Bala Tripura Sundari Temple

According to the legend, a king named Bikram Shahi ruled the area and the temple now where it stands was his palace.[1] His workes when beat rice in okhal, they found the rice was doubled. This mystery led the king to excavate the area in around 1114 BS. He found a statue of Bhagwati standing in a Sadkon Yantra. Many butterflies came out of the excavated pit. One of the butterflies went to sit in the location where the current temple lies. When human tried to catch the butterfly, it transformed into stone.[5] The first priest was Bistas appointed by king Bikram Shahi. Later Chaulagai, Sinkhadas, Neupane and Upadhya Bhramins were appointed as priests.[5]

During excavation work of Okhall one butterfly was hurt and changed into statue while villagers attempted to catch it. Among remaining eight butterflies, five butterflies flied to different places of Nepal and now they are established as a religious centre with different named as Kanika Sundari in Jumla district, Bagheshwori in Nepalgunj district, KhairaBang Bhagawoti in Salyan district, Tripureshwori Bhagawoti in Baitadi district and BadiMalika in Doti district.

Three butterflies changed to statue while villagers attempt to catch them. Observing the transformation of butterflies to statue while attempting to catch them, villagers discussed about what to do next with those butterflies. But this happening was already dreamed by Kaji Bista, a villager. He dreamed “we were nine sister of Durga Bhagawati,villagers have to construct a temple at the place where there exist Okhall and do regular worship and prayer from Brahmin of Neupane Caste.” In the next morning Kaji Bista discussed his dream with villagers and villagers constructed a small temple over the place of Okhall. During that period Neupane castes Brahmin were not present on Tibrikot District. These have created problem and pressure in dwellers of Tibrikot. So they decided to call Brahmin from Jumla district. But fortunately Sukdev Neupane of Jumla along with a group were returning from Muktinath and stay at Bala Tripura Sundari Bhagawati temple which lies on the way of muktinath to Jumla.Villagers realized to share the dream related to worshiping of Statute with Sukdev Neupane hoping to let him stay at temple as regular priest and villagers will manage all necessary properties (land, house, money, etc) for him to stay at Tibrikot. But group of Sukdev refused villager’s proposal and moved for Jumla. But one the way to Jumla from Tibrikot near the Temple there lie’s a river named Tamrawani. While crossing the river Sukdev and his groups were unable to see anything i.e, the blindness was developed on them, but as they attempt to return back to Bala Tripura Sundari Bhagawati temple their blindness problem disappeared. They felt that this was effect of goddess Bala Tripura Sundari Bhagawati. So Brahmin Sukdev Neupane decided to stay at temple as regular priest. After the establishment of temple, Tibrikot name was changed and known as Tripurakot. Up to date regular worship and prayer are being done by Sukdev Neupane and his generations.

In 2035 BS, the temple was renovated by the Nepal Government.[5] Again on September 10, 2015, under the leadership of temple trustee, Laxmi Kant Upadhaya, and with the government of India grant assistance of NRs 33.3 million, H.E. Ambassador of India Shri Ranjit Rae inaugurated the renovated temple.[6] The renovation of the temple has upgraded the old structure with improved facilities for 20,000 pilgrims visiting the temple every year and enhanced the cultural looks for which temple trustee brought the woodcarver, a stone carver from Lalitpur and Bhaktapur district as these cities woodcarver, stonecarver have great craftmanship and as Dolpa begin situated as a remote part of Nepal, all the tools, materials, human resources were taken from flight to Dolpa.

You can reach to temple by air or road.

By Road

From the capital, Kathmandu, you can reach Nepalgunj by plane or bus, and from Nepalgunj, you can reach Surket by road. From there, you can take a bus to Rimnaa, Raadi, and Tallu in Jajarkot. From there, you will take a ride to Tribheni. After that, you will walk for an hour and reach Tirpurakot.

Before Renovation of Shree Bala Tripura Sundari Devi Bhagawoti Temple, Dolpa

• In 2018, the Dalit community of Nepal were allowed to enter the temple for the first time in history.[3]

• List of Hindu temples in Nepal