The hilltop stupa overlooking the western approach to Kathmandu, with the Newar Buddhists' devotion and a Tibetan one that ranks it second only to Boudha.
Wikipedia's page dates the earliest recorded work to 640, when King Vrishadeva (great-grandfather of Manadeva) ordered a reconstruction, confirmed by a damaged stone inscription, and puts the visit of Ashoka and the draining of the valley lake by Manjushri among the traditions. The Licchavi kings set other stupas on the hill. The page's later dates are all after 1200: a fifteenth-century reconstruction led by the Indian monk Shariputra, abbot of Bodh Gaya, with a Malla king's help, a renovation by the Tibetan master Tsangnyon Heruka in 1504, and Pratap Malla's eastern stairway in the seventeenth century.
So on 1 January 1200 the stupa stands in its older form and the hill is a Newar Buddhist pilgrimage place; its state is not recorded.
Who holds it
- Name
- No abbot or custodian is named for 1200
- Title
- The Newar Buddhist sangha of the hill
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Wikipedia's Swayambhunath page says nothing of custodians or of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
How things stand that morning
Open; no event is dated.
Wealth
Pilgrim offerings and the guthi endowment.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
Patron
The valley kings and the Newar guthi; pilgrims from Tibet.
Places of note
- Swayambhu stupa: The hilltop stupa.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The institution and the 640 inscription are certain; nothing is dated to 1200.
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.