The northern town of the three, grown together out of Yambu and Yengal (Koligram and Dakshin Koligram of the Licchavi age) at the junction of the road from the Indian plain and the road north to Tibet.
In 1200 it is a great market town inside the valley kingdom, not a capital. The caravan trade halts here: the wooden rest-house at the crossroads that gives the later name (Kasthamandap, 'wooden pavilion') is rebuilt in 1596, so what stands in 1200 is the town and the crossing, and the chronicle credits a king Gunakamadeva with joining the two settlements. Swayambhu, the Buddhist pole of the valley, overlooks the western approach.
Who holds it
- Name
- The king at Bhaktapur, through the guthi and the thakkura households; no governor is named
- Title
- Lord of the town
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
Nothing names an officer of Yambu for 1200. The independent kingship of Kathmandu is two and a half centuries off (board).
What the town holds
- the Yambu and Yengal quarters
- the crossing of the two roads
- the caravan halt
How things stand that morning
Quiet in the winter before the roads reopen; the king's tolls and the guthi's rota keep the town.
Wealth
Lodging, warehousing and tolls for the Tibet trade; casting and carving workshops.
Military
No army is recorded and no number is known.
Charter
No charter is known; the town governs itself by its guthi and the households' castes.
Council
Heads of the guthi and the bahals; no council or named headman recorded.
Communities
Newar Buddhist and Hindu households; Tibetan and Indian traders passing through; Brahmins and Shaiva priests.
Fairs and markets
The festival cycle of the Newar year; no fair dated to 1200 was checked.
Walls and castle
No walls are known for 1200. The chronicle tradition lays the town out in the form of Manjushri's sword with eight guard-posts and mother-goddess shrines (Wikipedia).
Trade and crafts
The halt of the caravans from Tibet and from the plain; Newar brass and copper work, carving and painting.
Places of note
- Swayambhu: The great stupa on the western hill.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Structure from later periods and the campaign board; nothing dated to 1200.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: The near land is a guess at the size of the town's farmland.
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.