Bhaktapur was the site of settlements since at least the Licchavi dynasty (a 594 AD inscription at Gomarhi is the oldest found in the city), and according to the 14th-century Gopal Raj Vamshavali, King Ananda Deva (r. 1146-1167) unified the settlements and established Bhaktapur as the capital of Nepal. It served as capital of Nepal during the first half of the Malla dynasty (12th century to 1482), after which the death of Yaksha Malla split the valley and Bhaktapur became the capital of its own independent Malla kingdom (1428-1769), reaching a cultural high point under Bhupatindra Malla (1696-1722). In November 1769 Bhaktapur was attacked and annexed by Prithvi Narayan Shah's expanding Gorkha Kingdom; thereafter isolated and overlooked, its economy and infrastructure deteriorated, worsened by the earthquakes of 1833 and 1934. The city revived from the 1980s through tourism and the West German-funded Bhaktapur Development Project, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, and suffered heavy damage again in the April 2015 earthquake (116 heritages damaged in the city).
Researched by the ChillNepal team from published sources. Spot something out of date? Tell us from the place's page.
