Kathmandu in 1200 is not a capital but a great market town of the valley kingdom, grown together out of Yambu and Yengal at the junction of the road from the Indian plain and the road to Tibet, where the caravans halt; Bhaktapur is the seat of the king and the tax on everything that passes on the eastern side.
Both are run by the same machinery as Patan: the trusts (guthi) that pay for the festivals and shrines, the Buddhist bahals, the Brahmin and Shaiva households and the craft and farmer castes, who elect their own officers and answer to the king for tolls and for loyalty.
Who he is
- Name
- Not known by name
- Title
- Heads of the guthi and the bahals of the two towns
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- Newar householder communities of the northern and eastern towns.
- Confidence
- low
Inferred from the structure of Newar town life (the campaign board's notes on Kathmandu and Bhaktapur; Wikipedia's accounts of the festivals and the later councils); no document of 1200 was found.
What it holds
- the bahals, shrines and rest-houses of Yambu and Khwopa
- guthi lands in the surrounding farms
- the festival rotas and tolls of the two towns
How things stand that morning
Quiet; the winter is the season before the roads reopen.
Wealth
Tolls and caravan lodging in Kathmandu; the tax on the Tibet road at Bhaktapur; temple lands.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
Threats
- Karnata raids
- famine under Arimalla's reign
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Structural reading; no named officers.
On the map: No ground; the towns' own lands are on the town records.
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.