Pashupatinath means lord of living beings. Literally “Pashu” means animal “Pati and nath” meaning lord or owner.  Shiva Puran says how lord Shiva was called Pashupatinath.

Once Lord Shiva got exhausted living in the Kailash Parbat all the time, he vanished without telling anybody. Goddess Parbati, his wife, was very worried when Shiva did not show up for many days. Through her spiritual vision goddess Parbati saw that in a beautiful valley of Kathmandu in the place known as Mirgasthali there was a golden deer grazing along with other flock. Goddess Parvati knew it was Lord Shiva. She went as a disguise herself as deer too and went to Mirgasthali. Both Lord Shiva and goddess Parvati stayed there for long period of time enjoying as deer life.  The absence of Shiva and Parvati other deities started having trouble from devils and monsters. They also used their spiritual vision and found both lord Shiva and Parvati dwelling in the forest of Mirgasthali. In order to get hold of them lord Bhrama and Vishnu made a plan to catch the deer.  Bhramaha and Vishnu tried to catch the deer Lord Brahama could only get hold of one of the horn. The horn soon broke into three pieces. One of the pieces dropped in Gokarna, second dropped in Sleshmantak forest and the main piece dropped and vanished in the place where present Shiva Linga of Pashupatinath sits.

Many years later a cow grazers in the valley saw his cow showering milk at a particular place every day.  Being curious he dug the place and found the three and half feet tall Shiva lingam with four faces. It is believed that the cow grazer could not survive the heat from the lingam and was burnt into ashes.

Along with the temple of Lord Shiva Pashupatinth, Pashupati premises has hundreds of temples and thousands of idols of various gods and goddesses. There are 64 Shiva lingams of various sizes in the right side of the Shiva temple. Also on the right side there is a Bhairav temple with the idol of Bhairav about 6 feet tall.  The temple of Ganesh, laxmi, Swaraswiti, Narayan, a big idol of Hanuman stands in front of Shiva temple. A big idol of ox (Nandi) sits in front of main temple. On the back of the temple there is a temple of serpent god Bashuki. On the eastern side, there are stairs to reach the Bagmati River. On the bank of the river the cremation ceremony takes place. On the other side of the river various temples of different gods and goddess are present. Main amongst the temples is the temple of Biswaroop. Biswaroop is the idol of Lord Vishnu showing Arjuna all his avatars. Also through the woods on the same way we reach Guheswori temple. 

Every day a feast of 84 types of food is prepared for lord Shiva and at about 12 the food is taken inside the main temple to feed lord Shiva. This is done only by main Bhatta (main Priest of Pashupati temple). An hour long pooja is performed. In order to feed lord Shiva and to prepare the idol after the feast.

On the fun moon day (purnima) the feast is provided to the general public in the big plate on the floor in right hand side of the temple.  Every evening the Aarati is done with songs and dances. Devotees specially come to see this aarati. Besides this different styles of artwork can be seen in Pashupati premises. Wood carved in the Tudals, metal works, stone carvings are also one of the main attractions of pashupatinath. Although different precious artworks are present in the temple, pictures cannot be taken. Cameras are not allowed in the temple.