Records & People

At 17, a Nepali Teenager Led 80 Artists Into Tibet. He Designed the White Pagoda Beijing Still Protects 700 Years Later

Long before Nepal became a bucket-list trekking destination, one Kathmandu Valley teenager designed a monument so revered that a Chinese premier…

By Laxman Rawal · Aug 13, 2026

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In 1260, a seventeen-year-old from the Kathmandu Valley was handed command of eighty grown men and marched over the Himalaya into Tibet. He would never really come home. Nearly three decades later, the building he designed for the most powerful emperor on…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

From apprentice to imperial architect

Into Nepal's Newar artisan tradition of pagoda and stupa building. Chosen by his own group to head Nepal's craftsmen sent to build a stupa for Tibet's regent. Named Director of All Artisan Classes as the Yuan dynasty rises in Beijing. A 50.9-metre bell-shaped…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

What this means for travellers

See where it started You don't need a flight to Beijing to see Araniko's craft — you need a walk through the Kathmandu Valley he trained in. The five-tiered Nyatapola Temple in Bhaktapur and the pagoda temples of Kathmandu Durbar Square are built in the same…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

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