Nepal

Patan, officially Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City, is the third largest city of Nepal after Katmandou and Pokhara and it is located in the south-central part of Kathmandu Valley. It is best known for its rich cultural heritage, particularly its tradition of arts and crafts. It is called city of festival and feast, fine ancient art, making of metallic and stone carving statue.

The city was initially designed in the shape of the Buddhist Dharma-Chakra (Wheel of Righteousness). The four thurs or mounds on the perimeter of Patan are ascribed around, one at each corner of its cardinal points, which are popularly known as Ashoka Stupas. Legend has it that Emperor Ashoka (the legendary King of India) visited with his daughter Charumati to Katmandou in 250 BC and erected five Ashoka Stupas, four in the surrounding and one at the middle of the Patan. The size and shape of these stupas seem to breathe their antiquity in a real sense.

There are more than 1,200 Buddhist monuments of various shapes and sizes scattered in and around the city.