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Heritage & History

Builders of the Kathmandu Valley

The Malla and Licchavi kings who raised its temples, palaces and ponds

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The idea

Almost every temple, palace courtyard and royal pond in the Kathmandu Valley was raised under a named king. The Licchavi rulers founded the oldest shrines; the rival Malla courts of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur turned competition into a golden age of Newar architecture.

This guide connects ruler to monument — honestly. A whole durbar square is never the work of one king, so each page separates what a ruler genuinely built from what he added to a shared complex during his reign.

Three dynasties

Sixteen centuries of building

12th–18th century CE

The Malla Dynasty

The kings who built the durbar squares — and competed their way to a golden age.

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4th–9th century CE

The Licchavi Dynasty

The Valley's first great builders, who founded its oldest living shrines.

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1846–1951

The Rana Prime Ministers

A century of hereditary prime ministers who ruled Nepal in the Shah kings' name — and rebuilt Kathmandu in white neoclassical plaster.

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The kings

Rulers and their works

Pratap Malla

प्रताप मल्ल
r. 1641–1674 · Kantipur (Kathmandu)

The scholar-king of Kantipur who turned Kathmandu Durbar Square into a stage.

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Bhupatindra Malla

भूपतीन्द्र मल्ल
r. 1696–1722 · Bhaktapur

The builder-king of Bhaktapur, author of its golden skyline.

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Yaksha Malla

यक्ष मल्ल
r. 1428–1482 · Bhaktapur (then a unified Valley)

The last king of a unified Valley, whose sons split it into four kingdoms.

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Siddhi Narsingh Malla

सिद्धिनरसिंह मल्ल
r. 1619–1661 · Patan (Lalitpur)

The devout king who gave Patan Durbar Square its finest temples.

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Beyond the Valley

The other Mallas

Nepal had a second Malla dynasty, and it was not related to the first. Four hundred kilometres west of Kathmandu, the Khas Malla ruled the Karnali from Sinja two centuries before the durbar squares rose — and left the language the country now speaks.

12th–14th century CE · Karnali

The Khas Malla Kings

The Karnali empire that gave Nepal its language — and shares only a name with the Valley Mallas.

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