ABSTRACT
The Kathmandu Valley is an outstandingly fertile bowl-shaped Valley about 4,000 feet high in the Himalayan foothills. This has protected it from many of the vicissitudes which have affected the Gangetic plain. The Muslims invaded once in the fourteenth century but did not stay, and the British never conquered Nepal. Consequently the Kathmandu Valley has preserved old patterns of Indian culture —including Buddhism-in a way other more central areas have not. At the same time the Valley is not so far on the periphery that it could receive those cultural forms only in translation. Culturally-though not politicallythe Valley has always been a full part of South Asia. This combination of cultural conservatism —typical of the periphery-yet authenticity-due to its proximity to the Ganges plain-accounts, of course, for the historical perspective on the Newars which I have referred to.
