This demonstrative wooden shrine depicts Bhairava, a violent or powerful (ugra) form of Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction. He is crowned, nimbate, and has a fierce countenance. He has six arms, but the lower left arm is now missing. His principal hands hold a flaying knife (kartika) and a skullcup (kapala). His upper right hand holds a kettledrum (damaru), while his lower right hand carries a rosary (akshamala). The attribute in his upper left hand is damaged and now undeterminable. He stands in a militant posture (alidha asana) with his right leg bent forward and his left leg extended with his feet supported by his human mount (nara vahana). Bhairava is framed by a pillared archway (torana) with an apotropaic "Face of Glory" (kirttimukha) at the apex and mythical aquatic creatures (makaras) at the base of the arch. Donor figures with their hands held in adoration (anjali mudra) are at the base of the columns. The shrine pedestal has a libation port in the center of an auspicious vase of plenty (purna kalasha).
Special rice beer (chhaang/chhyang or thwon) was dispensed from a ritual vessel behind the shrine through a filtered bamboo straw (pipsing or pipli) inserted into the port. It is drunk by devotees as a consecrated beverage during the annual Indra Jatra festival in Nepal. Celebrated principally in Kathmandu, the originally agricultural festival honors Indra, the ancient Hindu and Vedic (proto-Hindu) weather god, as the provider of the life-giving monsoon rains. See also M.74.10.1, M.77.7.2, M.81.210, and M.88.224.1.