Shivaratri at Pashupatinath

At Pashupatinath in Kathmandu, Maha Shivaratri brings pilgrims and wandering holy people together for the worship of Shiva. Some sadhus smoke cannabis during the gathering. Their practice is one part of a much larger religious observance, involving prayer, fasting, pilgrimage and a night-long vigil; cannabis is not a requirement for every devotee.

The festival makes the tension between custom and prohibition unusually visible. Nepal’s national law prohibits cannabis, yet authorities have often tolerated smoking around the temple during Shivaratri. That accommodation has changed over time and has not treated holy men, visitors and sellers in the same way.

Shiva’s great night

Maha Shivaratri means the Great Night of Shiva. Its date follows the Hindu lunar calendar and usually falls in February or March. Devotees remember Shiva through worship and meditation; many fast and remain awake through the night. Different traditions connect the observance with Shiva’s marriage, his dance or the manifestation of the lingam.

The Nepal Tourism Board identifies Shivaratri as Pashupatinath’s most important festival. Pilgrims arrive from Nepal and India, including sadhus and other ascetics, seeking darshan, the sight of the sacred Shiva lingam. The temple stands beside the Bagmati River, so the gathering extends across a landscape of shrines, riverbanks and nearby wooded ground.

Cannabis within the gathering

The association of Shiva with cannabis helps explain why smoking appears here as a devotional custom. Some of those taking part are the sadhus described elsewhere in this atlas. Their presence does not make all cannabis consumption at the festival an ascetic practice: visitors also smoke, and accounts describe sales around the gathering.

Smoking takes more than one form. The illustrated sadhu uses a cannabis cigarette at Pashupatinath; pipes also have a place in sadhu practice. The picture documents one participant, not a rule followed by every ascetic.

The custom also differs from bhang at Holi. Both connect cannabis with a Hindu festival, but Holi’s drinks and Pashupatinath’s smoking should not be collapsed into one universal ritual.

From temple distribution to restriction

The 1976 Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act criminalised cannabis nationally. Nevertheless, the Pashupatinath trust continued supplying holy men at Shivaratri. According to its director’s account in the Kathmandu Post, the supply came from confiscated cannabis held by the Home Ministry. The trust ended distribution in 1995 on King Birendra’s instruction.

Before the 2018 festival, police and the temple authorities warned that visitors holding or smoking cannabis would be arrested. Sadhus were treated differently, but were told not to sell or offer it to other visitors. This was a restriction on the festival’s customary tolerance, not a new national prohibition.

A continuing accommodation

At the February 2026 gathering, Associated Press again observed holy men and other devotees smoking near Pashupatinath. That documents continuing accommodation; it does not establish a blanket legal right. National legislation, temple administration and policing remain distinct parts of this history.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}