Gorkha

Gorkha is a hill stronghold in the central Himalayas, associated with the yogi Gorakhnath, whose shrine lies near the royal palace. In 1559 Dravya Shah, a prince of Lamjung, seized the fort and founded a kingdom that grew among the many small states of the Nepalese hills. His descendants would carry its name far beyond the original principality.

From 1743 Prithvi Narayan Shah led Gorkha in an ambitious campaign of conquest. His forces besieged the rich towns of the Kathmandu Valley, and an expedition sent by the East India Company to assist their rulers failed in 1767. Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur fell in 1768–69; the king moved his capital to Kathmandu. Later expansion reached Tibet and the western Himalayas, but defeat in the Anglo-Nepalese War brought territorial concessions under the Treaty of Sugauli in 1816.