The colossal Vishnu asleep on the coils of the serpent in a tank at the northern edge of the valley, cut from one block of dark stone.
Wikipedia says only that the statue is believed to be more than 1,400 years old, about 5 m long, in a pool 13 m long, and tells two legends of its finding (ploughing farmers, and a king Haridatta Barma who dreamed of it and broke its nose with his spade). The taboo that a king who visits will die, tied to Pratap Malla (1641-1674), is of the seventeenth century. The campaign board calls it unroofed, unwalled and one of the principal royal cults.
The statue stands in 1200.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not named
- Title
- The priests of the image
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Nothing names a custodian.
How things stand that morning
Open.
Wealth
Offerings.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
Patron
The valley kings.
Places of note
- Budhanilkantha: The tank and image.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The statue is certain; the dating is 'believed'.
On the map: A point.
Primary sources for Nepal valley
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Gopala Raja Chronicle, and the Nepalese colophons, Anonymous (chronicle); various scribes (colophons) (the chronicle about 1389; the colophons are contemporary notes of the 11th to 14th centuries). The Nepal valley in 1200 is known chiefly from dated manuscript colophons and short inscriptions, which name the reigning king with the Nepal era year, and from the Gopalarajavamsavali, a chronicle written about 1389 that lists the kings with regnal years.
- History of Buddhism in India and Tibet, Buton Rinchen Drub (Bu ston Rin chen grub) (1322). Optional background. Read online
- The Blue Annals, Go Lotsawa Zhonnu Pal ('Gos lo tsa ba gZhon nu dpal) (1476 to 1478). The fullest Tibetan account of who mattered around 1200, written three centuries later from earlier biographies and lineage records, many now lost. Read online
- The Sakya genealogy, and the works of the Sakya hierarch of 1200, Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen (Grags pa rgyal mtshan) and Sakya Pandita; the genealogy by Ngawang Kunga Sonam (the hierarchs' writings about 1170 to 1250; the genealogy 1629). Sakya in 1200 was ruled by Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen, the third of the five founders, with his nephew Kunga Gyaltsen (later Sakya Pandita, born 1182) under his teaching. Read online
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.