Legends

Kathmandu Valley is best described as a bowl of soup. Ingredients? A number of religion, culture and race. As such, it is full of fascinating legends and myths, one of which is how the Kathmandu valley itself came to be.

The story goes that once upon a time, during the golden age (the Satya Yuga), there was a beautiful lake. It was absolutely magnificent. It drew its clear water from the surrounding Himalayas. It turned golden and blue with the sky. It housed many strange spirits and many a mystical being traversed it. It also drew to its shores Saddhus and Siddhas.

Vipaswi Tathagata was one such Siddha.

One day, he was meditating as usual near the lake when a lotus seed materialized out of nowhere and landed on his upturned palm. The wise one knew what to do. He circumambulated the lake three times and threw the seed into the water.

The seed drifted down, down into the fertile lakebed and started to germinate. Nourished by the rich soil, it grew. It reached out its arms and after many, many years, surfaced, blooming into a large, most spectacular flower.

It was as round as a chariot wheel, the flower. It had thousands of petals. It was studded with different precious gems. And at the center of this miraculous lotus was the eternal flame, Swayambhu Jyotirupa (the Self-manifested light form), the primordial Buddha.

Many came to venerate the Adi-Buddha in light form. So did Bodhisattva Manjushree, the sweet voiced. He was meditating somewhere in China when he became aware of the flower’s existence and promptly set out to worship it. There, while paying his homage to Swayambhu Jyotirupa, Bodhisattva Manjushree realized how easier it would be for people to venerate Swayambhu if the surrounding waters could be drained. So he sat down to meditate over what could be done, about how and from where to best drain the lake.

Then, after thinking about it, the wise Manjushree brought down his mighty sword Chandrahrasa at Chovar hill and cut it in a single blow. Water rushed out from Chovar, slowly exposing a fertile valley of black mud. He cleaved some other openings and soon, the water receded. The flower came to rest at a hillock called Gossing Parvat, now known as Swayambhu, where it is still venerated. And the valley? That is the land called Nepa, better known as the Kathmandu valley.