For long, the shaven-headed western adherents of the Hare Krishna movement have had to content themselves with praying to Pashupati from a distance. They are not allowed within the temple premises on the grounds that one is born a Hindu and conversion to Hinduism is not recognised by the shastras. Now it seems that being born a Hindu is not enough to enter the holiest Hindu shrine in Kathmandu; you have to be born in Nepal or in India. At least that was the reason provided by authorities at Pashupati while denying entry to 11 Hindus from Indonesia last week.

The 11 Indonesians from the predominantly Hindu province of Bali were in Nepal as part of a pilgrimage tour that started from India. "Their documents clearly show that they are born Hindus, and that should have been sufficient to gain them entrance to the shrine of their faith," said a furious Bishwesh Shrestha, the Nepali tour operator who organised the trip.

Having faced problems earlier at the Pashupati gates with other Indonesians, Shrestha had sought the advice of the World Hindu Federation (WHF). The WHF told him that since the pilgrims were bona fide Hindus, they shouldn't have any problem at all. But when the group reached Pashupati in the morning, they were turned back.

Shrestha and his clients returned in the afternoon with a letter addressed to the Mul Bhatta, the chief priest, of Pashupati requesting that the Indonesians be allowed to enter the temple. But the temple authorities not only refused to recognise the WHF endorsement but, according to Shrestha, the Mul Bhatta also said that the WHF is a Bombay organisation and not a Nepali one and as such he did not recognise its authority to make any recommendation. As for the Indonesians, they were told they could not be allowed in because they were not born either in Nepal or in India.

"We issued the recommendations on the basis of the official documents they carried. The documents identified them as Hindus, which we thought should be enough to let them into the temple," said Keshav Prasad Sapkota of the WHF. Indonesia has advisory status in the current executive body of the World Hindu Federation.

Tour operators like Shrestha are expecting some 300-400 Indonesian Hindus in the coming three months. But they fear that if the pilgrims are not going to be allowed into Pashupati it will certainly put a damper on their religious enthusiasm.