Makar Mela Panauti

Makar Mela in Panauti is a Maghe Sankranti bathing festival held at the town's Triveni Ghat, where the Roshi and Punyamati rivers are traditionally said to meet, joined by a third, mystical river believed to originate from the historic Indreshwar Mahadev temple. Every twelve years, the festival grows into a much larger Barah Barse Makar Mela, drawing far bigger crowds.

Panauti, a medieval trading town southeast of Kathmandu on the old salt route between Tibet and India, holds a religious significance disproportionate to its modest size, built around its Triveni Ghat, a confluence point where the Roshi and Punyamati rivers meet and where local tradition holds a third, unseen river also joins from beneath the town's Indreshwar Mahadev temple.