The home village of the rain god, later identified with Avalokiteshvara, whose image is carried between Bungamati and Patan on a great chariot in the valley's largest festival.
The cult binds the farming villages south of the river to the town: a bad monsoon is the god's business and the king's (the campaign board). Newar Buddhists and Shaivas both claim the god. Tradition ties the cult's origin to a Licchavi king and a drought (not checked here); nothing dates the present form of the festival.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not named
- Title
- The priests of Bungamati and the guthi of the chariot
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
The campaign board is the only source we used.
Wealth
Offerings and the guthi's land.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
Patron
The valley kings and the guthi.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The campaign board; the dating of the cult is not checked.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
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.