On Janai Purnima, when the moon is full in August, high caste Hindus chant the powerful Gayatri mantra and change their Sacred Thread (or janai) while a red or yellow protection chord (a raksya bandhan) is tied around the wrists of other Hindus and Buddhists. Many pilgrims journey to the mountains north of Kathmandu to emulate Lord Shiva by bathing in the sacred lake of Gosaikund.

Those unable to make the trek north, celebrate at Shiva's Kumbheshwar Mahadev temple. Here a pool with an image of Shiva at its centre is filled with water believed to have come from Gosaikund.