The Stupa Swayambhunath is one of the crowning glories of architecture in the Kathmandu Valley. This beautifully proportioned temple rises to a gilded spire through a whitewashed dome, from where four Buddha’s famous faces gaze in the cardinal directions around the valley. The stupa has for centuries stood as a hallmark of faith and harmony with Hindu temples and deities embodied in this Buddhist site. From this point the glory of Kathmandu Valley is said to have begun. Resting on a hill 3 km west of Kathmandu, Swayambhu is one of Nepal’s most sacred buddhist stupas.

This stupa is the oldest of its kind in Nepal, and is home to several shrines and monasteries. Swayambhu literally means “one that exists independently.” Believed to date back to 460 A.D., it was founded by King Manadeva, and had become a major center of Buddhism by the 13th century. Nepal ‘s largest Sakyamuni Buddha image sits on a high pedestal on Swayambhu’s western boundary, next to the Ring Road. Legend has it that Swayambhu was born from a lotus flower which once bloomed in the middle of a lake which once spread across the Kathmandu Valley. The base of the hill is surrounded by prayer wheels and deities, almost completely.