Pashupatinath at night: the evening aarati, the cremations and what non-Hindus can see
4 min read
The short answer
You can see the evening aarati without a guide, but a guide is the easier way to understand what you are watching. The Pashupatinath Temple Evening Aarati Tour is a three-hour private evening with a licensed English-speaking guide, hotel pickup and the ceremony itself. Its page describes the aarati as beginning around 6 pm, with priests chanting and waving oil lamps, on the bank of the Bagmati River on the temple’s eastern side.
What non-Hindus can and cannot enter
Pashupatinath is one of the seven UNESCO zones of the Kathmandu Valley and Nepal’s most important Shiva temple. The Nepal Tourism Board states that the main temple complex is open only to Hindus, and that non-Hindus can watch from the terraces across the Bagmati to the east. The Evening Aarati Tour’s page places the aarati on the eastern bank, so staying outside the main temple does not mean missing the ceremony. What you lose is the interior of the temple, and no tour changes that.
Aarati, cremations, or both
The ceremony is a nightly worship ritual of lamps, bells and Vedic chanting. The cremation ghats are a separate part of the same riverbank. A reviewer of the Aarati Night Tour writes that they watched a live cremation alongside the aarati, and the Boudhanath and Pashupatinath day tour states in its itinerary that you will witness open-air cremation rituals with a guide. These are real funerals, not a performance: decide in advance whether you are comfortable with that, keep your distance from the families, and follow your guide on where photography is allowed. The aarati tour’s page itself only promises photography “in permitted areas”.
The tours compared
| Tour | Duration | Format | From price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pashupatinath Temple Evening Aarati Tour | 3 hours | Private group, English guide, hotel pickup | €27.41 per person | 4.9 / 5 from 89 reviews |
| Pashupatinath Temple Aarti Night Tour | 3 hours | Private group, licensed English-speaking guide, hotel pickup | €61.66 per person | 4.8 / 5 from 29 reviews |
| Sacred Pashupatinath: Aarati, Cremation Rites & Boudha Stupa | 2–5 hours | Private or small groups, Boudhanath first, then Pashupatinath | €9.56 per person | 5.0 / 5 from 25 reviews |
Tickets and extras
Pashupatinath charges entry: the Nepal Tourism Board’s fee list gives NPR 1,000 per day for foreign visitors. On the first two pages an entry ticket to Pashupatinath is among the listed services, and the Evening Aarati Tour also carries a “skip the ticket line” tag; ask the operator to confirm that the ticket is in your price. The third page names the entry fees, NRs 1,000 at Pashupatinath and NRs 400 at Boudhanath, and its itinerary marks both stops “Extra fee”, so budget for them on top of the price and carry some rupees.
Who should think twice
The Aarati Night Tour marks itself wheelchair accessible; the other two pages do not mark it, and the temple terraces are an old pilgrimage site, so ask what the accessible route is before booking. The combined tour with Boudhanath lists children under 12 and people with respiratory issues as not suitable. It is also the longer outing, two to five hours at two sites, which is more than you need if you only want the aarati, and its page says in one place that the guide meets you at the Pashupatinath ticket counter and you arrange your own transport, while another line lists hotel pickup: check the option before you book. Anyone who finds a public cremation distressing should choose a different evening activity, because it is part of what the ghats are for.
Our recommendation
For most visitors the Pashupatinath Temple Evening Aarati Tour is the clearest choice: it is built around the ceremony alone. Take the Boudha Stupa combination if you also want the kora around Boudhanath on the same trip.
