Ram Chandra Temple

Kathmandu


Reached through an innocuous entryway to the southwest of the ruined Jaisi Deval platform, this courtyard is named after Ram, an incarnation of Vishnu and the hero of the Hindu epic, the Ramayana. This small temple is notable for the tiny erotic scenes on its roof struts; it looks as if the carver set out to illustrate 16 different positions, starting with the missionary position, and just about made it before running out of ideas (there’s one particularly ambitious, back-bending position).

The temple suffered cracks, bows and a serious lean during the 2015 earthquake, but is still open.