Time is frozen in Khokana, an antiquated city eight kilometres from Kathmandu’s chaotic city centre. Wander here and feel as if you’ve stepped into the medieval age—the huddled settlement surrounded by farmland and the impenetrable hill to the south, with the Bagmati River in its lap.
The village is believed to be blessed by Sikali Devi (one among the thirty-three million gods and goddesses of Hinduism) and has a fascinating tale on the origin of its name. Legend has it that a Maharjan priest – a Hindu-Buddhist Newar caste group of Nepal – who was pronounced dead came back to life seconds before his cremation, with his wife as ‘Sati’- a Hindu practice in which the wife is burnt in the funeral pyre of her husband. Despite the miracle, the couple was not allowed back in the village. They then ran away, weeping and narrating their sad story to strangers they met along the way and settled in the present-day Khokana – the word Khokana means ‘weeping while telling’.
