Top 10 Haunted Places in Nepal and the Stories Behind Them

Most of the places on this list do not look spooky. A forest path, a water tank, a highway, a river bank, a field in the middle of a city. What makes them haunted is a story that someone told, and that people kept telling.

These ten places come up again and again in Nepali ghost stories, travel lists and local lore. They are ordered by how widely each story is told and how much there is to it, not by proof. None of these hauntings has been verified, and the versions often disagree with each other. Read them as folklore, which is worth reading for its own sake.

How ghosts work in Nepali tradition. Many Nepali ghosts come from "bad deaths": deaths that were sudden or violent, or that happened without the proper funeral rites. A 2025 article in the journal Himalaya makes that point about the kichkandi (also spelled kichkini), the best-known female ghost in Nepali folklore. In the folk telling she is the spirit of a woman tied to an uncremated part of her body, usually a bone, and you can recognise her by her feet, which point backwards. Keep that in mind as you read. Many of the stories below begin with someone who died badly, or alone.

Raniban, Achham

_{Two shrines in Dhamali, in Achham District. Raniban is in the same district; this is not a photo of the forest itself. Photo: Raj Kumar Banjara / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0}

Where: Achham District, far-western Nepal.

Raniban is the name most often found at the top of Nepal's haunted-place lists. It means roughly "queen's forest", and one account says a queen once spent her days there. The ghost story is much darker.

Locals tell of a young woman who was attacked and killed under a tree in the forest. In some versions the man responsible was found hanging from a tree in the same forest two days later. Since then, people say, they hear a girl crying near the tree where it happened. When they go to look, no one is there.

Worth knowing: the versions differ on what happened, and none of the sources we found points to a police record or a named witness. It is a story passed on by word of mouth. The area is remote, so go with someone who knows it.

Narayanhiti Palace Museum, Kathmandu

The Narayanhiti Palace Museum seen after closing time _{The museum after closing time. Photo: Sakshamtamu / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0}

Where: central Kathmandu.

On the evening of 1 June 2001, King Birendra, Queen Aishwarya and other members of the royal family were shot dead inside the palace compound. An official inquiry blamed Crown Prince Dipendra, who was left in a coma by a gunshot wound and died three days later. Some Nepalis have never fully accepted that account. After the monarchy was abolished in 2008, the palace became a museum.

Travel sites list it among Nepal's haunted places. One list claims that people nearby still hear gunfire and sobbing at night, even after many religious rites were performed. We found no first-hand account to back that up.

Worth knowing: this is recent history, and families lost people here. Treat it as a museum first and a ghost story second. Cameras are usually not allowed inside, so check the rules at the gate.

Dhapasi Water Tank, Kathmandu

_{A general view of Dhapasi. The photo does not show the water tank. Photo: mohigan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0}

Where: Dhapasi, near Basundhara, in northern Kathmandu.

The tank once supplied drinking water to the neighbourhood. Then people began to hear crying and screaming from it. In the version told most often, a man was robbed nearby, hurt while he resisted, and the robbers pushed him into the tank and locked the lid. Other tellings say he was mugged and killed, and his body was dumped inside. Locals are said to avoid the area, even in daytime.

Worth knowing: this is a classic city legend, the kind that spreads through a neighbourhood and grows with every telling. At least one Nepali-language-learning blog presents it openly as local lore, not fact. A water tank is a piece of infrastructure, not a sight. Do not climb it or go inside any fence.

Devghat, Chitwan

_{Bageshwori Temple in the forest at Devghat. Photo: Rajesh Dhungana / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0}

Where: where the Kali Gandaki and Trishuli rivers meet, near Bharatpur in Chitwan.

Devghat is a holy place. Hindus come to bathe at the confluence, and older pilgrims have long stayed here in their last years. That makes the ghost story stranger. Travel sites say locals have seen women dancing alone at night with fire burning around them. One version says four women appear every night, set themselves alight and perform rituals. Some tellings begin with bones found at the site, a skull in one and a woman's skeleton in another. Others add voices crying and singing in the dark.

Worth knowing: the accounts disagree, and we found no police record for any of them. One blog notes that nobody has ever tried to find out who the women are.

Sundarijal, Kathmandu

_{The dam at Sundarijal, inside Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park. Photo: Subhmanish / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0}

Where: about 15 km north-east of Kathmandu, inside Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park. It is also the start of the trek to Chisapani.

The name means "beautiful water", and the place is mostly known as a pleasant day out from the city. The legend is darker. Locals are said to believe the river runs through a dense forest where tortured souls are trapped. People who tried to reach the water are said to have drowned mysteriously, and the spirits of those who died badly in the river are said to linger. One list calls it "the river that requires human sacrifice".

Worth knowing: none of the sources names a victim or a date. Mountain streams are genuinely dangerous in the monsoon, and that may be how a story like this begins. Stay on the marked trails and out of swollen water.

Tundikhel, Kathmandu

_{Tundikhel, the big open parade ground in central Kathmandu. Photo: Bijay Chaurasia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0}

Where: the large open ground in the middle of Kathmandu.

This is the one haunting on the list that became an annual ritual for keeping the ghost away. In the Newar story, a demon called Gurumapa lived in a tree on the field and preyed on the city's children. The people found ways to destroy him, but they feared his spirit might come back. So every year at Ghode Jatra, the horse festival that falls in March or April, horses gallop across Tundikhel and their hooves trample the spirit. Another telling gives the demon the name Tundi, which would explain the field's name, and says the faster the horses run, the more completely he is driven off. There is also a tradition of leaving food for Gurumapa at the base of the tree at night.

Worth knowing: you can watch this one for yourself. Ghode Jatra is a public event, and most of Kathmandu turns out for it.

Nava Durga Temples, Bhaktapur

_{The Nava Durga dance at Bhaktapur Durbar Square, 2015. Photo: Prayash Shrestha / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0}

Where: Bhaktapur, east of Kathmandu.

Bhaktapur's nine Nava Durga shrines are sacred. Their masked dancers are believed to carry the goddesses, and the shrines are said to protect the city. They are also, in the words of one local tourism site, spooky. The site records a family story about a "praying ghost" near the shrines, told by the writer's grandfather, who farmed in the valley when it was mostly open fields. A local blog mentions a ghostly figure near Siddha Pokhari, and the city has its "barking bell" beside Vatsala Temple, said to upset dogs whenever it is rung.

Worth knowing: these stories are family memories, not claims about the temples. The shrines are active places of worship, so be quiet and respectful, especially during festivals.

Mugling–Narayanghat Highway

_{The Madan Ashrit Highway (H05) at Mugling. Photo: Anup Sadi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0}

Where: the Madan Ashrit Highway between Mugling and Narayanghat.

A travel list says that in older days, drivers on this road met odd, unexplained happenings even in daytime, though it adds that heavy traffic at night means such reports have stopped. Mugling's reputation may owe something to real history. It was reported to have become a ghost town in 2005, when the civil war and rising crime left it deserted.

Worth knowing: this is the thinnest story on the list, and we found no first-hand account. The real dangers on this road are landslides in the rains and heavy trucks, so travel in daylight.

Pashupatinath Cremation Ghats, Kathmandu

_{The cremation ghats on the Bagmati River at Pashupatinath. Photo: Josep M. Gracia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0}

Where: the bank of the Bagmati River, in the Pashupatinath temple complex, east Kathmandu.

Haunted-place lists name Aryaghat, and say people hear screams and strange noises there. You will also hear a tale about cannibal Aghori sadhus, mostly told to tourists. One travel writer calls it a bogeyman story, says it is not true at Pashupatinath, and notes that Aghori are far more likely to be found on the ghats of Varanasi in India.

So why is it on the list? Because it is a place where death is part of every day. Families bring their dead here to be cremated beside the river, and that alone gives the ghats an atmosphere no ghost is needed to explain.

Worth knowing: cremations are private family rites. Keep your camera down, do not photograph mourners, and keep your distance.

Mount Everest

_{Mount Everest at sunset. The China–Nepal border runs across the summit. Photo: Nir B. Gurung / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0}

Where: the Nepal–China (Tibet) border, above the Khumbu valley.

More than 300 climbers have died on Everest, which is part of why it turns up on haunted lists. The name that comes up most is Andrew "Sandy" Irvine. He and George Mallory vanished near the summit in 1924. Mallory's body was found in 1999. In 2024, a National Geographic team reported finding a boot with a sock stitched "A.C. IRVINE" on the Central Rongbuk Glacier, on the Tibetan side, which the photographer Jimmy Chin called the first real evidence of where Irvine ended up.

Some lists say his ghost walks the mountain. None of the sources we found names a witness.

Worth knowing: the mountain is a grave as much as a destination. Lack of oxygen at altitude is known to cause hallucinations, which may explain some climbers' stories of a presence beside them.

What the list has in common. Put side by side, the stories follow a pattern. Someone dies in a way nobody can explain or put right, and the place carries the story afterwards. You do not need to believe in ghosts to see why people keep telling them.

If you go looking, go carefully.

Visit in daylight, and take someone local to remote places such as Raniban or the Sundarijal forest trails.
Treat the palace museum, the temples and the ghats as what they are: places of history, worship and mourning.
Stay out of fenced utility sites such as water tanks, and off private land.
Do not drive mountain roads at night to chase a ghost story. Landslides and trucks are the real hazard.
If a place is home to someone, ask them for their story. Do not tell them it is haunted.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most haunted place in Nepal? There is no official answer. Raniban in Achham District is the place named most often at the top of lists, but that reflects how widely the story is told, not any evidence.

Are these places safe to visit? Most are ordinary places that happen to have a story: a museum, a temple complex, a park, a parade ground. The remote ones, such as Raniban and the Sundarijal forest, call for daylight and a local guide.

What is a kichkandi? A female ghost in Nepali folklore. She is said to be the spirit of a woman who died badly, tied to an unburned bone, and is recognised by her backward-facing feet.

Know a place with a story that is not on this list? Tell us through the Contact page.

Photo credits. All photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons licences. Click each to see its page and licence. Narayanhiti Palace Museum (Nirajan pant, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Achham shrines (Raj Kumar Banjara, CC BY-SA 3.0) · Museum after closing time (Sakshamtamu, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Dhapasi (mohigan, CC BY-SA 3.0) · Bageshwori Temple, Devghat (Rajesh Dhungana, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Sundarijal Dam (Subhmanish, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Tundikhel (Bijay Chaurasia, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Nava-Durga Dance (Prayash Shrestha, CC BY-SA 4.0) · H 5 at Mugling (Anup Sadi, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Pashupatinath ghats (Josep M. Gracia, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Everest at sunset (Nir B. Gurung, CC BY-SA 4.0)