Boudhanāth

The 36-metre stupa on the old Kathmandu-Lhasa trade road, among the largest spherical stupas in the world. The current structure dates to about 600 CE but is traditionally said to hold the remains of Kashyapa Buddha — the Buddha before the historical Shakyamuni. Boudhanath became the central pilgrimage hub of Tibetan refugees after the 1959 flight of the Dalai Lama from Lhasa — about fifty Tibetan Buddhist monasteries clustered around the stupa over the subsequent decades. The 2015 earthquake cracked the central spire; the restored stupa was reconsecrated in November 2016. The surrounding Little Lhasa quarter of Boudha holds the largest Tibetan population in Nepal.