Kakrebihar
The lost ruined into a majestic renovation
Kakrebihar, situated in an isolated hill-top at the heart of Surkhet Valley of western Nepal, is a very important place from a historical and archeological point of view. The artistic images beautifully carved in the stones made the Bihar one of the iconic and most noteworthy in Nepal. The symbols found here portray the life history of the Buddha in an exquisite way.
A 10-minutes ride from the Birendra Chwok, at the distance of 3 kms, one can reach to Kakrebihar. On the route from the entrance gate, a lush green forest mostly of Sal trees covered the entire hill. Once you reach at the top, anyone would be mesmerized by the excellence of architectural carvings taking you back to the history.
It is believed to be built in 11–12th century, during the time of Mallas’ by the then Khas King of Jumla, Ashoka Challa (Challa afterward changed as Malla). It’s evident that the Khasa Malla dynasty ruled a kingdom here with the seasonal capitals at Sinja and Dulla, whose kingdom extent from Tibet to India. Few other presumptions were made that the bihar was devastated in the earthquake of 1890 AD or few archeologists have said it was demolished in 16th century by the followers of Shankharacharya in an effort to stop spread of Buddhism. However, there’s lack of clear portrayal of historical evidences and documents in relation to Kakrebihar. There’s an only evidence where Kavrebihar was mentioned is in the manuscript “abhisamayalankara” preserved in the sPon K’an monastery in Tibet that was copied from an original at Kakrebihar (Hawkes, Jason: Kingship, Buddhism and the Forging of a Region, Medieval Pilgrimage in West Nepal).
First discovered by Guru Yogi Narharinath in 1950 AD and later when the then King Birendra first visited Surkhet Valley in 1973–74 AD, he covered the place to shield with metal fence and organized afforestation. Thereafter, only in 2002 AD, Department of Archeology (DoA) excavated the Kankrebihar and published a document “Surkhetisthan Kakrebihar ko Adhyayan Prativedan”. Now after 18 years of excavation, the bihar is at the state of completing the full restoration. For the renovations works, eight stone craftsmen from Bhaktapur are working hard shaping the exact copies of broken pieces.
Different legends associated to the name of this place “Kakrebihar” said that the geographical shape of the hill looked like a Cucumber, that’s why it is said Kakrebihar. On the other hand, there’s another tale linked to this, i.e. the structure was entirely built with sandystone/limestone, which is called “Kankar (कंकर)” in Sanskrit. Therefore, it was assumed that the name was eventually drifted from KankarBihar to KakreBihar.
Archaeology
This archeological site has deeply shown the inclination of the Khas Malla Empire towards religion, craftmanship and culture. The six-metre tall shikhara-style temple illustrates the conglomeration of art and architecture associated with Hinduism and Buddhism. The carved images and miniature shikharas indicated the spread of Mahayana school of Buddhism. The temple consists of the life history of Buddha in the carved images. This has proven the Khas Malla period as a center of Buddhism. Alongside the skillfully craved buddhist images, we can also observe the images of Shiva, Parvati and Saraswati in the temple. Many of such images are now preserved in the Birendranagar Regional Museum of the Government of Nepal.
At present, the ruined site of Kakrebihar is at the last stage of renovation.
