Nepali Temple Varanasi, Chowk Street Food & Banarasi Silk

Finding Kathwala Temple: Lalita Ghat's Nepalese Pagoda

Most first-time visitors rush straight down to Dashashwamedh Ghat, elbowing through massive crowds just to find a square foot of standing room. Don't make that mistake. You'll miss the quietest timber sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh. Perched on the cliff top right above Lalita Ghat sits the Shri Samrajeswar Pashupatinath Mahadev Temple, locally called the Nepali Kathwala Temple. It looks nothing like the stone spires surrounding it. Built in the early 19th century by King Rana Bahadur Shah of Nepal, this wooden pagoda brings the central architecture of Kathmandu straight to the banks of the Ganga.

Step up the limestone stairwell. The noise drops. The air smells of aged Himalayan sal wood, crushed pepper, and burnt incense. Precision craftsmen imported from Kathmandu hand-carved every single bracket, door frame, and rafter out of rot-resistant timber. Look closely at the roof supports under the double-tiered eaves. You'll spot intricate, sharp figures of Lord Shiva alongside erotic carvings echoing the Tantric traditions of Pashupatinath. (Honestly, skip the fast camera snaps—sit on the cool wooden porch floor for fifteen minutes and just listen to the wind off the river).

Getting inside is easy and costs nothing, though dropping a ₹20 or ₹50 note into the maintenance box helps keep the timber treated against damp weather. The temple remains open from 04:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and reopens from 04:00 PM to 09:00 PM. If you stand on the elevated wooden veranda facing east, you get an uninterrupted, sweeping view of the river curve toward Manikarnika Ghat without a single selfie stick in your line of sight.

Navigating the Narrow Galis to Lalita Ghat

Getting here takes patience. The old alleyways don't care about your smartphone GPS. Satellite signals bounce off three-story stone walls and throw you off course every fifty steps. If you come from Varanasi Junction (Cantt Railway Station), hop into a shared e-rickshaw for ₹20 to ₹30 per head down to Girja Ghar or Godowlia Chowk. Once the Varanasi Urban Public Ropeway opens fully across its 3.8 km span, you can glide over the city traffic straight from Cantt Station to Godowlia in just 15 minutes for roughly ₹50 to ₹80.

From Godowlia Chowk, set out on foot down the main corridor street toward Dashashwamedh. Turn left into the shadowy maze of Kachori Gali. The paving stones are smooth. Watch your step; wet river mud and spilled tea line the edges. Follow the small painted wooden signs pointing toward 'Nepali Mandir' or 'Lalita Ghat'. If you feel completely lost, ask a local shopkeeper selling brass pots. Don't ask self-appointed street guides. They'll walk three meters alongside you and demand ₹100 for directions you didn't need.

If you prefer an open, airy walk, skip the internal alleys completely. Rent a hand-rowed wooden boat from Assi Ghat or Dashashwamedh Ghat. A private rowboat costs between ₹400 and ₹700 per hour depending on your bargaining skills. Tell the boatman to drop you directly at the wide stone steps of Lalita Ghat. Walk up the main stairs, take a sharp left, and the carved wooden wooden pagoda rises immediately above you.

Chowk Street Food Trail: Savory Bites Beyond the Ghats

Walking the high riverbanks builds a fierce hunger. Head north out of the temple lanes into the dense commercial heart of Chowk and Thatheri Bazaar. This isn't polished restaurant dining. You stand on the cobblestones, eating off dried leaf plates while motorbikes squeeze past your shoulders. Start your food crawl at Kashi Chaat Bhandar or Deena Chaat Bhandar near Godowlia Chowk around 4:00 PM when the fresh fry pans heat up.

Order the iconic Tamatar Chaat. Cooked down in heavy iron pans, it features crushed tomatoes, boiled potatoes, dynamic spices, and a heavy splash of sugar syrup infused with cumin, served burning hot in an unglazed terracotta bowl (kulhad) for ₹50 to ₹70. The clay absorbs the extra moisture. It's sour, sweet, spicy, and scalding. Eat it fast. Follow it immediately with crisp, double-fried Palak Chaat topped with thick curd, pomegranate seeds, and green chutney for another ₹60.

If you hit Chowk between 07:00 AM and 10:00 AM, head directly to Ram Bhandar in Thatheri Bazaar. They serve crisp, dark golden kachoris stuffed with spiced lentils alongside a fiery potato gravy for ₹40 to ₹60 per plate. Wash it down with hot jalebis fried in pure ghee. During the winter months from November to February, walk deep into Chaukhamba to find vendors selling Malaiyyo for ₹50 to ₹100 per cup. It's a delicate, foamed milk dessert light as air, flavored with saffron, cardamom, and chopped pistachios, left out overnight to catch the winter dew. Don't bother looking for it in summer—it melts into liquid within minutes under heat.

Inside Madanpura and Peepal Kothi: Handloom Silk Weaving

Step away from the food markets and slip into the quiet residential galis of Madanpura and Peepal Kothi. This is where authentic Banarasi silk sarees are born. The rhythm here changes entirely. The chatter of street vendors gives way to the rhythmic *clack-clack-thud* of hand-operated wooden pit looms (*khaddi*) echoing out of open ground-floor windows.

Master weavers, mostly from Muslim Ansari families who have passed down the craft for four centuries, sit in small sunken rooms below street level. They manipulate thousands of silk warp threads by hand. Watch how a weaver handles the shuttle. He throws it back and forth using a foot pedal and hand lanyard, painstakingly weaving gold and silver metallic threads (*zari*) into complex floral, paisley, or geometric motifs (*Kadwa* technique). A single heavy bridal saree can take anywhere from three weeks to four months of continuous manual labor.

Be realistic about what you are seeing. A genuine, hand-woven Banarasi silk saree made with real silk and high-grade silver zari starts around ₹8,000 and easily runs upward of ₹40,000. If someone on the main street promises you a 'pure handloom silk saree' for ₹1,500, you are buying synthetic powerloom polyester. To experience genuine weaving, visit small family cooperatives in Madanpura. Ask the weaver politely if you can watch them work for five minutes; most will happily explain the shuttle mechanism while continuing their work.

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