Shaligrams

Shaligrams are basically ammonite fossils found in the Muktinath region. To cut the long story short Mustang was a seabed 40-50 millions of years ago. Then the Eurasian plate and the Indian plate had a bit of an argument and collided with each other giving rise to the high scaling mountains of the Himalayas. To this day these plates have not settled down and the Mt. Everest's is increasing by 4mm per year. Now that you know that Mustang was once a seabed it is easy to speculate with a bit of common sense that there used to be sea creatures in this region millions of years ago. Do you start to get the idea where the fossils come from? It's not magic you know. To this day there are fossils found engraved in stones near the Jhong river bank. And Nepalese being the religious devotees they worship these ammonite fossils as a god. The Hindus worship it as Lord Vishnu probably because Vishnu is known as the creator god in the Hindu pantheon. And given the fact the fact that the colliding of the plates started a new life form in Mustang, it isn't hard to miss why the fossils are worshipped as Lord Vishnu. The Buddhists worship the very ammonite fossils as a serpent deity known as Gawa Jogpa. There is a shaligram kept in the main Vishnu Temple of Muktinath as well. Have a closer look while you are there.