Myanmar visits, according to the temple management committee Vice-chair Baburam Pandey.

President Bhandari was also welcomed by Akhil Deshiya Gorkha Hindu Dharmik Sangh.

She also visited a botanical garden inside Kandawgyi park here. The Nepali delegation team visited Buddhist temples, and monasteries in Bagan city located in Mandalay region.

Bagan city has been listed in the UNESCO’ World Heritage sites. It had served as the capital city of the Kingdom of Bagan from the ninth to 13th century.

The city at present houses 3,822 Buddhist temples and monasteries built in the period between the 11th to the 13th century. During this period, a total of 4,446 such monuments had been constructed.

The president has been accompanied by Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi, Secretary at the Office of President Hari Poudel, President’s Chief Secretary Bheshraj Adhikari and high ranking officials.

President Bhandari had come here on October 16 at the friendly invitation of Myanmar President Win Myint.