Maratika Cave and Maratika Monastery (Maratika is also known as Haleshi or Halase, 27.19006°N 86.622391°W) are located in Khotang District

Khotang District

Khotang District, a part of Sagarmatha Zone, is one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal, a landlocked country of South Asia. The district, with Diktel as its district headquarters, covers an area of 1,591 km² and has a population of 231,385. Khotang is part of the area traditionally called...

 in Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, circa 185 km south west of Mount Everest

Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...

. It is a venerated site of pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

 associated with Mandarava

Mandarava

Mandarava is, along with Yeshe Tsogyal, one of the two principal consorts of Padmasambhava and is considered a female guru-deity. Mandarava, born a princess in Mandi, Himachel Pradesh, India in the 8th Century CE, renounced her royal birthright in order to practice the Dharma, and became a fully...

, Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...

 and longevity

Longevity

The word "longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography or known as "long life", especially when it concerns someone or something lasting longer than expected ....

.

Mandarava and Padmasambhava realised a number of terma

Terma (Buddhism)

Terma are key Tibetan Buddhist and Bön teachings, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a...

 that had been elementally encoded as terma in Maratika Cave by Dakini Sangwa Yeshe, terma that number among the longevity teachings of Buddha

Buddhahood

In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...

 Amitabha

Amitabha

Amitābha is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism...

 and given at the behest of Bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

 Avalokiteswara. At Maratika Cave, Mandarava and Padmasambhava attained the Vidyadhara

Vidyadhara

Vidyadhara are a group of supernatural beings in Hindu mythology. They possess magical powers and dwell in the Himalayas. They also attend God Shiva, who lives in the Himalayas. They are considered as Upa-devas, semi-gods.-In Hindu epics:...

 of longevity or long life.

Original sources

According to current scholarship, the caves of Maratika are referred to in Himalayan

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

 literature from the 12th century. Kathang Zanglingma, a biography of Padmasambhava, a terma revealed and transmitted by Nyangrel Nyima Ozer, describes the original events which made the Maratika caves a sacred place for Vajrayana

Vajrayana

Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...

 practitioners.

Haleshi Mahadeva or Maratika Cave- The famous natural cave in Khotang District, said to be the abode of Mahadeva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

 while hiding away from the monster Bhasmasur

Bhasmasur

In Hindu mythology, Bhasmasur or Bhasmasura was an asura or demon who was granted the power that anyone whose head he touched with his hand should burn up and immediately turn into ashes...

. It is famous pilgrimage centre in east Nepal for both Hindus and Buddhist and is also nicknamed as 'the Pashupatinath

Shree Pashupatinath

Shree Pashupatinath is an incarnation of the Hindu Lord Shiva. He is revered throughout the Hindu world, but especially in Nepal where he is regarded as the national deity.- Etymology :...

 of the east'. Huge religious fairs are observed here on Shivaratri and Bala Chaturdashi.