Newar

The Newar are the urban people of the Kathmandu Valley and creators of the civilisation of Nepal Mandala. Their language is Nepal Bhasa. They grew from the mingling of inhabitants with Licchavi and Malla immigrants, ordered into hereditary occupational castes where Hindu and Vajrayana Buddhist traditions flourished.

From 1201 the valley was ruled by the Malla dynasty. When Tughluq armies conquered Mithila in 1324, Maithil Brahmins and nobles took refuge there, and Maithili became a courtly literary language alongside Sanskrit and Nepal Bhasa. The valley later split into rival kingdoms whose patronage filled their Durbar Squares with pagodas and carvings.

Under Pratap Malla, reigning from 1641 to 1674, Kathmandu gained the right to mint Tibet's coins from Tibetan silver. Newar merchants dominated the India-Tibet caravan trade until Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha took the valley in 1768 and 1769 after the Battle of Kirtipur, ending Newar rule.