The Temple of a Thousand Buddhas

The Mahabouddha Temple of Patan—one of the three major cities of Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley—has been maintained by Newar Buddhists for more than 400 years. Constructed in stages, the temple was destroyed by a major earthquake in 1933 and completely rebuilt the following year. Its long history reflects the Newars’ sustained preservation of Sanskrit Vajrayana traditions, even after many Buddhist institutions had disappeared in India.

The founding of the Mahabouddha Temple is described in a chronicle titled The History of the Kings of Nepal. The 16th-century Newar Buddhist Abhayaraja returned from a pilgrimage to Bodhgaya, India, with a statue of the Buddha and established the first shrine at this site to house the image. His son Jivaraja followed in his footsteps. Deeply inspired by seeing the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment, he returned home and transformed his father’s modest shrine into a large monument modeled on the Mahabodhi Temple. The new temple was consecrated in the early 17th century and has been continually maintained by Jivaraja’s descendants.

The temple is a beautiful example of Newar craftsmanship and devotional aesthetics, which have been widely influential across Asia. One of its most distinctive features—and the reason for its nickname, the “Temple of a Thousand Buddhas”—is its terra-cotta bricks, each engraved with an image of the Buddha. Small shrines, including one dedicated to the Buddha’s mother, line the inner and outer walkways surrounding the central Buddha statue.