Kathmandu is the capital and largest city of Nepal, with a population of around 1 million. Also known as the city of temples, the city stands at an elevation of approximately 1,400 metres above sea level in the bowl-shaped Kathmandu valley in central Nepal. The valley was historically called the \”Nepal Mandala\” and has been the home of the Newar people, a cosmopolitan urban civilization.
About Kathmandu, Nepal in brief
Kathmandu is the capital and largest city of Nepal, with a population of around 1 million. Also known as the city of temples, the city stands at an elevation of approximately 1,400 metres above sea level in the bowl-shaped Kathmandu valley in central Nepal. The valley was historically called the \”Nepal Mandala\” and has been the home of the Newar people, a cosmopolitan urban civilization in the Himalayan foothills. The city was the royal capital of the Kingdom of Nepal and hosts palaces, mansions and gardens of the Nepalese aristocracy. It has a multi-ethnic population within a Hindu and Buddhist majority. Tourism is an important part of the economy. In 2013, Kathmandi was ranked third among the top ten upcoming travel destinations in the world by TripAdvisor, and ranked first in Asia. Historic areas of KathmandU were severely damaged by a 7. 8 magnitude earthquake in April 2015. Some of the buildings have been restored while some remain in the process of reconstruction. The indigenous Newari term for Kathmando valley is Yen. The Nepali name comes from Kasthamandap, which stood in the Durbar Square. Archaeologists believe it is two thousand years old. Stone inscriptions are a ubiquitous element at heritage sites and are key sources for an account of Nepal’s history. The earliest Western reference to KathMandu appears in a brick inscription in 185 AD that was found in Dhando Chaa with an inscription in Brahmi script.
The name is derived from two Sanskrit words – Kānti and Pur, which means place, thus giving it the meaning, ‘City of light’ The city is considered the gateway to the Nepalede Himalayas and is home to several world heritage sites: theDurbar Square, Swayambhunath, Boudhanath and Pashupatinath. It is also home to the headquarters of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) since 1985. It was once known as Yangmandu, which originally referred to the southern half of the city. The spelling ‘Katmandu’ was often used in older English-language text. More recently, however, the spelling ‘Kath mandu’ has become more common in English. The oldest of these findings is a statue, found in Maloniga, found at 185 AD, that was discovered in the village of Dhanda Chaa, which was found to have been built in the 4th century BC. The inscription is in the Brahmi Script and dates back to the reign of King Laxmi Narsingh Malla, who was the first king of Nepal. It reads: ‘Dhandi is a word that stands for ‘beauty’ and is mostly associated with light and is mainly associated with place, so giving it a meaning of ‘city of light’, which is also the name of a Buddhist temple in the area. The word ‘Yen’ is the shorter form of Yambu.
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This page is based on the article Kathmandu, Nepal published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 28, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
