Sankhu Village, Kathmandu, Bagmati Nepal

Sankhu (alternative name: Sakwa is a place made of combination of different parts of three Village Development Committees, Bajrayogini, Pukhulachhi, and Suntol, in Kathmandu District in the Bagmati Zone of central Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 2097 living in 353 individual households

This place is also known as the Eighty Siddhas as there are four of five caves where the siddhas of India are said to have stayed. One of the caves is also said to have been the practice cave of Nagarjuna, and an image of the great master which was originally in the cave has been taken outside and placed some distance away.

Sankhu, one of the oldest Newar village of the Kathmandu valley holds pristine natural surroundings and offers a galore of culture and heritage of the Goddess Vajrayogini and Newar people. Sankhu, derived from the original Newar language Sakwo: means the settlement next to the Tibet. As the name suggests, it was once a small but vibrant Newar city before it lost its prominence as the trade route to Tibet following construction of the Aarniko Highway connecting Kathmandu to the Chinese border in 1960s.

On the hill behind there is a courtyard in the centre of which is a basin containing the “Water of the Kalpa” which never dries up. In the building immediately to the left of the stairs, there is also an eternal fire or “Fire of the Kalpa”. Further up, on top of the hill, is the Mani-linga