Sankhu and Type 010 minesweeper

Sankhu (alternative name: Sakwa (Nepal Bhasa: सक्व)) is the main town of Pukhulachhi Village Development Committee (VDC) of Kathmandu District in the northwestern Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. There is discussion of Sankhu being merged with neighbouring VDCs (Bajrayogini and Suntol) into the municipality of Shankarpur. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 2097 living in 353 individual households.

This place is also known as the Eighty Siddhas as there are four of five caves where the siddhas of India are said to have stayed. One of the caves is also said to have been the practice cave of Nagarjuna, and an image of the great master which was originally in the cave has been taken outside and placed some distance away.

The present temple was built by Raja Prakas Malla in 1655. It enshrines the main sacred representations of this site, Ugra-tara manifesting as Ekazati, which are said to give very powerful blessings, particularly the image in the upper temple. The image in the lower temple is red in colour with one face and four arms, two of which hold a skull-cup (kapala) and knife at her heart, and the remaining two hold a sword and an utpala lotus. In the upper temple is an identical image of Ugra-tara in bell metal, in which her left leg is outstretched. In the upper temple is the loom of the Nepali Princess Brhikuti, spouse of the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo. In both the upper and lower temples, Bajrayogini is flanked Baghini and Singhini, the Tiger and Lion-headed Yoginis. In the same upper room in the upper temple is a solid bronze standing Buddha and a standing Lokeshvara. Below this shrine room is a small room containing self-arisen (Swayambhu) stupa in stone.

On the hill behind there is a courtyard in the centre of which is a basin containing the “Water of the Kalpa” which never dries up. In the building immediately to the left of the stairs, there is also an eternal fire or “Fire of the Kalpa”. Further up, on top of the hill, is the Mani-linga.

Nearby villages include Palubari. Religion and pilgrimage

In the Kathmandu Valley Padmasambhava made a pilgrimage to Sankhu where he met Shakyadevi and took her to Yangleshö. Vairotsana, leaving Tibet after his teachings were slandered, stopped in Nepal and offered a golden icon to the monastery of Sankhu. Guru Rinpoche left a number of termas in Sankhu and around. Sankhu fasting

Sankhu is also the site of the month long worship to the God Madhav Narayan. The brata is a tribute to the God through fasting, meditation and ritual bathing by women and mens too. It begins on the full moon of the Nepali month of Poush and ends on the full moon of the Nepali month of Magh.

Mens & women spend 31 days at the temple, sleeping, eating and meditating. It is believed mens & women who perform this puja will have their wish granted. Outside the temple, the riverbank of the Sali Nadi is thought to be the site where Goddess Parvati bathed during her month of meditations dedicated to Swasthani.

The temple of Bajrayogini(Khadgayogini) is one of identity of Sankhu. It is situated on middle of hill. The goddess are worshipped with high beliefs. The goddess are known as 'Mhasukhwamaju'(Nepal Bhasa:म्हासुख्वा माजु) means yellow faced and 'Hyaunkhwaamaju'(Nepal Bhasa:ह्याउंख्वा माजु) means red face. The nine days jatra of Mhasukhwamaju and other Baghini, Singhini and a stupa shaped Buddha starts on the day of full moon 'Purnima' and continues for nine days, after the goddess are brought to Sankhu they are kept on different places on the basis of rotation within four gates of Sankhu. The fifth day of jatra is known as main jatra(Nepal Bhasa:मु: जात्रा) when goddess are taken around Sankhu within four gates. The day to bring goddess in Sankhu is called 'to be brought down'(Nepal Bhasa:क्वाहाँ बिज्या) and the day to take goddess is called 'to be taken up'(Nepal Bhasa:थाहाँ बिज्या). These god and goddess are unique than that of other so its importance is high to inhabitants of Sankhu.

Those four gates have their own significance, one of them is the entry and exit gate of godess Bajrayogini from temple, next to bring bride to groom's house , another to send daughter after marriage and last one to take dead body of human out of Sankhu to burn or bury. These area within gates are considered as real Sankhu by people according to cultural beliefs and historical scripts and books but political division has extended its boundary. External links

Type 010 minesweeper and Sankhu

Contents 1 Type 6605 2 Type 6610 3 Type 05 4 Type 010 5 Shuguan class 6 References

Type 6605

Type 6605 is the Chinese version of the original Soviet Project 254K minesweeper, with several modifications to meet Chinese needs, which include converting Russian oven to Chinese oven, conversion of fuel tanks, and the addition of fans for air conditioning. A total of four was completed from March, 1955 thru December 19, 1957. Type 6610

Type 6610 is the Chinese version of the original Soviet Project 254M minesweeper, with a dozen modifications to meet Chinese needs, which include all conversion made in Type 6605, and furthermore, additional modifications included conversion of storage room, upgrade of ventilation system and electric power generator. A total of four were completed. Type 05

Type 05 is also referred as South Sea Design (Nan-Hai Fang-An, 南海方案), a design built by Guangzhou shipyard, tailored specifically for operations in South China Sea. The most important upgrade includes the replacement of the forward twin 37 mm gun with a single 85 mm gun, and the replacement of manual loading of the ammunition by electrical ones. The water heater and heating system were deleted and replaced by air conditioning system. Diesel power generator is also upgraded to meet the demand of the new air conditioning system. Subsequently, the design was adopted by most units in the Chinese navy.

Type 010

The origin of this class is rooted from the need to solve the typical problem of minesweepers: due to the special needs of the mine countermeasure requirement, the minesweeper is the most expensive type of warship to acquire and operate in terms of tonnage. In order to reduce the operational and life cycle cost, the People's Liberation Army Navy has adopted the same practice of the Royal Navy: using the minesweepers as patrol boats, and the heavy patrolling duties thus has significantly reduced the overall cost of minesweepers.

To strengthen the ship for long range heavy patrol duties, the Chinese added more weapons to their Type 010 class minesweeper, resulting in a more heavily armed version than the original Soviet T-43 class: four extra Chinese Type 61 25 mm guns (II x 2) and a single Type 90K 85 mm gun were added, while eight Chinese 14.5 mm heavy machine guns (II x 4) replaced the less powerful 12.7 mm machine guns of the original T-43 class. In addition, living accommodations were also upgraded to have some limited crew comfort improvement for the long patrol duties. This class proved itself as a good class of patrol boats during the Battle of the Paracel Islands, the 1974 naval battle fought between South Vietnam and China in the South China Sea, being the largest Chinese naval unit fought in the battle, taking on the South Vietnamese frigates eight times its size, and successfully sinking one South Vietnamese frigate and damaging the other two. Although both of the Type 010 class suffered damage, some severe, all were rapidly repaired and back on patrol with a few months. Two boats fought the battle were # 389 & # 396, and # 396 was heavily damaged in the battle and was forced to beach itself, but was repaired after the battle and was back in action. The repair cost of # 396 was the most costly among all Chinese combatants in the naval engagement.

In addition to the increased armament, the Chinese version is slightly larger than their Soviet counterparts and instead of the 58 meters length of the original Soviet T-43 class minesweeper, the Chinese Type 010 class minesweeper is 60 meters long. The Chinese Type 010 class minesweeper also has greater displacement: 590 tons instead of the 570 ton of the original Soviet T-43 class minesweeper. In order to man the extra weaponry, the numbers of total complement is increased from the original 65 - 70 of the Soviet T-43 class minesweeper to 80. Both of Type 010 and T-43 class minesweepers can be used as minelayers and submarine chasers, but the T-43 class cannot be used for patrol roles. Drastic changes were made in comparison to the original Soviet Project 254 design, with total of 818 modifications / upgrades were applied to the Type 010 design, which was finalized in December 1981, 23 years after the first Type 6610 entered service, and the prolonged development was mainly due to the political turmoil in China.

The several units of the original T-43 class minesweepers transferred from former-Soviet Union have all being retired from active service, placed into reserve fleets subordinated to naval militia for weapon training, while some of the Type 010 class minesweepers remain active despite their age and obsolescence. Shuguan class

Shuguan (曙光, meaning dawn) class is the conversion of Type 6610 for ocean surveillance duties, which was the fifth unit built. Later on, a dedicated unit was built for ocean surveillance role from the start. Pennant numbers for these two ships are Beidiao (北调, meaning Northern Investicate) 994 and 998, and both served in the North Sea Fleet. Both units have since retired.
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