Charumati Stupa and the Bricks That Could Rewrite Nepal’s Buddhist History
-Dominic Kuan Hwee Chua, MABS student form Singapore
Most people in Kathmandu know the Charumati Stupa at Chabahil as a familiar landmark: a ‘baby Boudhanath’ stupa set against a stream of traffic, shopfronts, and a tangle of electric wires. The site also stands beside an unresolved historical question. Two inscribed bricks found there during the 2002–03 restoration have still not been properly dated. If they were, they could move the starting point for the history of Buddhism in the Kathmandu Valley back by roughly eight centuries.
At present, the first substantial dated record for Buddhism in the Valley comes from the Licchavi period. The Licchavi dynasty ruled roughly between the fifth and ninth centuries CE, and its history is traced through nearly two hundred Sanskrit inscriptions, beginning in 464 CE. A 542 CE inscription from Guita Bahi records the monk Yaśomitra dedicating a bronze image of the Buddha. Inscriptions and later chronicles also refer to vihāras in the Valley during this period. For that reason, Licchavi evidence usually provides the earliest firm chronological footing for Buddhist history in Kathmandu.
The Charumati Stupa has long been associated by tradition with Charumati, a daughter of Aśoka, and with the foundation of both a stupa and a monastery at the site. (Incidentally, it is this same monastery that gives its name to the neighbourhood: ‘Chabahil’ is a contracted form of Charumati Bahil, with bahil the Newar term for a Buddhist monastery.) Tradition alone does not establish a date. The strongest evidence comes from the objects recovered from within the stupa during its restoration.
Bhikkhu Tapassidhamma leading the 2002-03 restoration of the Charumati Stupa
Those discoveries were made during the 2002–03 restoration led by Bhikkhu Tapassidhamma, a Nepali Theravādin monk. While studying in Sri Lanka, he found that Charumati Stupa was well known in monastic circles there. Senior monks asked him about the monument, and he realised that he could say very little about its actual condition. His teacher, Ven. K. Dhamma Vasa Mahāthero, instructed him to return to Nepal and take responsibility for it. What he encountered on his return was a badly neglected site. The stupa compound had effectively become a parking area, was strewn with rubbish, and was being used as a public toilet. He began by clearing the grounds with local support, raising donations, and building a surrounding wall. The larger restoration followed from there.
When the stupa was opened, workers found deposits from several periods: coins, miniature stupas, metal images, and other objects placed inside over many centuries. Among the most important discoveries were two large inscribed bricks, later taken to the National Museum of Nepal, at Chauni. One published account records one of them as bearing the words Cāruvatī Thūpa in Brahmi script.
Some of the artifacts found inside the Charumati Stupa during the 2002–03 renovation.
If those bricks were properly dated, they could alter the chronology of early Buddhism in the Valley. Securely dated evidence currently begins with the Licchavis in the fifth century CE. A Brahmi inscription from Charumati Stupa, if shown to belong to an early stratum, could push that horizon all the way back to the Aśokan period, around the mid-3rd century
That work, however, remains undone. Bhikkhu Tapassidhamma has repeatedly appealed to the Department of Archaeology to have the bricks properly dated. Those requests have not led to a resolution. The objects were recovered and removed to the National Museum, but the central archaeological question remains open. Until the bricks are dated, the chronology of the stupa will remain uncertain, along with an important part of the early history of Buddhism in Kathmandu.
Bhikkhu Tapassidhamma holding one of the 2 large bricks recovered from the Charumati Stupa, that remain undated to date.
Charumati stupa has been neglected and denigrated for too long. This is a shame. Of all the ancient stupas believed to date from the Mauryan dynastic period, it is the smallest but also the best known, except for the inevitable comparison with its famous neighbor Khasti Mahachaitya in Boudha, of which it is considered a remnant of construction materials hence the Tibetan nickname Sala Dola “Leftover Dirt And Rubble”.
Like the more famous (and rather newer) cousin in Boudha, Charumati Stupa has a local Ajhima cult associated with it, in this case, of Charumati herself. I wish someone would research this.
Thanks. Nice research. What about the rest of the many stupas around kathmandu? Are they all from ashokan period? Boudha stupid too?
This article is an important piece of information for the all the students and researchers interested in Budhism and history. It is true that the DoA of Nepal has not published any report on the scientific dating of the bricks. But Wolfgang Corn in his book ” The traditional Newar Artcitecture of the Kathmandu Valley the Stupas and Chaityas says Giovanni Veradi identified the script to be Asokan Brahmi and letters to the third to first BCE.
Non-Indigegenous Nepali Buddhists, who also include Tibetans, have very little understanding of the history of Buddha’s Dharma in Nepal. The histories of Nepal, including that of Buddhism, have been written by outsiders, who include Brahmin-Chhetri, misnomerly called “Nepali”. For the starters, one has to remember that all the historical Buddhas, from Vipasin to Shakyamuni visited Nepal to pay an homage to it. The next Buddha will also be born in Nepal. Kathamandu was founded by Manjushri Bodhisattva. Ashoka visited Nepal to pay homage to it, because that was the tradition, not because he wanted to establish Buddhism but because he wanted to leave his mark on the Buddha’s land, as did many others before him. To claim that Licchavi established Buddhism would be such a mistake. Licchavis were refugees from Magadha, most likely Shivaits, and could not have survived among the Buddhists of Nepal without adopting Buddhism and without the help of the Buddhists. My suggestion to the Non-Indigenous Himalayan people is that please learn the indigenous languages and cultures, and do not rely on Tibetan sources alone to understand the history of Buddha’s Dharma in Nepal.
Namaste 🙏 Well Said 😊🤩
I am totally with you