Kathmandu

The valley

The Kathmandu valley is a fertile basin in the middle hills of Nepal, once a lake according to legend and geology alike. Its people, the Newars, developed an urban culture of towns, temples and monasteries in which Hindu and Buddhist practice are closely interwoven. The valley's Licchavi kings, from about the fourth to the ninth century, left inscriptions in Sanskrit and the temple of Changu Narayan, and the great stupas of Swayambhunath and Boudhanath have their origins in or before this period.

The name Kathmandu is usually derived from the Kasthamandap, a large wooden pavilion in the city's centre said to have been built from the timber of a single tree. Its foundation was traditionally placed in the twelfth century or earlier. It collapsed in the earthquake of 2015 and was rebuilt.

The Malla kingdom

After the valley was divided among the heirs of Yaksha Malla in the late fifteenth century, Kathmandu became the seat of a kingdom ruled by his son Ratna Malla. The three Malla kingdoms of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur competed for the trade with Tibet and in the splendour of their cities. Pratap Malla of Kathmandu (r. 1641–1674) was a poet and patron who rebuilt much of the palace area and set up an inscription in fifteen scripts and languages. The palace, known as Hanuman Dhoka after the image of Hanuman at its gate, faces a square crowded with temples, among them the towering Taleju temple, the shrine of the royal goddess.

Patan, across the river, has its own Durbar Square, with the stone temple of Krishna built in 1637 under Siddhi Narasimha Malla. The cult of the Kumari, a young girl worshipped as a living goddess, is maintained in all three cities, and the Kumari of Kathmandu plays a part in the Indra Jatra festival.

The Shah capital

Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha captured Kathmandu in September 1768, during the Indra Jatra festival, and made it the capital of the kingdom of Nepal. In 1846 the Kot massacre, in which Jung Bahadur Kunwar killed many leading nobles in the palace courtyard, began more than a century of rule by the Rana family as hereditary prime ministers, while the Shah kings were confined to ceremony. The Ranas built large neoclassical palaces in the city. Their rule ended in 1951.

Modern Kathmandu

Kathmandu grew rapidly in the later twentieth century and has spread over much of the valley floor. It was the centre of the democratic movements of 1990 and 2006, and of the decision in 2008 to abolish the monarchy. The earthquake of April 2015 killed thousands in the valley and damaged or destroyed many historic buildings, which have since been rebuilt or are being restored.