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Bhaktapur

Also known as Bhadgaon · Khwopa

Bhaktapur is one of the three royal cities of the Kathmandu valley, the capital of the whole valley under the early Malla kings and of its own kingdom from the late fifteenth century until the Gorkha conquest of 1769.

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The Malla capital

Bhaktapur lies at the eastern end of the Kathmandu valley, on the trade route to Tibet. It was a town in the Licchavi period, and from the thirteenth century it became the main seat of the Malla kings who ruled the valley. Under Jayasthiti Malla in the late fourteenth century it was the capital of the whole valley, and he is credited by later chronicles with ordering its society into castes and occupations, though historians treat the extent of his reforms with caution.

After the death of Yaksha Malla, usually dated to 1482, the valley was divided among his heirs. Bhaktapur, Kathmandu and Patan became separate kingdoms ruled by branches of the Malla family, competing in war and in building. Bhaktapur's kings ruled the eastern valley and the hills beyond.

The city

Bhaktapur is a dense Newar town of brick houses with carved wooden windows, organised around squares with temples, rest houses and water tanks. Its Durbar Square holds the royal palace, whose best-known part is the palace of fifty-five windows, and the Golden Gate, a gilded copper portal made in 1754 under Ranjit Malla. Taumadhi Square holds the Nyatapola, a five-roofed temple of the goddess Siddhi Lakshmi built in 1702 under Bhupatindra Malla. It stands on a five-stage plinth flanked by pairs of guardian figures, wrestlers, elephants, lions, griffins and goddesses, each said to be ten times stronger than the pair below. It is the tallest temple of its kind in Nepal. Tachupal Square, the oldest part of the town, holds the Dattatreya temple and Hindu monasteries with carved courtyards.

The city's crafts include pottery, woodcarving and metalwork, and its festivals, especially the new-year festival of Biska Jatra, with its chariot pulling and pole raising, are among the most elaborate in the valley.

The Gorkha conquest

In the 1760s Prithvi Narayan Shah, king of the hill state of Gorkha, blockaded and conquered the valley kingdoms one by one. Kathmandu fell in 1768 and Patan shortly after, and the kings of both took refuge in Bhaktapur. In 1769 the Gorkhalis took Bhaktapur, and its king, Ranajit Malla, was allowed to leave for Varanasi. Kathmandu became the capital of the new kingdom of Nepal.

Earthquakes and conservation

The 1934 earthquake destroyed much of Bhaktapur, including several temples in Durbar Square. From the 1970s a German-funded development project restored buildings and improved drainage and paving, and the city introduced an entry fee for visitors that funds conservation. The earthquake of April 2015 damaged or destroyed many buildings, and reconstruction has continued since. The Nyatapola survived both earthquakes.

Further reading

  • Snellgrove, David. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Serindia, 1987
  • Michell, George. The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms. University of Chicago Press, 1988
  • Keay, John. India: A History. HarperCollins, 2000

See also

  • Malla dynasty of Nepal — The Mallas ruled the Kathmandu valley from the thirteenth century to 1769, and their division into three rival city-kingdoms produced the durbar squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur.
  • Shah dynasty of Nepal — The Shah dynasty ruled Gorkha from 1559 and Nepal from 1769 until the monarchy was abolished in 2008, the last Hindu monarchy in the world.
  • Licchavi dynasty of Nepal — The Licchavis ruled the Kathmandu valley from about 400 to 750 CE, the first historically documented dynasty of Nepal, and left the earliest inscriptions and temples of the valley.

This entry was last revised on 12 November 2026.