City and Kathmandu

Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal is the place I call my hometown. With many cultural heritages, natural beauties and diverse culture, its is a city where one can experience the modern and ancient events mingled with each other. Geographically situated between 27°38’32” to 27°45’7” North latitudes and 85°16’5” to 85°22’32” East longitudes. It is believed to have some of the oldest human settlements in the central Himalayas. The city area is generally flat, what is now a city was once a highly productive agricultural land. One of the popular legend about how Kathmandu came into existence is that the valley of Kathmandu was once a lake. There were lotuses floating around this big lake. Once “Boddhisattva Manjushri” saw a bright flame coming out of a lotus that seemed to be planted in a hill. He wanted to have a closer look, so with a strike from his sword of wisdom he cut a gorge near Chobar hill, South-west of Kathmandu. The water from the lake drained out of this gorge and the valley of Kathmandu came into being.
Historically Kathmnadu and its culture date back to atleast 2000 years to pre-historic Kirat period (Shrestha et. al., 1986). The town was governed by Gopalbansi (cow herders) from 900 to 700 BC; by Mahisapal (buffalo herders) from 700 to 625 BC; and by Kirats from 625 BC to 100 AD (Regmi, 1999). The historical evidences however show that the town existed from the rule of Lichhavis. They developed the town and ruled from 100 BC to 1000 AD.

Similarly Mallas from far western Nepal ruled the town from 1257 to 1768 AD. It is during the Malla period Hindu based caste system was introduced (which still exits) , the land was classified into four division according to its productivity.
It is in the same period that Kathmandu was divided into three smaller kingdoms: Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur. It is during Malla period that early achievement in urban planning, architecture, arts and crafts were done, which we can still see in the respective Durbar