Often it is said there are more temples than houses in Ktm Valley, and indeed they are found in incredible numbers of every size and description.

In the beginning:

Far back in remotest antiquity, the ancient chronicles reveal, all the Valley of Kathmandu was filled with water, a lake of idyllic beauty completely surrounded by hills covered with great forests, flowering plants and fragrant herbs. It was called Nag-hrad, Abode of the Snake Gods, inhabited by a pantheon of serpent deities known as Nagas. Nag-hrad was famed for its sweetness and clarity. Nagas were responsible for controlling the crucial monsoon rains, and for safeguarding the earth’s vast trove of underground treasures. To this day Nepalese people worship the Nagas and they were not at all surprised when geologists ascertained that water once stood in the valley.

As ages passed the lake of Nag-hrad became a place of great sanctity where pilgrimaged holy men and saints from far to the south and from beyond the northern snowpeaks.

One day a great saint named Bipaswi visited the lake. Bipaswi ws the first of all the human buddhas, and he had extraordinary powers. After meditating on one of the high green hills surrounding Nagarasa, Bipaswi took a tiny seed that he had carried in the folds of his robe, and tossed it into the water. It bloomed into the most fantastic flower. Magnificent full-blown lotus with thousand petaled lotus, with pistils of diamond, anthers of blazing ruby, and stalk of semiprecious stones blossom appeared upon the surface of the water at a point just above the sacred swayambhunath hill, now covered with monasteries, temples and a massive white stupa from whose gilded spire four pairs of all- seeking eyes look out across the valley. This miraculous lotus flower took root, it seems, on a hillock at the bottom of the lake some two miles to the east, where is now located, just beyond and above the Bagmati River, the most sacrosanct temple of goddess Gujeswari, which shelters a sacred and bottomless hole.

As epochs passed Buddhas and aspiring Buddhas came to the lake to meditate and pray. One day they saw emanating from the lotus a brilliant, radiant flame which was none other than Adi Buddha, the Self-Existent One called Swayambhu – the God Supreme. For long ages the Bhodisatvas and Buddhas worshipped the Eternal Flame, until one of them thought of making the area into a valley habitable of mankind.

This thought was transplanted into the mind of Manjushri, the Buddha of wisdom, a divine saint from China, who pilgrimaged to Nag-hrad to worship the Swayambhu Flame and the goddess Gujeswari. Manjushri realized at once that the lake and the flaming lotus, beautiful as they were, were simply place-markers for the sacred landscape that must lay below. Manjushree walked the peaks around the lake three times and then, with one blow of his mighty scimitar, struck a deep cleft in the southern hills, a deep gorge opened allowing all the water to drain from the valley revealing the lush, emerald bowl of the Kathmandu Valley. This ravine if now called Chobar Gorge, the only water escape from the valley, through which the Bagmati River flows to the south.

With the escaping waters, all the Nagas were driven from the valley except Karkot Raja, King of the serpent Deities, who was induced to remain. Manjushree granted to Karkot Naga power over the wealth of the valley and a permanent home in Taudah, where he dwells to this day, the people say, in the pind a short distance from Chobar Gorge. Another serpent caoused so much trouble that he was finally killed… but his stubbornness also won him a great honor. His wide skin was rolled out into a parchment; a quill was fashioned from one of his bones. Using the snake’s own blood as ink, a fantastic mandala, or sacred painting, was drawn, encoding the priceless formulas for starting the critical summer rains.

            The mandala is hidden in a sealed chamber, three levels below the ground in Swayambhunath temple. Six other rooms must be passed to reach it; each one is guarded by deadly spells, giant cobras, and a host of other fantastic beasts. At the very lowest level rests Shantikar Acharya, the temple’s mythical founder, meditating in utter bliss.

With a feat of magic too powerful to be understood, he transformed the marvelous lotus into a perfect little hill. Atop that hill, the radiant beam of light focused, took form, and became a glowing crystal stupa – a glimmering dome crowned with a diamond spire. The stupa was named Swayambhunath: temple of the self existence one.

Once every few centuries, when a terrible drought threatens the land, the King of Nepal must purify himself, practice the tantric protection mantras, and make his way into the depths of Shantipur to retrieve the mystical scroll.

During the seventeenth century, King Pratap Malla- who built the huge stone stairway, as well as numerous other temples on the site – was faced with such a drought. Malla descended to the seventh chamber and brought the mandala out. The moment it was touched by the sun, rains deluged the kingdom.

But Pratap Malla never forgot the intoxicating sense of power he had experienced in Shantipur. Years later, the King surrendered to his obsession and made the odyssey once again - this time for personal gain. When he emerged from the depths a few days later, he was completely insane.

During Buddha’s time there lived an ogress named Harati -  the goddess of smallpox. Harati had 500 children and, in order to feed them, routinely kidnapped other children and included them on her menu. The people of the region appealed to Buddha for help, and he complied. One day, when Harati was out hunting and gathering, Buddha absconded with the ogress’s youngest baby and hid him beneath his begging bowl.

Harati returned home to find her baby gone. Crazed with anguish, she searched the world for him, but in vain. Finally she, too, showed up on Buddha’s doorstep, and implored him for help. Buddha immediately returned her child, but took the opportunity to point out that all of Harati’s victims’ mother had suffered in just this vary same way. Harati much abashed, pledged to reform.

Within the week, however, Harati and her 500 children found themselves starving to death. The ogress accosted Buddha, and demanded that he find an alternative way to feed them or else. Buddha, ever cooperative, solved this problem by placing Harati at the head of his entire retinue- thus giving her first pick of the abundant offerings that were continually passed his way.

Today, Harati is known as Ajima: great-grand-mother of the world. She is revered as the goddess of pediatrics, and as protector of all children. What’s more, she still – after all these years -  gets first dibs on Buddha’s bounty. Before any offering is made at Swayambhunath, or before any renovation is begun, it must first be cleared with grandma Ajima.