Claim: A video claims to show a Gautam Buddha statue surrounded by floodwater during the 2026 floods in Nepal.
Fact: This claim is misleading. The video actually dates back to the floods that took place in September 2024.
Facebook user Jan M Shoro posted a video showing the Gautam Buddha statue safe amidst floodwaters in the Narayani River, Nepal. The user posted the video alongside the following Urdu caption:
يپال سيلاب ريلي ۾ گوتم ٻڌ جي مورتي محفوظ.. پوري دنيا ۾ ويڊيو وائرل کانپوء بحث ۾ مصروفـ. آهي
[Translation:”A statue of Gautam Buddha remained safe during the floods in Nepal; the incident has sparked widespread discussion after the video went viral globally.”]
Screenshot of viral Facebook clip.
Nepal-Tibet 2026 Floods
On 26 August 2026, a catastrophic flash flood struck Nepal’s Rasuwa district near the country’s border with China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs said the Bhote Koshi River began flooding at around 8:40 am, severely affecting communities along the river in Rasuwa as well as downstream areas of Nuwakot, Dhading, and Gorkha districts. The government launched search, rescue, and emergency relief operations and began moving survivors from affected areas.
Reuters reported that the flood followed the collapse of a huge mass of ice, mud, and rock in the Himalayan border region, which sent water, sediment, boulders, and other debris downstream through river systems connecting Tibet and Nepal. The torrent devastated villages, damaged homes, roads, bridges, and hydropower facilities, and badly damaged the strategically important Gyirong-Rasuwagadhi border crossing linking Nepal with Tibet. Scientists examining the disaster said unusually warm conditions and the instability of Himalayan glaciers may have contributed to the collapse, although investigations into the precise sequence of events is ongoing.
The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) reported that the flood sent a powerful surge of water, sediment, and boulders through the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli river systems and raised concerns about further downstream flooding. The disaster also disrupted a major route used for cross-border trade and by pilgrims travelling between Kathmandu and Tibet.
The scale of the disaster became clearer over the following days as rescue teams searched damaged settlements, riverbanks, and hydropower facilities. By 3 September, Reuters reported at least 1,252 people had died in Nepal and more than 4,200 remained missing, while around 20,000 homes required rebuilding in flood-affected areas along the country’s northern border. Thousands of Nepali security personnel and rescue workers remain involved in search operations.
Fact or Fiction?
To investigate the claim, Soch Fact Check retracted the keyframe of the Gautam Buddha statue and conducted a reverse-image search. This further search led us to Nepalese media sharing a similar photo of the statue, illustrating the rising water levels of the Naryani River, in Nepal’s Chitwan District the floods on 28 September 2024.
Both of these results can be seen below. The image on the right is clearly dated 28 September 2024, which is when Nepal experienced flooding during that year. The image on the left is identical and appears in a news article that mentions the rising water levels in the Naryani River where the statue is located. This confirms that the video being circulated currently is dated to September 2024.
Left: Image from My Republica. Right: Keyframe from Youtube video displaying the date.
To confirm the location of the statue and if it lies within the radius of the flood affected districts of Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha and Tanahun that are near the Nepal-Tibet border per the information by Unicef, Soch Fact Check used Google Street View and identified the Gautam Buddha’s geolocation as seen below. The statue is on the Narayani river in Bharatpur, in Nepal’s Chitwan District.
The statue remains outside the radius of the floods, as Chitwan is not on the list of affected districts mentioned by Unicef, and is located away from the border.
Screenshot of Google Street View image taken in 2017.
Virality
This clip was the most viral on Facebook, and gained views up to 8.9K and 87 likes.
Conclusion: The video of the Guatam Buddha statue pre-dates the 2026 Nepal-Tibet floods. It was taken during flooding in September 2024, and is located outside the areas affected by the 2026 floods.
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