The Newars

Our expert Nepal

The Newars

The Newar community of Nepal The Newar mainly live in the Kathmandu valley: the majority of them of Hindu faith, they are divided into 70 castes. © Didier Fernandez

True ambassadors to the artistic tradition, the Newars, who are a great majority of the population in the Kathmandu valley and who are shared out almost equally between both religious communities, perpetuate their knowledge as architects or sculptors from generation to generation. They created, as early as the 4th century, the very particular style of these wood and brick temples, topped with superimposed pagodas, which contributed to Nepal's renown and was exported all the way to China. The very elegant houses of the Kathmandu valley, with their horizontal windows fenced in by trellis, are also the Newars' work. They are also to thank for the sikharas, stone or brick Indian-style temples, richly sculpted and topped with a sugarloaf or umbrella shaped dome.